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Occupational Therapy
Occupational Therapists (OTs) help people to achieve independence in their activities of daily living. For children, these fall into the areas of self-care, school and leisure. OTs can take a ‘top down’ view to solving functional problems i.e. teaching a practical skill like dressing, or adapting the environment to make function possible.
But sometimes they take a ‘bottom up’ approach, which means they work on underlying deficits to help improve function in daily life. An example of this is using a Sensory Integration (SI) approach to help people with sensory processing difficulties.
What is a Sensory Gym?
A sensory gym contains apparatus (such as cushions, monkey bars and swings) which the occupational therapist uses, alongside a variety of approaches, to help people with sensory processing difficulties.
At present we have a well established Sensory Gym in our Saltash Office and we are very excited to announce that we are opening a new Gym at our Exeter Office, which will open in the near future.
The therapist and environment enable individuals to process and integrate incoming sensory information in a safe and fun way. Sensory Integration approaches help to calm and regulate the nervous system. This in turn should improve the ability to engage and learn.
The sensory gym is also a safe space that may be used by families to nurture attachments and relationships. If appropriate, the Occupational Therapist will use approaches of Sensory Attachment Intervention (SAI).
SAI is an informed approach to help young people with a history of trauma, experience feelings of safety and improve their ability to co-regulate with their parents/carers and eventually self-regulate.
How do I know that a child has sensory processing difficulties?
There are different indicators that a child or young person may have difficulties with sensory processing, these include:
- Hypersensitivity to light touch
- Feeding/sleep difficulties
- Poor concentration and attention
- Unusual reaction to temperature and/or pain
- Unusual reaction to temperature and/or pain
- Oversensitive to noises (e.g. fireworks, hand dryers, traffic)
- Fine motor difficulties (e.g. holding a pen, fastening buttons)
- Sensory seeking behaviours (e.g. fidgeting, holding a toy, sucking, swaying in chair)
- Poor body and spatial awareness (could be described as ‘clumsy’)
Our Occupational Therapy team are also experienced in providing a vast range of Occupational Therapy services, whether to parents, carers, school and education staff and fellow health care professionals including:
- Consultations (offering verbal recommendations to parents, carers and professionals)
- Occupational Therapy assessments (including written recommendations and assessment outcomes)
- Clinical supervision (to fellow occupational therapists)
- Training and workshops (to fellow healthcare professionals and/ or parents)
- Treatment ‘packages’ (this may include regular therapy using our new sensory gym)
