What is the Paediatric Occupational Therapy Service offered at CGS?
 
Paediatric occupational therapists work with children, parents/carers, and school staff in order to maximise a child's participation and independence in daily activities in the areas of self care, play and leisure, and productivity. We teach students, families and school staff about the condition the child presents with and what programme of activities would best facilitate development of new skills. The purpose of OT is to help the children achieve or maintain their maximum level of independence and to develop practical life skills so that the they can participate to their full potential in the classroom environment and home.
 

OT's can help students with:
 
*   Functional difficulties such as dressing, eating, toileting
*   Pencil and scissor skills
*   Play skills
*   Sensory abilities such as attention, touch and balance
*   Fine motor (hand) skills and gross motor (whole body) and movement abilities
*   Behavioural and social responses during the child's day


 
 
If your child is new to Cricket Green & has OT on his/her statement:

1. First the OT will assess your child's skills in depth & collect information from other people who know the child well (e.g. other OT's, Speech and Language Therapists, parents, doctors, teachers, educational psychologist).
 
2. Your child will then be placed on a package (intensive, regular, block, half termly, termly, monitoring).  The package will be reviewed every year at your child¹s annual review.
 
3. New referrals can be made by parents/carers or the school.
 


How else do school-based Occupational Therapists work?
 
If OT issues exist they can be addressed through a variety of intervention strategies, which may include direct therapy with the child, consultation with the teaching staff, modification of the environment, provision of adaptive equipment, and staff training. The OT will monitor the functional performance related to school tasks and the child's ability to access the curriculum, and put a programme in place as needed.