Introduction
Occupational Therapy (OT) is an approach to dealing with everyday difficulties caused by underlying developmental, neurological, physical, emotional, mental, psychological or learning difficulties or impairments, whether temporary or permanent.
LNOTA has a specific specialism in addressing the sensory integration needs of children.
OTs refer to occupations as all the activities we participate in to create a meaningful and fulfilling life.
Occupations for children and young people tend to focus around
- Developing independent living skills
- Participation in learning and educational tasks
- Having fun and developing through play, social participation and engagement in a wide range of hobbies and interests.
Occupational Therapy for your child may include
Looking at the underpinning components of skill and ability that help people become more able to function – Physical abilities; Sensory abilities; Cognitive abilities; Emotional and mental abilities; and Social and Relational abilities
Adapting environments, modifying tasks or adjusting routines to promote independence and development. Sometimes providing specialist equipment and training can help a person manage tasks and daily activities in a more effective and independent way.
Developing confidence and using a problem-solving approach can help at home, at school (or college and work etc.), or in social or recreational activities and play.
Using activities to promote development and provide opportunities to practice skills and functions needed.
Using activity is a motivating, creative and hopefully fun way of promoting development and change and is at the heart of occupational therapy.
By building on a child’s or young person’s skills, abilities and positive attributes the therapist is able to develop a treatment programme that can help a child or young person to engage in the activities, tasks and roles that they have been finding difficult or challenging.
More information about Occupational Therapy can be found on the Royal College of Occupational Therapists website
https://www.rcot.co.uk/about-occupational-therapy/what-is-occupational-therapy
Occupational Therapy (OT) is an approach to dealing with everyday difficulties caused by underlying developmental, neurological, physical, emotional, mental, psychological or learning difficulties or impairments, whether temporary or permanent.
LNOTA has a specific specialism in addressing the sensory integration needs of children.
OTs refer to occupations as all the activities we participate in to create a meaningful and fulfilling life.
Occupations for children and young people tend to focus around
- Developing independent living skills
- Participation in learning and educational tasks
- Having fun and developing through play, social participation and engagement in a wide range of hobbies and interests.
Occupational Therapy for your child may include
Looking at the underpinning components of skill and ability that help people become more able to function – Physical abilities; Sensory abilities; Cognitive abilities; Emotional and mental abilities; and Social and Relational abilities
Adapting environments, modifying tasks or adjusting routines to promote independence and development. Sometimes providing specialist equipment and training can help a person manage tasks and daily activities in a more effective and independent way.
Developing confidence and using a problem-solving approach can help at home, at school (or college and work etc.), or in social or recreational activities and play.
Using activities to promote development and provide opportunities to practice skills and functions needed.
Using activity is a motivating, creative and hopefully fun way of promoting development and change and is at the heart of occupational therapy.
By building on a child’s or young person’s skills, abilities and positive attributes the therapist is able to develop a treatment programme that can help a child or young person to engage in the activities, tasks and roles that they have been finding difficult or challenging.
More information about Occupational Therapy can be found on the Royal College of Occupational Therapists website
https://www.rcot.co.uk/about-occupational-therapy/what-is-occupational-therapy
Who can be helped?
Many children, young people or may benefit from having their resilience, confidence and self-esteem promoted and developed by using an activity-based approach.
Occupational Therapy focuses on those who find ordinary activities of daily life at home, at school (college or work) or elsewhere, difficult or challenging for whatever reason.
Occupational Therapy is not a medical process, so suitability is not determined by a diagnostic label, but by how much, and in what way any disorder or difficulty there may be, impacts on everyday life and the goals the child or young person may want to achieve.
For more details of specific conditions often seen by LNOTA see who is LNOTA for?
Examples of the sort of everyday problems that parents and carers are looking for help with can include-
- Improving handwriting, speed and legibility
- Increasing participation in sports and PE classes
- Learning skilled tasks such as riding a bike, swimming
- Confidence boosting
- Improving eating patterns
- Using cutlery effectively
- Being able to manage dressing and washing independently
- Improving ability to manage the school or college day
- Dealing with the transition between home and school
- Listening and concentration
- Managing stress
- Improving sleep routines
- Making the transition from living at home to moving away to university or college
- Being more organized and in control
- Managing mood and increasing motivation
The OT Process
Referral – Referrals are accepted from many places including parents, carers and young people themselves. Often a doctor or a paediatrician may have made a recommendation that OT intervention may be of help and pass on additional information.
Usually a conversation or an informal consultation takes place at the start to check if OT is the right approach and work out what type of assessment process may be needed. Sometime a screening tool may be used to help clarify the nature of difficulties that may need a more detailed assessment.
Assessment – Finding out what the situation is for the child or young person – both the difficulties and strengths over the range of areas. Assessment may be more informal and based around observing activities taking place or may use more formal standardised tests.
Report – A detailed report can be provided giving the findings of the assessment which will include recommendations for home, school and if further occupational therapy intervention would be of help. In some situations, a full detailed report is not needed so a summary with recommendations will be provided.
Recommendations – What may be of use for the child or young person to promote their abilities and development? This may include a description of activities, changes to the environment, routine or lifestyle that may be helpful to promote well-being and independence.
Treatment plan – If there is an agreement that further intervention is needed, the treatment plan describes what the OT plans to do as part of regular treatment sessions and how they will do it. This will include the aims of the therapy and any goals or targets to be achieved and how people will be working together. Sometimes this is developed after the report is completed and may be integrated within the child’s Individual Educational Plan (IEP) or Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP).
Review – A chance to stop and check that the OT intervention is being effective, helpful and is still what is wanted or needed. It may provide an opportunity to renew the treatment plan or to draw the sessions to a close. Again, this may be integrated within the educational or care processes undertaken.
Ending – Ending the intervention will include a summary report and updates on any assessment findings and recommendations.
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Re-referral – The OT can be contacted again at any point to request either a follow up visit or for a complete reassessment. If the OT is not able to help then alternative suggestions would be made
Confidentiality and safeguarding
All information shared with LNOTA in assessment and intervention sessions will be treated confidentially; whoever has parental responsibility for the child will need to give their consent for information to be shared about you and your child with another party e.g. a teacher or another therapist etc.
A young person who is able to understand the nature of the issues being discussed and the consequences of sharing this information will also be asked to give their consent.
The only times when consent will not be sought is if there is evidence of significant risk of harm to a child or young person or where there are deemed other significant urgent risks to health and wellbeing.
Further details and the terms and condition of the service provision is available and is normally sent out when a detailed quote is given or the service is being commissioned to provide intervention.
As part of the learning process and recording development and changes it can sometimes be really helpful to video sessions or take photographs. Non-identifying photos will be taken of work produced by children at times but videos and photographs of the child or young person will only be taken with permission from the parent/carer, and the child or young person themselves.
Consent for use of videoing or photographing sessions can be withdrawn and your therapist will check out with you that you are happy for the sessions to be recorded in this way.
A more detailed hand out is available to explain in more detail the advantages and issues associated with videoing the session along with a consent form.
Children and young people should be involved as much as possible in decisions about their care, even when they are not able to make decisions on their own. The principles followed are of those by other organisations who regularly work with children and young people.
http://www.patient.co.uk/doctor/Consent-to-Treatment-in-Children.htm
Costs
No-one likes to talk too much about money but information about specific costs of any intervention can be sought by contacting Lynda Niles directly.
As part of the process of engaging with the OT process a specific quote for cost will be sent based on the informal initial consultation where the nature of difficulties are identified and the type of intervention discussed. Where possible a number of options may be given for parents and carers to choose from.
Different fees are charged according to funding arrangements.
Charges made cover costs of equipment and materials used in the assessment or intervention as well as the time taken both face to face with you and your child, but also the time for any administrative tasks that need to be undertaken.
Assessment sessions are more expensive as this requires additional time to process and analyse especially when administering a standardised assessment.
Report writing is also a lengthy process and charges made will reflect the time expected to undertake the report writing side of the process.
An additional charge is made for mileage and in some cases a charge will also be made for the travel time.
Payment is preferred to be made by BACs transfer but cheques are still accepted, all details will be given in the invoice and the LNOTA Terms and Conditions document.
