Category Archives: Teletherapy

Virtual Online Telehealth

How Do Paediatric Occupational Therapists Partner With Parents?

Usually, when people think about paediatric Occupational Therapy, the first thing that comes to mind is dropping your child off to see an OT who will do 1:1 treatment with them.  Sometimes parents aren’t present which means that they may not fully understand what the OT is working on with their child, and more importantly, don’t know how to support their child in their daily lives.  

How do OT’s help parents support their kids? 

At ot4kids, we have always valued working closely with parents in these ways:

  • Parents or caregivers are present throughout our sessions
  • We have regular parent-ONLY coaching sessions (similar to a teacher-parent conference but not rushed and more often) to review how things are going at home, identify areas of continued concern, understand rationale behind certain ‘behaviours’ and why certain sensory tools are effective and how to use them.  
  • Some parents do only parent consultations where they learn about sensory processing and motor skills, learn simple strategies to do with their child, and review in their OT consultations
  • Sometimes even grandparents and nannies have joined coaching and / or treatment sessions which has been so fantastic

What do parents think of 1:1 coaching sessions with their OT? 

Parents often find these consultation meetings to be the most helpful to them in understanding their child’s needs, and parenting their kids in a way that supports them developmentally and emotionally versus using traditional parenting techniques.  

How do parent coaching sessions / consultations help us (OT’s) help you? 

As an OT, I find the parent consultations really effective as:

1) parents know their child best so their input and feedback are great clues into figuring out effective ways to help their child

2) it’s important to know how the child fares in their daily lives as we want them to develop skills beyond the clinic and into their ‘real’ environments for the best impact

The aim of parent consultations / coaching

Our aim is to help reduce the overwhelm that parents can feel, and to help you find simple and effective ways in helping nurture your kids.  

My message to parents is that you know your child best, follow your gut instinct, and know that we can help you to be confident in helping your child to be coordinated, calm, and connected.  

Sign up here to learn more about parent coaching / consultation sessions. http://www.ot4kids.co.uk/occupational-therapy/parent-group-coaching-sessions

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How is Teletherapy and Working Closely with Parents Helping Kids? 

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Can you believe we have been doing Teletherapy and parent consultations for three months now?

Oftentimes, people think that OT has to be done 1:1 with an OT to help their child (and don’t get me wrong, direct treatment is really important and helpful).  Thanks to COVID-19, it has been absolutely amazing to see both parents and kids thriving.  Kids are calmer and building relationships, developing their motor skills, and problem-solving during play.   Parents are understanding their child’s ‘signs’ and needs, and as a result, figuring out what to do coming up with great strategies to support their kids.  

It has been a highlight building relationships, joining forces with parents, and having an impact in the kids’ natural environments. 

How do Occupational Therapists do Teletherapy?

Teletherapy sessions have taken a combination of two forms: 

  1. Directly working with the child via the parent 
  2. Indirectly by meeting only the parent and reviewing videos of child between sessions

What lessons have we learned (i.e. benefits gained) from teletherapy during COVID-19? 

Less is more

Kids have made great progress with what they have at home.  

Parents have been nicely surprised how much we are able to do with what they have at home, and as a result, they are more able to incorporate sensory strategies or motor activities into their days.  In many ways, I have found that children have made even more progress during their intensive blocks as we are so much more focused on certain areas and we use what they have.  

Empowering parents

For me, I have loved building relationships with the parents, and tag teaming with them to support their families and kids.  I feel that this has also been key to the progress we have made in sessions, and the support the parents feel that they are receiving.  Parents are empowered knowing that they can help their kids using their own hands and ideas.  

Learn by doing

I learn by doing things myself. 

These parent consultations and virtual sessions have enabled parents to ‘do’ with their kids themselves, and become confident in their own abilities to support their child.  Being mum to my 8-year old, I know how important this is.  

New future plans? YES!

So far, many families want to continue in this way to some capacity, and I’m fore-seeing positive changes going forwards in how we provide OT via supporting parents, whether it be directly, indirectly, through trainings and coaching, or a combination.  

Get in touch to discuss how tele-therapy can help your child.   

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Sensory Chalk Walk Obstacle Courses

Lockdown has finally given us the impetus to create some Chalk Walk Obstacle Courses for our neighbourhood.  (See video examples below.)  I’ve always wanted to make these, and now that we have started, my son loves making them too.  

People often think these chalk walks are difficult to make, however they’re so fun and you can involve your kids in making them too.  We have now made a bunch of these during the past couple of months, including for younger and older children.  

We have done very simple ones by going down our street drawing designated areas for ‘dancing,’ being ‘goofy,’  doing ‘silly walks,’ and drawing Hop Scotch grids which even the older people on our street have loved doing.  

How chalk obstacle courses develop sensory processing and motor skills: 

  • FUN while social distancing!
  • gross motor skills
  • body and spatial awareness
  • balance and coordination
  • motor planning skills to create, plan and execute 
  • fine and visual motor control 
  • organisational skills
  • emotional regulation 

TOP TIP:  Check the weather before you draw out your chalk course.  We learned the hard way as it sadly rained the day after we made ours a couple of times. 

How to create and arrange a chalk walk obstacle course, keeping your child in mind: 

  1. Start with a more intense, heavy work component such as jumping or doing press-ups
  2. Next, do a balance and / or challenge task such as walking along a wavy line or jumping and turning
  3. Have a high energy component (running on the spot for a minute, running for the home stretch)
  4. a mindful calming section (e.g. blow out the candles, sniff the flowers, sing a song, or unscramble letters to words, or say affirmations).   

Although do just have fun, follow your child’s lead and get them involved in creating these.    

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Chalk Walk Obstacle Course Examples: 

Here are several examples that my son and I have done for our neighbourhood.  Do share your ideas.  We’d love to see them.