Welcome
Physiotherapy & Occupational Therapy for Tamariki/Children
Kia ora
We offer services for children aged 0 to 16 years who have a range of physical, neurological, cognitive, social, sensory, emotional and developmental needs. We provide a number of different services tailored to your child's needs as well as providing coaching for families and caregivers.
Our therapists at Paediatric Occupational Therapy are experienced, empathetic, practical and empowering. We partner with paediatricians, speech language therapists, and other specialists to provide a collaborative service for children and their families.
Our vision is to
provide quality, best practice therapy services for families and children,
and to maximise potential and build fulfilling lives, as a team.
Our mission is to, in partnership with families,
provide high quality, best practice therapy services
that maximize each individual child’s potential and participation in life activities.
Visit us
Who we see
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Children aged 0 to 16 years with:
- Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
- Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD)
- Developmental Coordination Disorders
- Delays in Development
- Difficulties with Information Processing
- Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder
- Neurological Conditions (Cerebral Palsy, Traumatic Brain Injury)
- Other Specific Syndromes
- Prematurity
- Specific Learning Disabilities
- Sensory Processing Difficulties
- Social & Emotional Difficulties
Consults, assessments and therapy
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Consults, assessments and therapy sessions are carried out in a number of different ways and settings including teletherapy and face to face sessions at home, school, preschool or in a clinic.
We assess and support next steps considering the following:
- The F-words (CanChild and World Health Oganisation International Classification of Function)
- Family, Function at home, school and community, Fitness, Friends, Fun and Future
- Interruptions to development from birth, including sensory, motor and cognitive function
- Organisational and functional skills
- Play skills
- Sensory processing
- Motor skills
- Information processing
- Visual perceptual skills
- Daily living and self care skills
- Learning and school participation
We draw on a number of evidence-based theories and practices to develop and frame our interventions, including:
- Neurodevelopment (Bobath) information processing (Perceive, Recall, Plan and Perform model—PRPP)
- Sensory processing and integration occupational performance (Occupational Performance Coaching)
- Attachment and relationships (newborn behaviour observations, Touchpoints)
- Respiration (Mary Massery) Musculoskeletal, Posture and Movement
Therapy services
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Our therapy sessions, evaluations, and task analysis enable us to build bridges, remove barriers and provide strategies for you and your child to reach their goals. When working with babies and children we use fun, engaging activities to help them succeed in meeting the daily occupations of childhood, e.g., self care, play, sleep, moving physically from place to place, writing a story and relating to others.
Following assessment, strategies are put in place to enable children to master tasks that are challenging for them. Strategies are specific to your child's behaviours which are identified during the assessment process. Instructional methods are used to address behaviours, incorporating cues, prompts, strategies and preferences.
Coaching and establishing goals:
- We listen and support the goals you want your child to achieve
- We listen to your child's hopes and dreams
- We give parents the skills and knowledge to "do therapy" everyday
- We enable you to overcome the everyday barriers for your child
Family, fun, friends, fitness, future:
- Riding a bike or scooter
- Using the playground
- Meal times: eating and drinking
- Walking and crawling
- Playing with friends, toys and games
- School: writing a story and packing your bag
- Exams: special conditions
- Relating to others
- Dressing, toileting and washing self
- Interests and hobbies
- Managing self, including emotions and regulation
Multidisciplinary assessments
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Multidisciplinary assessments are recommended for differential diagnosis and planning for next steps for children with a range of complex needs:
- Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS-2)
- Autism spectrum disorder
- Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder
- Congenital conditions
- Neurological conditions (e.g., cerebral palsy)
- Developmental coordination disorder (DCD)/dyspraxia
The mltidisciplinary team includes an Occupational Therapist, Paediatrician, Speech and Language Therapist, Physiotherapist and other professions that we collaborate with for children and their families.
Occupational therapy assessments
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Assessments and approaches are linked to the Canadian Occupational Performance Model looking at a child holistically and the child's ability to do everyday tasks at school, home and community. Paediatric Occupational therapists assess and support next steps for a range of areas in life including:
- Neuro development
- Play skills
- Sensory processing
- Information processing
- Visual processing
- Self-care and independence skills
- Emotional regulation and social skills
- School participation: learning, handwriting, friendships
- Routines and daily living tasks, organisational skills
- Childrens Constipation and Incontinence, state and regulation, managing self, toilet learning competence and confidence
Physiotherapy assessments
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Physiotherapist assessments are integral to our practice. Paediatric physiotherapists assess and support next steps for a range of conditions including:
- Balance and coordination
- Constipation and children's incontinence with a focus on the pelvic floor and breathing
- Developmental delay
- Hypermobility
- Musculoskeletal
- Neurophysiological
- Pain management
- Plagiocephaly
- Respiratory conditions
- Toe walking
- Torticollis
Orthotic clinics & adaptive equipment
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We work closely with a highly experienced orthotist—SSD Ltd to provide othotics assessments and equipment.
The orthotist and a physiotherapist or occupational therapist perform neurophysiological and musculoskeletal assessments, prescription and fitting of neurophysiological devices and orthoses, to help:
- Postural control
- Proprioceptive feedback loop
- Alignment and correction
- Pain management
- Muscle strengthening
Equipment may be used to enable your child to participate in everyday tasks, for example: adapted cutlery, seating, curriculum adaptation, pencil grips, specific toys to facilitate play etc.
Specific interests & programmes
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Infant massage
Join one of our infant massage group sessions. We follow the International Association of Infant Massage www.infantmassagenewzealand.org
Intensives
We run intensive therapy sessions over a week of two (occupational therapy and physiotherapy)
National and International
We see babies, infants and children from throughout Aotearoa/New Zealand and from the Pacific Islands
Next steps
Down Syndrome baby and infant “Next Steps” Sessional blocks
Group sessions
We run group sessions for:
- Girls with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
- Boys with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADD/ADHD)
Cycling
Learning to ride your bicycle sessions in the park.
The Islands
Journeying alongside families from the Pacific Islands E.g Cook Islands, Fiji, Samoa, Vanuatu and Tonga.
Workshops & training
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We provide the following training and workshops:
- Knowledge translation workshops
- Clinical reasoning workshops
- F-Words Life Wheel workshops
- Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD)
- Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD)
- Occupational Performance Coaching (OPC) training with Lucy Charles and Arul Hamill
- Perceive, Recall, Plan and Perform (PRPP) Stage 1 workshops with Arul Hamill and Wendy Burrows
Go to our events signup page for upcoming events.
Please contact us for current information or if you or your service would like us to run a work shop for your team.
Supervision
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Lucy Charles and Arul Hamill are registered OTNZ supervisors. We provide both professional and clinical supervision. Please contact us if you would like to organise supervision sessions.
F-Words Life Wheel
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The F-Words Life Wheel is an interviewing and coaching approach to facilitate conversations and goal setting for children and their families, caregivers and educators. The F-Words Life Wheel was developed by Lucy Charles and Arul Hamill of Paediatric OT NZ, and Kelly Reynolds from Kidsplus Australia in collaboration with CanChild Canada.
In 2011, Rosenbaum and Gorter developed CanChild’s six F-Words that focus on childhood development domains: Function, Family, Fitness, Fun, Friends, and Future. The F-Words build upon the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) framework. CanChild hoped to encourage people in the childhood development field to adopt a more inclusive, strengths-based way of thinking and to apply these concepts in their work with children with disabilities and their families.
Building on the work done by Rosenbaum and Gorter and CanChild’s F-words research group, and utilising coaching tools and techniques, Lucy , Arul and Kelly developed the F-Words Life Wheel. They have found this an invaluable tool for facilitating rich and meaningful conversations and enabling meaningful goal setting, based on what is important to children and families in their given contexts and situations.
Colleagues
Caroline Hui, Occupational Therapist
Claire Bennet, Speech Language Therapist
Gemma Gasson, Speech Language Therapist
Moira Nelson, Speech Language Therapist
Totally Psyched
Shamus Fairhall, Orthotist, Mosi Labs | SSD Limited
Dr Katie Tuck
The Kids Plus Foundation
The Hearing House
Carolyn Simmons, Occupational Therapist
Lisa Da Rocha, Clinical and Paediatric Neuropsychologist
Clare Stanley
Fiona Kentworthy
Fi Graham, Occupational Therapist, Occupational Performance Coaching (OPC)
Anne Tait, Paediatrician, Auckland Paediatrics
Organisations
![Sensory Project, ASI WISE, Ayres’ Sensory Integration WISE [Wales, Ireland, Scotland and England]](https://paediatricot.nz/build/img/org-asiwise.jpg)
Occupational Therapy, Aotearoa/NZ
