How Paediatric Occupational Therapists Help

As physiotherapists, we frequently collaborate with other health professionals to provide the best care for our clients. It’s an essential part of what we do, because people are complex and have individual needs… don’t we all know it! That goes for all the mamas we see, but also their beautiful babies.

One of the allied health professionals that we collaborate with are occupational therapists. We were recently chatting with Tahlia from ‘House on the Hill Paediatric Therapy Services’ in Canberra. They have created a new service, the Neonatal / Ex-Neonatal Support Team (NEST), that provides Occupational Therapy for children 0 - 2 years of age, as well as support for their families.

You may not know what what a paediatric occupational therapists does, or how they could help your child, but hopefully this blog will shed some light on what this service is and whether it would be of value to your family.

What does a Paediatric Occupational Therapist do?

As babies develop and grow, they will be curious and exploring the world around them. As they explore they receive a high amount of visual, auditory and physical feedback which is processed by their growing brain, helping them progress and grow. Children develop at different rates, however, as your child grows there are generally accepted milestones that they should reach by certain ages. If your child is not reaching the expected milestones, then a paediatric occupational therapist can help.

Paediatric occupational therapists focus on the wellbeing and development of your baby to assist them in reaching their developmental milestones and engage in their daily activities - such as playing, crawling, walking, eating and much more.

Occupational therapists help babies achieve their developmental milestones through play. Playing aids the development of your baby’s foundational skills and understanding of the world around them.

Additionally, the team will support your family throughout the journey, including developing a toolkit to support your baby and NDIS applications, if required.

How do they help babies?

There are many ways in which an occupational therapist can help babies. These include, but are not limited to:

- Creating meaningful bonds with parents.

- Learning the start of self-regulation through touch therapy.

- Improve their visual tracking skills by using tracking toys, other objects and people/their sounds.

- Gross and fine motor development to improve the baby’s muscles, coordination skills, from their fingers to whole body movements.

- Sensory play and exploration.

What support is available for your family?

Occupational therapists will teach and support your family to help your child, including:

- Positioning of your baby.

- Instruction, guidance and demonstration of massage techniques.

- Support with creating a calm sensory environment.

- Advice on which toys assist with sensory exploration.

- Working collaboratively to develop individualised toolkits for parents, so they have the knowledge and skills to support the baby and the whole family.

- NDIS application support.

When a treatment plan is specifically tailored for you, you are more likely to reach your goals. This not only goes for adults, but children as well. If you’ve noticed that your child is delayed reaching their developmental milestones, you may want to get in touch with House on the Hill Paediatric Therapy Services. You can submit an enquiry through their website here.

As always, we hope that this information is helpful. Please reach out of you have any questions.