Sensory SMART OT

24/12/2025

At Christmas, we are reminded that the greatest gift is not found under the tree, but in the love and hope Jesus brings to the world.

Wishing our SSOT families a calm, meaningful, and joy-filled Christmas 🤍

23/12/2025

🎄🎄🎄
We would like to take a moment to wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a very happy New Year.

And as you take time to celebrate with family and friends, may it be a truly wonderful time together.

Thank you for all your support this and we look forward to seeing you again 2026!

Love from the Sensory Smart OT Team!
🎄🎄🎄

18/12/2025

Supervision works best when your nervous system feels safe enough to reflect, integrate, and learn.

If you arrive already overwhelmed or in protection mode, it’s harder to access the depth supervision is designed to support. Preparing your nervous system beforehand isn’t about “calming down” — it’s about creating the conditions for meaningful clinical reflection and growth.

Supervision enquiries for 2026 are now open.

For paediatric OT supervision across students, graduates, and experienced clinicians, head to the link in bio to register your interest.

17/12/2025

Best feeling ever!!! I signed off on my last FCAx for 2025 today.

Yay - holidays are just around the corner
🎄🎄🎄

17/12/2025

Regulation doesn’t pause just because school does.
School holidays don’t switch nervous systems off.

For many students, this time brings less predictability, more change, and higher sensory load. When routines disappear, regulation often becomes harder — not easier.

If regulation is treated as something children should “come back with,” the start of term is always going to feel heavier than it needs to be.

Regulation is supported through structure, predictability and adult preparation.

Not pressure.
Not consequences.
Not waiting for behaviour to appear.

If we want a calmer start to term, regulation has to be planned for — not expected. ☺️

11/12/2025

What a great resource to have!

Dressing Skills is a 24 page booklet that provides visual directions of how to:

put on a shirt
put on pants in standing
put on pants in sitting
put on a coat
put on a coat with the flip method.

The pictures and step by step directions are either 3″ by 5″ images or 2″ by 2″ images.

Using task analysis, each dressing skill has been broken down into simple steps.

Create visual sequences for the children to follow along each step of the task.

Also included is a tip sheet on how to teach dressing and a small book to read entitled “I Can Dress Myself”.

09/12/2025

December often feels bigger for our kids, not because they are being difficult, but because their nervous system is carrying more than usual.

Changes in routine, louder environments, end-of-year tiredness… it all adds up.

A simple sensory toolkit can make these weeks feel calmer for everyone. It doesn’t require special equipment or extra activities. Just small, predictable supports woven gently into the day you already have.

If this is helpful, save it to come back to over the holidays or share it with another family who might be feeling the end-of-year stretch too. 🍎

04/12/2025

‼️Your child is not being dramatic‼️

Their nervous system is done.
By the end of the year children carry months of sensory, social, emotional, and cognitive load.
Noise. Transitions. Friendship dynamics. Learning pressures. Fatigue.

Their capacity shrinks long before the term ends.

Then we add concerts, parties, new teachers, routine changes, family events, and late nights. Even fun things create extra demand.

A tired system reaches overload quickly which is why tears, irritability, clinginess, or shutting down appear more often.

This is not misbehaviour.
It is a nervous system asking for less, not more.

Support helps.
Keep routines simple.
Reduce demands.
Offer connection.
Prioritise rest and quiet play.

Your child does not need to toughen up.
They need their load to be lightened.

Send this to yourself to re read later. 🤗

02/12/2025

Simple, gentle regulation check-ins are one of the easiest ways to support kids, especially during busy seasons like December.

Most dysregulation doesn’t start with “big behaviour.”
It starts with tiny cues that are easy to miss when life is busy.

Here’s a quick 10-second check-in to help you understand what your child actually needs:

🧠 Body: Are they fidgety, floppy, tense, or unusually still?

💛 Emotion: Is the behaviour coming from tiredness, frustration, overwhelm, or needing connection?

🌍 Environment: Is the space loud, crowded, unpredictable, or demanding more than their nervous system can manage?

When you pause to notice these small cues, you can support your child before they tip into dysregulation.
And that’s what helps them feel safe, understood, and grounded.

If you found this helpful, save it for later (especially for after-school chaos or holiday outings).

01/12/2025

Reflective practice is one of the strongest predictors of long-term OT confidence, but reflective supervision is where that practice truly develops.

Across my 30+ years in paediatrics (and 10+ years of supervising clinicians), one pattern is consistent:

The OTs who really flourish aren’t the ones with the most strategies, but the ones who learn to stop, think, and make sense of what they’re seeing.

Reflective supervision gives you the space to slow down and understand:

✔ Why you made the decisions you made
✔ What sensory, emotional, and relational patterns you may have missed
✔ How your own nervous system, instincts, and triggers show up in sessions
✔ What the child’s behaviour was communicating beneath the surface
✔ Who you are becoming as a clinician

This is what builds grounded professional identity, not memorising more strategies, but understanding the mechanisms beneath behaviour.

Today’s OT blog dives deeper into what reflective supervision actually looks like, how it strengthens clinical reasoning, and why feedback alone will never create the same depth of growth.

If you’re wanting to feel more confident, more attuned, and more you in your OT work… this one will help.

New OT blog is live.
Link in bio.

28/11/2025

This is a great opportunity! Join now!

27/11/2025

🌿 As we step into the busy holiday season, here’s your gentle reminder:

✨ Children don’t need a perfect parent. They need a present one.
✨ Connection will always matter more than correction.
✨ Small moments of play, laughter, or calm are where the magic happens.

You’re doing better than you think. 💛