Hand in Hand Therapy Services

25/12/2022

Merry Christmas to all my beautiful clients and friends of Hand In Hand Therapy. Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and have a safe and healthy New Year. I can’t wait to see you all again next year and take on some new clients in my extra days.

15/12/2022

Another Christmas activity that I love is baking!! Here at Hand in Hand Therapy we love to bake with clients and this year has been no exception!!! Check out the cupcakes we made in a session last week.

Baking is such a good therapy tool it works on so many skills including fine motor, visual perceptual, self care, life skills, following instructions, language concepts, and also really good for the sensory system and supporting little fussy eaters by making food fun.

🧁Fine Motor Skills: Getting your child to stir, mix the ingredients, knead the dough and decorate cupcakes can develop a child’s hands strength and bilateral integration (using two hands together).
🧁Hand Eye Coordination Skills: Adding and pouring ingredients into the bowl, decorating cakes and cupcakes and placing them onto the tray can help develop visual skills.
🧁Develops reading and maths skills: Involving your child in reading the recipe, measuring ingredients and calculating the correct amounts can develop literacy and maths skills.
🧁Sensory Processing Skills: Breaking the eggs, mixing the batter and kneading the dough is a strong sensory experience as it offers opportunities to explore different textures, smells, tastes, colours which can be calming and regulating for a child. Be mindful of children with sensory processing difficulties. Some will have sensory needs around certain smells and textures. Additional information can be found here.
🧁Develops life skills, planning, problem solving and independence living skills: By role modelling this activity, encouraging your child’s engagement and asking them ‘what is next’ promotes planning, sequencing, organisation and problem solving skills.

14/12/2022

Christmas time is a perfect time for working on those fine motor skills !!

Did you know that you should include your child in the gift wrapping part of gift giving?! It address so many skills you probably didn't even realise! Here are 5 reasons:
1. practice writing - fill out a card, a label or a tag
2. visual perceptual skills in order to estimate the size of paper you would need to fully wrap a gift. Problem solving too just incase they cut the paper too small and it doesn't fit the whole gift.
3. Scissor skills - cut the gift wrap, ribbon, and tape
4. Bilateral coordination - two hands have to work together to cut, fold, and tape the gift wrap.
5. Transfer those shoe tying skills and tie a knot or a bow on the gift

So why not get the kids involved and work on some new skills while getting your Christmas jobs done. If your particular about your gift wrapping you can always get old food boxes and get the kids to wrap these as decorations for under the tree.

04/12/2022

A child might detect that a new sound (like you calling their name) is happening in the room, but not discriminate that the sound is important or directed at them.

They might detect the sound, and discriminate it from other noises in the environment such that they recognize it as their name and try to tune in...but then not be able to identify the specific things that you're saying.

They might identify what you're saying, but not comprehend what the individual words mean, or be able to successfully turn it into a statement or question that they understand and process and can act on.

And an adult might watch this happen and then turn away and say, frustrated, "They heard me, they just chose not to listen!" or "They heard everything I said and then they broke the rule anyway!", not realizing that the child's hearing, processing, auditory systems are still learning and practicing and doing their best.

26/10/2022

Happy OT week everyone !!
👏 WHAT DOES OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY MEAN TO YOU? 👏
This week is ! Let's reflect and share how Occupational Therapy has impacted your life or your family!

This year OT week has been a quiet one reflecting on the special achievements and moments I have been able to share with my clients over the years. Many first and many lasting skills mastered, from a first step, their first world, first time trying a new food, first time looking into mums eyes, first wee in the toilet, to first time cooking a family meal, the first day in school. I have been so blessed over the years to be apart of so many lives and be part of their special achievements. My clients are true rock stars ⭐️

27/09/2022

Being a mum of 2, it’s important to me to make my children feel safe and secure at home and empowered to take on the world

27/09/2022

Beautiful story of a local business being inclusive and celebrating this young man’s strength and passions.

Working-aged people living with disability are two times as likely to be unemployed as those without disabilities. Advocates say there is no better time than now to change that.

20/08/2022

Love this idea !!

Great idea!

Source: unknown

13/08/2022

Cutting can be a difficult skill for our little ones to master. To make it easier for the learner, OT’s often modify the task to make it easier, so the child can learn how to control the specific tasks required.
- holding and manipulating the paper
- holding the scissors in their hand
- opening and closing the scissors

Some of my top tips for cutting include-
1) initially start using spring loaded or loop scissors to allow the child to learn how to squeeze. The scissors automatically return to the open position.
2) cutting with thicker materials like cardboard, straws, play dough ect as it holds its shape and allow the child to concentrate manipulating and moving the paper around to cut the desired shape.
3) thumb up when holding scissors. You can place a sticker on the thumb nail to encourage the child to keep it upright and not fall off. It’s an easy visual cue. The wrist also needs to be straight to keep the blade straight, this reduces frustration as the paper doesn’t slip between the blades and not cut. Positioning is key for cutting.
3) first start with simple snips to cut the object in half to give the instant reward of the one cut, then build to straight line cutting. Once achieved when the learner becomes more skilled build in curved lines and corners.
4) if the child wings their arms put something under their arms as a reminder to hold their arms close and move the paper instead.
5) remember cutting takes a long time to master and continues to develop as your hand develops and grows to the age of six. If you really break it down, there is so much that goes into cutting skills before a child even picks up the scissors. So, don’t rush ahead before you build that foundation. Some of the bricks in the foundation include hand strength, should stability, bilateral coordination, visual motor integration, attending skills and focus to task, sensory regulation, fine motor coordination…to name a few.

Happy cutting

10/08/2022

This is very important reminder that all ADHD children have these difficulties and often struggle at home and in the classroom with these 11 things. Every day we need to remind ourselves of these 11 things. If the child look blankly at you is not because they aren’t listening or a bad child they just can’t process what your asking it’s just too hard for their brain to process sometimes. Imagine how hard their brain has to work to live in our complicated world, let’s try to make it easier for them. Our little ADHD kiddies are super stars to me ❤️

This is great..."11 Things about me" invites teachers to learn a bit more about a student who has challenges in executive functioning and provides simple accommodations that can be used in a classroom setting.

From Keywell

19/07/2022

16/06/2022

I am a huge bluey fan and even more so when they include inclusive characters in the show. First the ADHD dog Jack and now this little one pup ❤️

Bluey just introduced a deaf character!

The already iconic family series debuted a new character named Dougie, another little pup who loves the playground. What makes Dougie distinct is the character is deaf, and is depicted as using Auslan to communicate with his mum.

The episode was broadcast on ABC Kids on this morning while a special version of the episode featuring an Auslan interpreter in the corner of the screen was made available on ABC iview.

Ludo, the production studio behind Bluey, worked with Deaf Connect to write and animate the episode, and the ABC worked with Deaf Connect on the Auslan translated version of the episode.

“The designers and animators worked with deaf Auslan users to help get the correct hand shapes and signs to make the episode as accurate as possible. Because the characters only have four fingers, this made it a little tricky for some of the signs to be completely accurate.”

The ABC has also released a one-minute companion video which teaches Bluey fans a few words in Auslan.

This story was taken from news.com.au