London Paediatric Occupational Therapist

08/08/2023

Occupational Therapist Barbie 💗

11/08/2021

Hi lovely community.

Tomorrow I’ll be live with a Portuguese SLT talking about weaning and how to make this a smooth transition.

This time the talk is going to be in Portuguese but I’m planning to do it soon in English as well.

Are you going to be there?

Lots of love

Your OT
Ana Pires

https://www.instagram.com/p/CSZydQLskEp/?utm_medium=copy_link

05/06/2021

Valuable research on the value of a yoga practice for children on the autistic spectrum

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3151379/?fbclid=IwAR2kuA4ezDGhwTsf4d_jMjyv1P3B1uUdwCCVYyScXa7vov5saXXx9JmUQUE

A specially designed Integrated Approach to Yoga Therapy module was applied to Autism Spectrum Disorders over a period of two academic years. Despite low numbers (six in each arm), consistency and magnitude of effects make the findings significant. Parental ...

27/03/2021

If you are experiencing this YOU ARE NOT ALONE.
I’ve been working remotely with families of children with feeding difficulties and this heightened anxieties are real after Covid. Don’t be afraid to look for support if you need it and don’t ever feel you are alone.

You are doing the best you can and know 🙏

Big shout for all of you that are dealing with picky eaters 🙏👏👏

Parents of picky eaters report that biggest worries are:
- starve their children
- child not getting enough nutritional foods
- sickness following bad eating habits
- lack of attention/energy due to poor eating habits

What are your biggest worries? Share these with me below 👇

The pandemic has been particularly challenging for people like Phoenix, say eating disorder experts.

15/03/2021

The clip in this article is so lovely. I am so happy that kids TV shows are becoming more inclusive 🙃🙏

https://people.com/parents/daniel-tigers-neighborhood-new-character-max/?fbclid=IwAR116ucDcj15WYRBvqHs1jLdW9ZlhvwTebFBsyDw9uBuK5jy3HKSht2puOw

Max joins the crew in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe on April 5

13/03/2021

Before we begin to tackle any eating related issues of our children, we must work with our own eating issues, otherwise we will pass them on, or create new problems in our children based on our own problems.

As an adult, I know where my food issues stem from, but they are so hard to overcome. The first step is being mindful about them

13/03/2021

Be mindful 🙏🙃

Be Mindful of After School Restraint Collapse This Week!

With children going back to school, emotions are going to be running high this week (in fact for the rest of this month) and it's likely their behaviour is going to be really tricky at home for a while.

The presumption here is that the parents must have done something wrong to cause the poor behaviour, because school aren’t having the same issue. In a sense they’re correct, the behaviour is because of something they’ve done, but not in the negative way they expect.

This happens because parents have done everything right! When you make your child feel loved, safe, supported and respect with you, they feel comfortable enough to be their authentic selves with you, or in other words, they don’t have to pretend or ‘be good’ anymore.

They have spent all day, at school, holding in frustration, fear, anxiety, anger and other uncomfortable emotions, because they know that it is “naughty” to let them out at school. When they get home to you however things are entirely different. There’s a massive release.

Imagine your child at school and everything they have to deal with as being a bottle of fizzy drink. They have spent all day being shaken, building pressure, but have ‘been good’ and managed to keep their lid screwed on tightly. When they see you, the need to release is huge, pop, off comes the lid and the ensuing spray of all that has been bottled up inside. The technical term for this is restraint collapse, but I much prefer to think of that bottle finally releasing its pressure.

This is all a wonderful compliment of your parenting skills. If you hadn’t made your child feel secure enough to be authentic with you, when they were feeling happy and otherwise, then they would continue to bottle up the feelings and the release (and subsequent mess) would likely happen at school. Causing far more problems.

Many children sadly get into the cycle of not being able to release to their parents, perhaps because their parents have raised them to not share how they feel with them through constant punishments and exclusions, or perhaps because the parents have been too busy, or absent, to listen. The result then is constant difficulty and poor behaviour at school, as they struggle to keep a lid on things and erratically explode, without the safe release of home.

What can you do about restraint collapse? Really, the best thing is to understand and accept it for what it is, a great testament to the hard work you have put into raising a child with good emotional intelligence and a strong bond with them.

The effects wear off as children settle into school and things become easier for them, however you will see it time and again throughout the school years. When it happens again (after initially ceasing) you will know that they are struggling with something at school.

Don’t take any explosions personally, they are definitely not acting this way because they hate you, it’s actually a bizarre way of them saying that they love you, lots. Instead, let your child know that it’s OK, you’re here for them and you’re big enough and mature enough to hold their difficult feelings as well as their happy ones.

30/01/2021

Working from home during pandemic with children. Are you struggling to work from home with children? You are not alone. Here are some tips to help 🙏😊

Are you struggling with trying to work from home during lockdown *and* taking care of your children at the same time? You're not alone! Here are 10 tips to help:

28/01/2021

26/01/2021

Love this 🙏🙌

23/12/2020

15/09/2020

The "Partnering for Change" model aims to improve the overall participation of children in school, at home and in the community.

The success of this model depends on the collaboration between Occupational Therapists, Educators/Teachers and the Family of the child involved.

The family, according to the P4C model, plays a fundamental role in the therapeutic process. "Not only are families the experts on their children, they are also the bridge between home and school."

The family, more than anyone else, knows their child and may have valuable information that may be escaping us.

Apart from that, if there is no such collaboration with the family and a continuity of the work done with the child at home, everything that has been done so far will not be noticed & maintained.