Pediatric Occupational Therapy services involving all role-players in the child's life. A playful,
25/01/2025
Hello! I’m Narieke, founder of Smart Sprout Private Tutoring.
With 7 years of experience teaching in South Africa, Hong Kong, and Dubai, I’m passionate about helping children thrive in ways that go beyond the regular classroom setting. As a qualified teacher, I’ve seen how vital it is to support students in areas that are often overlooked during the school day—particularly phonics, comprehension, and building a strong foundation in language and maths.
A little about me: I grew up in the northern suburbs and attended boarding school in Paarl, where I excelled in athletics. At 19, I took my first step abroad, and since then, I’ve traveled and refined my hobbies—reading, hiking, listening to podcasts, and exploring new places and restaurants with friends. I also love animals (especially cats) and enjoy participating in charity runs supporting women and children.
I’m excited to meet you and work together to help your child grow and succeed in their learning journey!
17/01/2025
My daughter's hair routine: 90% chaos, 10% "I kinda like this".
16/10/2024
Incredible spoils, so much effort and togetherness and then this wonderful message just reminds me why this team is the BEST one.
"Today, we say thank you to our incredible "Boss," Jennie Wagener 🤍
We put "Boss" in quotation marks because she is more known to us as a dear colleague, mentor, and friend. Jennie is an inspirational leader and a true testimony of living life and practicing OT with integrity. She always strives to do what is right for her employees, for the business, for her family, but most importantly, for the kiddies that we treat. Most of us always quote the line " but what is best for the child?". Jen will often challenge us to think about what is best for the child we are treating, and if it's not best for the child, how can we make it so. Nothing infuriates her more than when someone in the child's life has not done what is best for that child. And so she has created a culture of "client first before anything" and we can see how that is something our practice does differently than the rest. She is the kindest, most selfless "Boss" who truly cares for each one of us.
Jen is someone who we can be open and honest with. We as employees can be open about our struggles, our difficulties, our insecurities, and our challenges. But Jen, with her incredible wisdom, knows it all anyway and chooses to constantly show Grace upon grace towards us (even when we seriously dont deserve it). She always makes sure she is being fair to us.
She's a remarkable human being, but also an incredible "Boss". 🏆
Here's to you, Jennie Wagener!!
HAPPY BOSS'S DAY!!! 🥳🎉🥂🎊
19/07/2024
Did a fun teacher training at Blouberg Ridge Primary School today with the lovely Grade 1-3 teachers. It’s so refreshing to see a school who invest in staff training. Thank you for my lovely flowers!
01/06/2024
Wonderful toy for GRADING OF FORCE! Do your children accidentally break toys or play "too roughly with others"? They might struggle to control the force applied through the proprioceptive sense. Comment or share if you want the name of this game, available at our local one-stop toy shop Tiny Tree Toys
Hi! I am Jennie Wagener. The time has come for me to publicly share some big news: In September 2023, I became the proud new owner of Sensory Kidzone.
As most of you know, the founder and creator of Sensory Kidzone, Ray Anne Cook handed over the baton to Ford and Leanne Fleischmann a few years back, after which Ray Anne eventually retired. After life took many exciting twists and turns for them, Leanne and Nicole found some new ventures, and I merged Sensory Kidzone with my current practice. Some of you may know me as the founder and owner of Shout a Whisper Occupational Therapy. For those who don't know me, head over to my Shout a Whisper Occupational Therapy page to read more about our journey, but I will share more in the coming weeks.
I thank those who have come before me on whose shoulders I could stand to make the legacy of Sensory Kidzone proud. I have actually been part of the Sensory Kidzone team years ago and helped with the big move from Ray Anne's home practice to where it is now at Thaba Park, and I had the privilege of working alongside and learning from Ray Anne in those early years of my OT journey. I am sad to say goodbye to the Sensory Kidzone name, but excited to make the legacy of SKZ part of my proud Shout a Whisper team and brand. Please follow along, this practice can only succeed with the backing of our clients and we look forward to helping many more families in the years to come. I would love to hear your questions, suggestions, and thoughts so in the comments, please ASK ME ANYTHING!
07/02/2024
02/10/2023
A rare moment: when all the Melkbos OT’s happen to be at the practice on the same day. Love these peeps. Eliza van Walbeek, Rebecca Joy Stopford, Telana Hugo, Rachel Ge**er love you all so much. Emma Jenneker we miss you Melkbos side. Can’t wait to officially welcome the rest of the Durbanville crew to our team.
06/09/2023
One of the best parts of a all-woman team, is getting my baby-cuddles in when a strong momma returns to us after maternity leave 😍. Rebecca Joy Stopford we are overjoyed to have you back. You were so missed and it was fun to spend your first day back with you and your squishy.
11/07/2023
This beautiful individual is Telana Hugo. I think she will forever carry the record for “my fastest hire ever”. Telana phoned me to enquire about a position at the practice. I happened to be at a coffee shop at the time and invited her for an interview and within 5 minutes of meeting her, I knew I was going to offer her the job. When I made the offer just before she left, , we exchanged a look and both teared up when we realised, this is it!
Telana is my wing-woman. She has never, ever let me down. When things are tough and I need someone to bail me out, whether it’s for something stupid like “I need a lift to the practice” or something hard like “I’m sick, can you fill in for me, my session starts in 30 minutes”, Telana ALWAYS steps into the gap. Always. I don’t think people realise what an exceptional quality that is in a human being. Nobody in my career has taken the amount of pressure off me that Telana has.
She is a brilliant therapist. She can create order out of chaos in both her approach to gaining knowledge as well as in her therapy sessions. Children and parents feel safe and secure, she brings predictability to the lives of all the families in her caseload, she communicates frequently and clearly and she can see theory patterns in assessment, which makes her an exceptional diagnostician. Assessing and figuring out the unique strengths and difficulties of a new client is one of the most difficult parts of our job, and for most people, it takes years to acquire this skill, but Telana worked her butt off to hone this skill and I can pretty much send any child of any age into an assessment with Telana and she can connect with the child as well as figure out the profile.
But what I value most in Telana, is her passion for kids. Loving what you do when working with children, is actually a lot more rare than people think. Connecting with each child, choosing to focus on their strengths and the value they bring to the world, and empowering them to overcome their difficulties, is something that comes so naturally to Telana. Her therapy kids adore her. I’ve seen kids bargain, cry and offer bribes to their parents to come to OT sessions. She always puts the child’s needs above her own. When her muscles are tired and cramping after a full day of therapy, she’ll still bounce her last client of the day in the spandex swing until they belly laugh if that is what they ask for. If a child missed a therapy session and can only do a catch-up session at 7am, Telana will be there, on time and ready, just so they don’t miss a single week of therapy. Her passion for her job shines through daily: in her therapy notes, in her planning and organisation, in her communication with parents, in our mentoring sessions and where it matters most, in the progress that her clients make in therapy. Telana, you have been nothing but a rock to me in a whole sea of unknowns this past year. Thank you for everything that you put in, none of it goes unnoticed. I look forward to a long and happy friendship and partnership; I see you and I love you.
28/06/2023
This is Emma Jenneker. She was my first “official” hire on the Shout a Whisper team, and I’m so thankful we chose each other for this journey. She’s one of those people who are highly under-estimated on first glance, but boy would you be WRONG to under-estimate her! She doesn’t enter the room with a bang. She isn’t loud and forceful and she does not demand to be remembered, but somehow, wherever we go, SOMEBODY in the room knows Emma, and I’ve yet to meet someone who doesn’t remember her for somethings special or extraordinary that she has done, whether it’s in a coffee shop, at a school or in a work environment.
I don’t know anyone like her. She is 100% unique in all the ways you can think of, and how blessed am I that I get to have her on my team. She’s way beyond her years in knowledge and she is a natural SI therapist. I’ve honestly not seen many people like her; she consumes complex knowledge like a sponge, and she grows in skill at a pace that still blows my mind. She never stops growing as a person; she always tries to become closer to God’s design of a woman, and she really inspires me to do better. That being said, Emma CHALLENGES me, goodness gracious me! Spelling and language and sending her stats on time for me to do my invoices and tidying up the therapy room are part of our weekly “conflicts” haha, but honestly, how blessed am I that these are the things Emma and I disagree on, and not the big things like her quality of work. And also, these things also only fall through the cracks because she’ll rather spend her time to connect with a teacher in the hallway, to help a crying child who isn’t even one of her clients, or to have a casual cup of tea while chatting to a friend because what is important to Emma above all else, is RELATIONSHIP with people.
The thing you need to understand about Emma, is that when she takes your child onto her case-load, your whole family becomes a part of her life for (pretty much) forever. I’ve not met many people who advocate so hard and so passionately for their therapy kids and their families. She never stops figuring out, thinking, reading and improving on her skills to be the best therapist she could be. She’s got an exceptional skill in understanding the minimally verbal, non-verbal and autistic community and she loves these kids like they are her own. She just gets it. I cannot imagine building this practice without her. Emma, I love you more than you know, my friend. Thank you for making me better, for always lifting me up and for seeing my heart in it all. God knew I needed you alongside me, and I am so thankful you said ‘yes’.
12/06/2023
A wonderful post on Interoception, one of the lesser-known of our 8 senses. Contact us if you think your child have diminished feedback from his/her interoceptive sense, we'd love to help :).
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I have been working as an OT in private practice for roughly 10 years, in which time I’ve learnt from some amazing people and gained valuable training and experience. I specialize in the field of sensory integration and this is the foundation of my therapy, where appropriate.
After becoming a mother 2 years ago and spending some much-needed time at home with my daughter and her own health-challenges, I feel ready to set out on my own and build my dream practice. I definitely feel that I am now better able to identify with and empathize with parents. I have a much deeper understanding of the courage it takes to firstly admit when your child needs help, and secondly, to pick up the phone and entrust a total stranger to “pick apart” your child’s problems and abilities in order to start the road to developing their full potential.
Of all the things I’ve learnt over the years, these are the things that dictate and drive all my decisions when working with children:
1.) Children are resilient, amazing and will almost always achieve MORE than we expect from them, IF we empower and support them.
2.) You are never just a therapist to the child in front of you. You will only achieve maximum development if you consider the impact that the child has on the family, and vice versa.
3.) A 24-hour approach where the family, teachers and other role-players that are frequently in contact with the child, is the quickest way to reach therapy goals and reach the end of the therapy process. I only see and work with the child for a few minutes or hours per week, so if there isn’t carry-over to the child’s everyday environment in some shape or form, progress will be slow and frustrating (and expensive!) for everyone involved.
4.) Play, playfulness, fun and involving the child in the goal-setting process is the quickest way to get there!
5.) Maude le Roux, an amazing therapist from ‘A Total Approach’, has taught me one of the most profound things of all time with regards to children: “If they COULD, they WOULD”. Children WANT to be successful, they want to please others, they want to belong and they want to be “good”. If they are not doing any or all of the above, it is because something (or even someone) is preventing them from doing so. There is no such thing as a ‘naughty’ child; ‘bad behavior’ is only a symptom.
6.) Children will be and do what we speak over them; if you remind a child daily and sincerely that they are good at something or at least trying their best to be, they will believe you and strive towards becoming what you speak over them. The opposite is also true. We should consider carefully which words we speak over children daily; THEY LISTEN.
I strive towards positively changing the lives of every single child and their family that approaches my therapy room.
I wish to change each action, word and wish that a child speaks through their words, behaviour and play, from a whisper to a shout that the rest of the world will hear, respect and understand.
