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Occupational Therapy
Is writing difficult for your child?
Have you noticed your child has poor balance or coordination?
Does your child experience difficulty with tasks such as doing up buttons or shoelaces?
Occupational Therapists help with the development of physical and sensory motor skills so children and young people can best perform everyday tasks.
Occupational Therapy can help students develop skills such as doing up buttons, tying shoelaces, writing, drawing and using scissors. These skills are needed both at home and at school.
Learning Links' Occupational Therapists work together with students, parents/carers, specialist teachers, educational psychologists, speech and language pathologists, counsellors and other health professionals to help students with low support needs reach their full potential.
Assessment Program
A comprehensive assessment of a student's current ability is an important first step. Our detailed report will identify a student's strengths, areas needing help, appropriate intervention and useful strategies for both the classroom and at home.
The assessment focuses on gross and fine motor coordination, motor planning, muscle tone, visual perception, visual motor integration and handwriting. These are assessed through clinical observation and standardised tests.
Some areas helped by occupational therapy include the following.
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Gross motor coordination involves the large muscles and movement of the trunk, arms and legs. |
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Fine motor coordination involves the small muscles and movement of the hand. This is often influenced by the stability of the larger muscles in the trunk and arms. |
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Motor planning refers to a student's ability to organise, plan and then execute new or unpractised motor tasks. |
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Muscle tone involves flexibility and mobility of muscles and the corresponding joints. |
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Visual perception and visual motor integration involves understanding and processing visual information to form appropriate motor actions. |
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Handwriting involves using the correct pencil grasp, seating posture and arm and finger movements to write legibly and fluently. |
Therapy Program
Learning Links' Occupational Therapists offer individual and group therapy sessions.
The therapy program involves:
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assessment of a student's functional ability, |
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determination of short and long term goals in collaboration with the family, |
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implementation of intervention strategies, and |
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weekly feedback for parents regarding their child's progress. |
Group Therapy Programs
Learning Links' Occupational Therapists run innovative group therapy programs. These programs focus on specific skill areas and operate during term and holiday periods.
Our current programs include the Write Words Club. Co-facilitated by a Speech and Language Pathologist, the Write Words Club teaches students how to plan and produce written texts. A gross motor group is also offered.
Click here to contact your local branch to find out about upcoming programs and fees that apply.
Literacy & Numeracy Program
Students in Learning Links' Literacy & Numeracy Program often experience difficulty with fine motor tasks such as handwriting, using scissors or forming letters. In addition to individual and group therapy sessions, Occupational Therapists also work collaboratively with our specialist teachers within the Literacy & Numeracy Program. This provides students with a multi-disciplinary approach to assist their learning. Click here to find out more about our Literacy & Numeracy Program.
Consultation and Collaboration with Schools
Learning Links' Occupational Therapists seek to work in close collaboration with schools to maximise the outcomes for students receiving our services.
Learning Links' Occupational Therapists are also available to work within the school environment, providing therapy, assessments and consultation to schools as requested. Schools can contact their local branch to organise appropriate services within their school premises.
Professional Development
Professional Development sessions are available to schools and organisations.
Click here for information on our current courses and workshops. You can also contact your local branch to discuss your topic of interest and fees that apply. Click here to find your nearest branch. For more general information about Learning Links' Professional Development click here.
Fees
Learning Links charges fees for services to cover the fees of providing specialist help. As a non-profit organisation and charity, our fees for children and families are as low as possible.
To help subsidise fees for children from financially disadvantaged families, we raise funds and apply to a range of organisations and businesses for financial assistance. To access fee subsidies, you must be a member of Learning Links. If your child is enrolled in a Learning Links' program, you can become a Parent Member for $20 (incl GST) per year. For more information on membership please click here. For our current fee schedule for our services for school children click here.
Click here to view our brochure.
For more information, click on Email/Contact Us.
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