Occupational Therapy
The Seabrook McKenzie Centre is a charitable trust specialising in Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD) offering psycho-educational assessments and specialist tuition. As many children with SLDs may also have motor coordination and sensory difficulties, the centre has an occupational therapist to provide them with additional specialist assessment and intervention when required.
This service is also open to any child that experiences difficulty in motor and sensory skills.
An Occupational Therapist (OT) is skilled in using a person's occupations and interests as a means for therapy. Play is a child's primary occupation, so we use this to frame and motivate the child toward sensory-motor goals.
At the Seabrook McKenzie Centre, occupational therapy involves working with children who present primarily with motor planning, coordination, and sensory difficulties, often apparent during the performance of everyday skills like handwriting, dressing, ball skills, and sequencing activities. Social interaction, following daily routines, managing changes, and regulating behaviour are also frequently reported as challenging, affecting the child’s ability to engage in preschool or school.
At the Seabrook McKenzie Centre much of the therapy is clinic based; however, home, school, and community based concerns are addressed as part of the overall assessment and intervention process.
Find out more about Dyspraxia here.
The OT uses both standardised and non-standardised assessments. These may include:
- The Movement ABC (testing balance, catching & throwing, manual dexterity)
- Test of Visual Motor Integration
- The Sensory Profile
- Developmental Observation
- Gathered information from both the child's parents and teacher.
The assessment provides a baseline for therapy, recommendations for the school context, and a basis for home programme activities.
A comprehensive report is sent 3-4 weeks following the assessment. This will include the results and observations of the assessment and recommendations for any further assessment that may be appropriate. Recommended follow-up in terms of intervention as well as suggestions for home and school will also be given.
Ongoing therapy varies according to the individual child and family. Some children attend clinic therapy sessions for long term periods, for others, a smaller block of sessions is sufficient. For others, especially those living out of town, home programmes can be provided. The therapy is tailored to the individual child and works off the basis of the occupational therapy assessment.
1:1 clinic sessions
Therapy may include working on foundation skills such as balance, bilateral coordination, motor planning and sequencing, as well as fine-motor coordination, following a sensory integrative based approach. Therapy may also include working on functional skills as appropriate to the child’s needs, such as tying shoelaces, catching, skipping and handwriting.
Costs of our services can be found here.