Back to School – Pencil Grasp
OTs are frequently asked about pencil grasp, when it should be corrected, and when it is too late to do anything.
Craft Project: Pencil / Crayon Roll
Have some fun this weekend making a new pencil or crayon roll for your child! If you have a sewing machine and basic sewing skills (i.e. can sew a straight line), you’ll have it ready to go in no time!
Get your christmas shopping sorted for the little people in your life!
Here is our list of favourite activities, games and books for Christmas this year.
Our quick tips to help children calm their tiny bodies!
Tips from one of our fabulous therapists Elanie Moulos….
It’s not too late to get ready for school!
Written by one of our fabulous therapists, Alice Kettle
If your child has just started school or is looking to start school next year it is never to early or late to practice school readiness skills! Over the holidays we posted a few short videos for school readiness skills! The videos involved the following:
Getting Through Your Exams: HSC Tips
With the HSC Examinations just around the corner, we are wishing all of the year 12 students out there the best of luck! Here are our 5 tips to get you through your exams:
Does my child need occupational therapy?
Firstly, let’s look at what occupational therapy actually is…
Paediatric occupational therapists work with children to develop independence in their everyday tasks. Children’s primary everyday ‘occupations’ include being a student, friend and player. Occupational therapists (OT’s) can assist children in developing functional skills to perform to the best of their ability in these roles.
Fine Motor Skills
What are fine motor skills?
Fine motor development refers to the movements that require precise, coordinated actions of small muscles. Fine motor skills usually involve the synchronisation of hands and fingers to complete tasks. There are many overlaps with visual motor control that refers to the ability to coordinate visual information with motor output for visually guided movements (hand-eye coordination).
Reading with your child: start young and stay with it
We love this article from Bernice Cullinan and Brod Bagert…
At just a few months of age, an infant can look at pictures, listen to your voice, and point to objects on cardboard pages. Guide your child by pointing to the pictures, and say the names of the various objects. By drawing attention to pictures and associating words with both pictures and real-world objects, your child will learn the importance of language.
Five Fun Writing Activities
If you have a child that finds writing difficult, it can be tricky to find a writing activity that is enjoyable and motivating. While technology is being integrated into the classroom more and more, writing is still the main way children record the information they learn, therefore making it an important skill for learning.
These five activities have been tried and tested and are guaranteed to get your child having fun whilst writing:
New Clinic in Hunters Hill
We are excited to announce that we are opening a new clinic in Hunters Hill!
Looking for some inspiration these school holidays? We’ve collated our list of favourite activities for April!
Let’s Play!
Last week, Avalon presented to a lovely bunch of mums at Rozelle Espresso on play. Thank you to all the mums who came along! Here is the presentation.
Play and Early Development Talk & Rozelle Markets!
We are excited to announce that we will be participating in a community presentation at Rozelle Espresso on Wednesday 15th March at 10.30am. We will also be setting up a stall at Rozelle Markets – come along and say hello!
10 Apps to Develop Writing Skills
rED Writing
This app is great for developing letter formation and is appropriate for ages 4 -7. The app teaches correct formation of number, lower case and capital letters according to NSW Foundation font. Try the ‘shake a letter’ and ‘letter of the day’ options as well!
Qualia is Now a Registered NDIS Provider
The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) was recently established to allow children and teenagers with developmental or participation difficulties access services such as occupational therapy. Childhood is such an important time for setting up how a person learns and develops and support provided early will give your child the best chance of reaching their potential.
How can the NDIS help your child?
Meet Mr Yum!
Mr Yum is a fun and engaging hand strength and pincer strength activity. Both of these skills are required for pencil grasp, pencil control for handwriting and self-care skills such as dressing.
Continue Reading…
We have come together to compile our favourite list of games, activities and toys to help you with your christmas shopping!
Getting ready in the morning with a reluctant participant can make for a stressful start to the day for everyone. Hopefully these tips might help: Continue Reading…
Why a glitter bottle?
Watching a glitter bottle settle can be a great way for a child to calm down.
Continue Reading…
Keep the Pressure Down!
We see lots of children who are exerting excessive pressure through their fingertips and on the page when writing. There are a number of reasons why your child may be pressing too hard on the pencil or the page. This post will aim to give you some tips and tricks to try with your child to help reduce the pressure.
Therapeutic benefit of household pegs
Pegs are an easily accessible home resource that can be used to assist in the development of fine motor skills, finger strength, appropriate pencil grasp and functional tasks such as dressing and eating.
Hair Washing, Brushing and Styling
Washing, brushing and styling one’s hair can be an incredibly tactile experience. These activities are a fundamental part of a child’s daily routine and can be really tricky for children who are more sensitive.
Here is a list of our favourite tools for hair washing, brushing and styling:
Why do we care about handwriting?
We are asked all the time about handwriting. “We use laptops and iPads for everything, why do I need to bother addressing my child’s handwriting difficulty?” It is a really valid question. However, writing is more than just drawing letters. When you add the cognitive strategy requirements (memory, planning, attention), semantics, spelling, reading, comprehension and vocabulary components it becomes possibly one of the most complex tasks a student is expected to do in the classroom. Difficulties with writing (such as idea generation or writing speed) might not actually go away by simply moving to a keyboard. Below is a list of areas of handwriting and ideas to address the difficulty:
10 Quick Handwriting Warm-Ups
Handwriting warm ups are a great way to get your child ready for writing tasks.
These only take 2-3 minutes to complete and can assist your child with getting their hand and finger muscles ready for writing.
Have you ever wondered why occupational therapists work with children? Maybe you are not even sure what an occupational therapist is?
As our first blog entry, we thought we would introduce our profession.
In short, occupational therapy is the therapy of ‘occupations’. Occupations are the everyday ‘jobs’ that an individual does to bring purpose and meaning to their lives. It includes things they need, desire or are expected to do.
For an adult, this may include paid employment but also refers to parenting, being a friend or member of the community. These occupations broadly fall under the categories: self-care, rest, productivity and leisure. For each of these occupations, a person is expected to successfully complete a number of tasks such as driving a car, brushing teeth or using a phone.
Children have occupations too! Children are players, developers and learners. At particular ages, there are activities and tasks that they learn to do, that contribute towards their overall development.