Who We Are
We are a team of highly committed qualified Occupational Therapists (OTs) and Occupational Therapy Clinical Support Workers (CSW), with a wide range of expertise in child development across the 0-18 year age group. Our proficient business support helps the team to run smoothly and efficiently.
We work across the County Devon and unitary authority of Torbay and are based in four locations:
> Exeter
> Dartington
> Torquay
> Barnstaple
What We Do
The core purpose of Occupational Therapy for Children is to empower and enable children, young people and their families to live their lives as independently as possible.
Occupational Therapists can support children and young people to participate in everyday activities (occupations) to help them lead a full and happy life, reach their goals and learn the skills needed in life to thrive as an active member of their community.
Children and young people are referred to our service when their physical, sensory, developmental, cognitive or social difficulties are impacting on their ability to participate in everyday tasks, which we classify as a ‘functional difficulty’.
A ‘functional difficulty’ may include but is not limited to:
> Participating in specific nursery or school activities e.g. scissor skills
> Being able to eat with a knife and fork independently
> Being able to dress independently
> Accessing suitable toileting/bathing facilities
> Being able to play with toys and games
How Can We Help
Parents/carers and teachers are the people who know the child best and who also support the child on a daily basis, so it is vital that you can quickly find and use the best strategies to help your child. To support this, we have developed some great toolkits to use with your child. We require that parents and professionals look at and implement the strategies within the ‘toolkit’ pages on our website to support their child’s development. It is hoped that this information will be sufficient to give your child the boost they need and should be tried for at least 12 weeks before considering a referral to occupational therapy.
When a child or young person is referred to us, we work together with the young person, their family and the wider team around the child to identify their strengths and explore how they can overcome their challenges to achieve their potential. If we accept your child’s referral, we aim to complete the initial consultation within 18 weeks, but there may be variations to this timeline associated with urgency, prioritisation of risk, staffing levels and other factors.
The initial consultation will normally involve a discussion regarding your child or young person’s needs. Following this consultation, the therapist will agree with you the best course of action which may be support through advice, training, equipment, adaptations or direct intervention. We see children and young people in the most appropriate setting for their individual needs; this may be virtually, their own homes, an education setting or within a clinic.