An Introduction to our new blog!
Hi everyone! I’m Jess, the Director and Senior Occupational Therapist at Explore and Soar. I am so excited to launch this brand new space and let you into our world of intervention and occupational therapy.
Here we will demonstrate how we interact with children and their families, how we engage in the community, how we build relationships between home and school environments, and how we ultimately aim to change lives. But this isn’t going to be strictly about OT… We are also going to be bringing you on a personal journey; the facts, the failures, the wins, the rollercoaster ride of what it is that we do as occupational therapists, our own families experiences, stories and introduce you to some intervention approaches, what will add to your ever growing toolkit of support for your family. Everything we do at E&S is to help you reach your ultimate goal- Happiness and better quality of life.
This space is also another way for me to stay connected with you all. Relationships, connections and building a solid support system around each of families is so important to me, especially in the high pressure lives we all lead. I wanted to make sure that even when I or my team members are not seeing you face to face, we are able to stay connected and offer additional support.
I also want to be able to give you advice, information and examples of other people’s journeys around points of interest and concern for you.
This blog makes it easier to access those shared moments. So feel free to comment, share your own stories or ask questions on the blog posts. I’ll do my best to get back to any and all questions shared here.
So to begin the blog today, I wanted to debunk what occupational therapy actually is. OT is a growing profession that when I was younger, my parents had no idea about. Largely, I believe that a lot of people still don’t really understand what we do as therapists.
OT for us growing up, was basically non-existent. If we had handwriting challenges with illegibility, you’d perhaps be referred on to go and see an OT but that was about the extent to which their resources were largely used.
Now 10 to 20 years later the occupation itself has grown substantially. You can find and OT anywhere and everywhere in the community and our awareness and scope when working with children has exponentially grown. We are doing more than just developing gross and fine motor skills. We are working hard with sensory processing, emotional regulation, social skills and executive functioning.
These terms can be overwhelming. It’s even more overwhelming when you’re perhaps told your child needs assistance in these areas and you’re unsure how to help them. You suddenly ask yourself, what do these terms really mean, and how do they relate to our child and who do we go to, to get this support?
In reality, as many people have quoted to me during my practice they ‘don’t really know what an OT is or what they do until you need one’.
When you are at University we are actually taught how to explain our role and our job. It’s something that isn’t as straight-forward as it seems. Why? Because in any given context, what we do varies greatly from family to family. We all have the same strategies as OT’s but apply them in unique ways to suit each family. There are no two therapists that are exactly the same! Which I especially like about OT. We are unique and have the capacity to bring so much to the table for each individual and their family.
To explain what we do at E&S and when working in paediatrics – we work in the three main areas of your life and achieving independence in those mentioned below;
Self-care
School/ Play and Development
Leisure and Social Activities
This means that anything that is meaningful to you in any of the above areas we can work with you to achieve. How amazing is that!! For example, if you’re child is having difficulty sleeping, if you want to be able to kick a ball, or if parents/caregivers need some support to help work on understanding their emotions and teaching them calming and regulation strategies, well we can work on each of these things! We are the jack-of-all-trades!
We are diverse, compassionate and passionate about what we do. Each day is different from the next, as is each session.
We aim to work with your whole family, providing direct support to each member in order to further expand your own knowledge and intervention skills. Furthermore, we also refer families to other allied health professionals when required to ensure optimal health and well-being.
And that’s us! We at the end of the day, are here to support and help you through every challenge. This blog is an open forum for discussion and connection. We would love to hear what you are interested in, what information you are looking for or your own experiences with occupational therapy, intervention approaches, wins and challenges.
Either comment at the bottom of the blog or connect to our feedback forms which are located on our website. We would love to hear from you! Until next time!