WHAT IS OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY FOR CHILDREN?
Occupational Therapy for children relates to the participation in activities they find meaningful. It is a client-centred health profession involving ongoing assessments to understand what activities a child can do or wants to do and any limitations they may face. Occupational Therapy helps parents/ carers achieve the goals they want to see their child achieve and also to offer advice and techniques about how they can do day to day things easily and safely.

Occupational Therapists are trained to help people of all ages from children to adolescents, better perform everyday activities (or occupations) that they need to, want to or are expected to perform. For children, this means playing, learning and being a part of a family and friendships.

Occupational Therapists often form part of a team including doctors, psychologists, speech pathologists, teachers, parents and in many cases, children themselves. Their objectives are to find out the best possible way to improve skills, find other ways of doing tasks and using other tools to make performing activities easier.

OTFC Group therapists always strive to empower young people to help themselves - this is the true core of Ayres Sensory Integration®. This specifically relates to children's ability to work toward their potential and in doing so, maintain a positive perspective of themselves at home, at kindy, school and in play situations with other children.

The OTFC Group adopts a Neurodevelopmental approach in working from the “bottom up”. This means that many skills that develop for children at various ages like riding a bike, writing their name, tying shoelaces, getting dressed or climbing monkey bars, develop in an organised sequence based on skills that have developed at an earlier stage.

For some children these stages or core foundation skills are underdeveloped, missing or inefficient having a “domino” effect on many other areas. Occupational Therapists at OTFC Group aim to help “re-wire” these connections so that these skills can develop naturally.

The most enjoyable aspect of this is the use of “play” as a vehicle for facilitating change. Children are highly motivated when they are playing and having fun and we often see skills improve when this combination is achieved. The skill of the therapist is to disguise therapy as play whilst working on the areas of difficulty identified in the Initial consultation/ observations, Assessment or Review Assessment.


OTFC Group
WHY CHOOSE US?
OTFC Group is the longest-standing private paediatric Occupational Therapy Clinic in South Australia. We have provided private clinical services to children all the way through to adulthood in Adelaide for over 30 years. The brainchild of Veronica Steer, it was entrusted to Dino Mennillo in 2005.

We are located across multiple locations in the CBD as well as close surrounding suburbs, and service our clients not only within metropolitan Adelaide but also in rural regions of South Australia, nationwide across Australia and exploring our options globally.

Our dynamic facilities and teaching practices are what set us apart where our skills and techniques are shared amongst therapists, students, parents, carers, teachers, government and non-government organisations. Our aim is to ensure, through our occupational therapy for children, that everyone working with young people feel empowered, as well as the clients themselves.

OTFC Group does not provide other allied health or medical services. Our autonomy and specialisation ensure we can continue to provide families and clients with the options tailored to their needs.

OTFC Letter H
Every person is different, and it's their personality, their needs and other factors that are taken into consideration when deciding and referring other allied health services that may also benefit them and their progress. We are closely connected to many health professionals that contribute to providing holistic, collaborative and highly skilled services to young people and their families. OTFC Group maintains Sensory Integration (Ayres Sensory Integration®) as our core treatment modality but incorporates a unique treatment paradigm integrating techniques and skills developed over 30 years of clinic-based work. We have achieved a high standard meeting the Fidelity Measures in Ayres Sensory Integration® recommended for Best Practice in Sensory Integration Therapy worldwide (American journal of Occupational Therapy March/April 2011, Volume 65, No. 2).