Occupational Therapy
Helping your child understand who they are as a person
- What environments allow your child to thrive
- How your child processes information
- Your child’s visual-spatial perception
- How your child plans and sequences tasks
- About your child’s body awareness
- How all of these areas influence your child’s ability to interact and play with others
- How to support your child’s development
Understanding Regulation And Behaviours
Regulation
Regulation is foundational to overall development. Your child’s regulation can influence their behaviors, which may serve as a way for them to communicate with others.
Behaviours can communicate that your child feels dysregulated. By observing your child’s behaviour and talking to you (especially if the child does not communicate using words), we gain a better understanding of what they are trying to communicate and why they may feel dysregulated. As your understanding about regulation develops, you are more able to notice what your child is communicating.
The video below outlines:
- What regulation is
- How regulation develops
- Why regulation is important
- What regulation looks like
- What dysregulation looks like
- Strategies to support regulation
Safe and secure attachment is the basis for all regulation. For a child to feel regulated, the parents need to feel regulated and also support their child’s feeling of safety and security.
For more information about attachment, please visit the Circle of Security website.
Resources For Parents And Caregivers
Some useful links and resources to help parents and caregivers gain a better understanding of their child’s behaviours are listed below. We provide these links in good faith, and do not endorse or receive payment for sharing them. Please note that there are costs associated with these resources. Please speak to your NDIS Plan Manager, if relevant, about whether you may be able to claim reimbursement through your child’s NDIS Plan.
Books:
Online Courses and Information:
Sensory Processing
A Part Of Every Day Life
Sensory processing is part of our daily lives. Your child’s ability to process sensory information can impact their behaviours and how they communicate and engage with those around them.
Sensory processing is the way we sort, interpret and respond to sensations from within our body and from the world around us. The sensations, or sensory information, we experience come through the senses of touch, taste, sight, sound, smell, proprioception, vestibular and interoception. For a child to learn about their body and world, they must be able to process sensory information accurately.
The video below outlines:
- What sensory processing is
- Why sensory processing is important
- The 8 senses we experience in our everyday lives
- What sensory processing looks like in children
Sensory Symptoms Checklists
Resources for Parents and Caregivers
Some useful links and resources to help parents and caregivers gain a better understanding of their child’s behaviours are listed below. We provide these links in good faith, and do not endorse or receive payment for sharing them. Please note that there are costs associated with these resources. Please speak to your NDIS Plan Manager, if relevant, about whether you may be able to claim reimbursement through your child’s NDIS Plan.
Books:
Occupational Therapy Examples
Everyone’s body and processing styles and capacities are different. The key is to understand how we learn, understand and act in our world and support each other in this process.