Occupational Therapy at Tuart Hill Primary School 2018 Curtin Occupational Therapy Students (Third Year) Fionnuala Cronin Leanne Corry-Thomas Maddi Miller Jake Thompson

Introduction to Occupational Therapy Occupational Therapists are focused on the activities that give daily life meaning. Occupational therapy helps patients recover or develop skills needed for the activities of daily living, including self-care, leisure, independent living and work. Therapists work in hospitals, in schools, in nursing homes and with patients in their own homes. People who benefit from occupational therapy include people who have had strokes, people with autism and other developmental disorders, people recovering from certain surgeries (including hip replacements), people who suffer from depression or anxiety, as well as veterans, the elderly and children. We first look at a person — their physical, psychological and social abilities —and how they interact with occupation, which are the things a person wants to do throughout the day. In addition, occupational therapists examine a person's environment to ensure that he or she can carry out these daily activities safely and comfortably, she added.

Occupational therapy in a school environment We focus on the child’s occupational role of being a student. As a student, the child has many tasks to complete each day. Some of these include: Tabletop tasks (handwriting, cutting, drawing) Following instructions Socialising Playing outside and inside the classroom Our role is to ensure they are engaging and participating in these tasks and performing optimally. We support, advocate, teach and encourage the children who have difficulties completing the tasks required to fulfil their student role. We also place focus on sensory integration therapy, with the goal of helping children with autism and other disorders take in and process information from their different senses.

areas we are focusing on: Deep pressure Gross Motor Activities Fine Motor Activities Handwriting Classes

Deep Pressure Deep pressure is a technique used to optimise attention and arousal levels. Deep pressure strategies provides extra sensory input to the muscles and connective tissues of the body, which helps children concentrate and focus during table top activities such as writing, drawing and cutting, as well as mat time. It is the ‘gold standard’ strategy to implement for all sensory needs i.e. it works well for children who appear hyperactive as well children who appear underactive. Ways to implement deep pressure during sessions: Wall push ups before session Squishing playdough in hands and on desk Lap weights

DEEP pressure examples Our ‘concentrate cat.’ The ‘concentrate cat’ is a weighted cushion-like toy that is placed over a child’s lap. This may be an idea to use at home during meal times, movie nights or any other time when your child may need some time out to calm down or regulate themselves. Wall push ups are a quick and easy deep pressure strategy. A fun way to introduce it to the children is to say “lets see if we can push the wall down”

Gross Motor Activities We are working on increasing the upper body strength of the children. Strength is needed in the upper body, particularly the shoulder, for fine motor control to complete school tasks such as handwriting, cutting and drawing. We conduct physical activities before school tasks for all students who arrive early to school. These activities include skipping, gymnastics, four square, netball, jumping in hoops and throwing games. We have been working with our Pre-Primary students outside in the playground to improve how they move following the guidelines of the Fundamental Movement Skills. We have also incorporate animal walks (bear walks, bunny hops, crab walks) to further develop their upper body strength.

GROSS MOTOR ACTIVITIES EXAMPLES Animal walks e.g. bear walks, crab walks, bunny hops, duck walks etc. These can be done both outside and inside.

Fine Motor Activities During our small group sessions, we have placed emphasis on increasing strength in the children’s fingers and hands. We do this so that their fine motor control is more efficient for tasks like handwriting, cutting and drawing. Examples of fun activities that increase finger strength: Using playdough to create animals, monsters and different shapes. Using chopsticks to pick up small items like pom pom’s to place in a cup. Using small crayons sideways to colour in. Encouraging the child to use a pincer grasp when picking up small items as well as promoting isolation of the index finger to press things down (usually when gluing and sticking items on a craft page). ‘Feeding the Easter Bunny’ with chopsticks and pom poms (Easter eggs)

FINE MOTOR ACTIVITIES Examples Echidna made out of playdough and toothpicks for Australia week. Easter craft sheet for Easter week. Lots of cutting, colouring and gluing involved.

Handwriting Classes We have been conducting a Year 1 handwriting class once a week. We focus on encouraging the correct pencil grip, letter formations, following handwriting conventions and increasing finger and hand strength for better fine motor control.

Examples of activities – monster theme We fed the hungry monster pom-poms which helped strengthen our hands and warm them up in preparation for doing our monster craft sheet.   We scrunched up alfoil to cover the moon’s surface to help strengthen our hands. We drew crosses for stars and a zig-zag for a mouth to help our pre-writing skills. We also practised our cutting and drawing skills! We made scary playdough monsters, rolling it, sticking arms and antennae's and eyes into it, to help strengthen our hands and warm them up. We played monster bingo to help practice taking turns and visual memory and attention