About The Children’s Occupational Therapy Service
The Occupational Therapy team help children and young people aged 0 – 19 participate and engage in their everyday tasks and activities to support development, health and wellbeing.
The team includes Occupational Therapists, Occupational Therapy Technical Instructors, and administrative support.
The service works with children and young people who are registered with a Gateshead GP. Referrals are accepted from all professionals e.g., GPs, Social Workers, Health and Education professionals.
What do children’s occupational therapists do?
Children’s Occupational Therapists work in partnership with children and young people, their families, carers and supporting professionals. The main focus of Occupational Therapy is to empower and support children and young people to live their lives as independently as possible within the context of their ability, family unit and community.
Difficulties with life skills may arise due to environmental barriers, developmental delay, disability, or illness. Children’s Occupational Therapists will explore a child’s strengths and assist them in working towards reducing barriers. The aim is to improve their quality of life and be able to take part, and achieve, in the activities children and young people want and need to do. Life skills include self-care, productivity and play. Occupational therapists call these ‘occupations’ and can include the following activities:
Self-Care – washing, brushing teeth, eating and drinking, going to the toilet, getting dressed, sleep.
Productivity – positions for learning in class, attention / concentration / sitting still, handwriting / mark making, using scissors and completing classroom tasks, P.E activities.
Play – Play is an essential multidimensional occupation that allows children to develop their individual interests and develop the skills to interact with the world around them, joining in with hobbies and activities with family or friends at home and in the wider community. Occupational Therapists can provide advice to learn and practise new play skills appropriate to a child’s developmental age and to explore different ways to play in different settings. This may include toys, play equipment, the natural environment, and other people.
Accessing the Service and What to Expect
Referrals should be completed on the service referral form. This should be sent by post or emailed to our generic email address. Consent from parents should be gained before making a referral.
Referrals into the service are triaged when received to check that they are appropriate for the service, and to check if there are any urgent concerns. If the referral is appropriate, the child will be placed onto a list to be ‘screened’ by the most appropriate member of the team. Initial screening of referrals is typically completed via telephone to parents and carers to discuss areas of strength and prioritised areas of difficulty.
If the referral is not accepted into the service, we may request more information in order to make a more comprehensive decision or redirect the referral to a more appropriate service.
Following initial screening, a more in-depth assessment of the child’s needs will be completed. This may include a telephone consultation where advice is provided, a home visit, a nursery or school visit, or a clinic appointment. This depends on the needs and the type of challenges identified from the referral and screening process. The Occupational Therapist will discuss strategies, programmes, and equipment specific to the child or young person and their supporting adults’ requirements. Intervention will be individualised, and this may include programmes such as Sensational Thinking.
Sensational Thinking
The Sensational Thinking Home Programme was created by the children’s Occupational Therapists in Newcastle and forms part of The Sensational Thinking Project.
The aim of the Sensational Home programme is to offer parents and carers an overview of sensory processing, it demonstrates how sensory differences can impact upon behaviour and offers those attending the opportunity for discussion regarding initial sensory based strategies.
Occupational Therapy Resources
The Service is currently developing a range of resources, which will be uploaded to the resources section of the website.
If you do not find what you are looking for, please re-visit in the future as resources are continually being updated.
Children's Occupational Therapy
Monday – Friday
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