Children are usually referred to an Occupational Therapist when a teacher or healthcare professional is concerned that a child may not be progressing age appropriately. They might be finding it harder to perform certain tasks than their peers. Perhaps their behaviour is a concern, hinting at some underlying challenge with which they are struggling to cope.

It is always hard for a parent to hear that their child is struggling in some area of their life, even when they have had that niggling feeling that all is not well! The natural response is to minimise the problem or presume that their child will grow out of it or catch up on their own. While this may happen from time to time, it is our experience that waiting for this possibility is often detrimental to a child’s progress and self-esteem. Sometimes, just a little bit of help from an Occupational Therapist to identify their challenge and support their function can make all the difference in the world. Understanding why your child is so difficult or reluctant in specific situations can go a long way to helping you handle them better and seeing positive change.

Every child is unique! The challenges they face are unique to them, drawing deeply on their personal strengths and battling with their inherent weaknesses.  In order to help your child, an Occupational Therapist will need to do an in-depth assessment of your child’s developmental abilities. This helps in identifying areas of strength and areas needing growth, and may include sensory processing, gross and fine motor co-ordination, and praxis.

This assessment is a process that involves time with your child, your family, and educators who may be working with your child. Depending on the age of your child and their abilities, this may take between 2 to 3 sessions.

In order to answer your questions regarding an assessment for your unique child and the costs associated with it, please feel to contact me via email or call me.

As each child and family is unique, therapy is tailored to meet the strengths and constraints of each specific context. Typically, a child will attend an individual therapy session on a weekly basis. This session may be between 45 and 60 minutes in duration, depending on the arrangement made with the family. The parent is encouraged to be part of the session in order to maximise carryover of information and help them continue therapeutic inputs at home. In my experience, progress is significantly quicker when the caregiver is committed to drawing therapeutic activities into the child’s daily life.

This will depend on how significant the developmental delays or challenges are that your child is facing, as well as the intensity of the intervention. The occupational therapist will discuss progress with you on a regular basis, and in consultation with you, make a decision to extend therapy or initiate discharge.

Occupational therapy focusses on strengthening the foundations for learning. The wider the gaps in the foundation, the more unstable the “walls” or skills that must be built upon them, and the harder we must work to fill them in. Teaching “splinter skills” can only temporarily bring improvement in very limited areas. Although working on the foundations may seem to take longer, the end result is robust learning and progress across many skill areas.

Therapy fees are based on recommended tariffs from leading medical aids. As such, they are increased annually when these annually updated tariffs become available. This practice is private and clients must pay the practice directly and then seek reimbursement from their medical aid.

In this practice, invoices are sent to the person responsible for paying the account following each therapy session. This will enable them to submit it to their medical aid for reimbursement.  A monthly statement is sent at the end of the month, whereafter the full account must be paid within 7 days.  If you should choose to pay on a weekly basis however, this is welcomed.

Therapy can be terminated when a child has successfully met the goals agreed upon for intervention.  This is usually done in consultation with you, the parent, and your child’s teacher, in order to ensure success going forward.

Occasionally, circumstances dictate that therapy cannot continue. In these circumstances, either the Parent or the Therapist, must give two weeks written notice to the other party.  The notice period is necessary in order to prepare the child and round off unfinished work.

All decisions made must be in the best interests of the child concerned.  We would encourage you to discuss problems with the therapist and to work closely in implementing all therapies decided upon.