Cerebral Palsy Supports
Building capacity through therapy, coaching and teamwork allows children with cerebral palsy to reach their goals.
Occupational therapists will join with families, professionals and community links to provide these supports in creating a foundation for engagement in daily activities, relationships and learning.
What is the role of an Allay Occupational Therapist?
Programs will be tailored to the specific needs of the child and their family, drawing from a wealth of innovative, evidence based resources and training. With the aim of supporting a happy, healthy life filled with engagement in play, communication, social connection, transition to school, sleep, feeding or toileting.
Programs may include:
- Intensive blocks based on a neuro-developmental treatment (NDT) approach. These blocks could be daily for a week, or a couple of times in a month and focuses on a specific goal or skill, such as crawling or feeding.
- Helping you to choose equipment for your child, such as wheelchairs, beds, chairs for school.
- School or kinder visits to increase learning opportunities, such as assistive technology.
- Programs which aim to increase attention and concentration, skill development, or improve emotional regulation and positive behaviours.
- Support planning for NDIS.
Other supports such as doctors or therapists will be collaborated with to ensure a comprehensive, coordinated approach.
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Who might see an Allay Occupational Therapist for Cerebral Palsy Supports?
Cerebral palsy relates to a group of disorders affecting a person’s posture and ability to move, with 1 in 700 babies diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy each year (Cerebral Palsy Alliance and Bobath Children’s Therapy Centre, 2020). It is a life-long condition due to damage to the developing brain either during pregnancy or shortly after birth.
Children or adolescents may see an Occupational Therapist to focus on movement, muscle control, muscle coordination, muscle tone, sensation, posture and balance; or visual, learning, hearing, speech, or intellectual impairments. With treatment and strategies for play, social connection, transitions to school, sleep, feeding or toileting.
What is the background of a Neuro-Development Treatment approach?
The Neuro-developmental Treatment (NDT) approach is a way Occupational Therapists work with a child. A therapy plan is provided based on the goals that are meaningful to the child and family, such as dressing, eating, reading, writing or playing with friends. Therapy would include:
- Improving posture and movement through a variety of hands on techniques.
- Maximise the child’s ability within daily activities such as dressing, cutlery skills, and writing.
- Use play and exploration to develop and learn new skills.
- Increase a child’s desire for activity and initiation of movement.
- Optimise perceptual skills, such as judgement of space and distance.
- Coordinating movement of eyes and hands for activity.
- Optimise sensory processing.
What is the background of intensive blocks?
The best way to optimise learning of new motor skills is to increase opportunity for repetition and practice in a variety of ways. It’s just like when learning to ride a bike, you would not practice once every two weeks; because it would take a long time and you would need to refresh and start again every time you try. Through practicing goals intensely, Occupational Therapists optimise the theories of motor learning and brain based changes to create change in children.
Intensive blocks also give children and families the chance to have a break. We consider your needs as a family and understand that there is a lot to juggle. We encourage you to have a specific goal, work on it, achieve it, have a break, and then come back again to achieve the next goal in a second intensive block, and so on to achieve lasting change.
