Let me assist your child to reach their full potential.
What can I help you with?
Occupational Therapy Services
- Is your child struggling in school?
- Is your child late in reaching their milestones?
- I offer a full range of occupational services for Functional assessment and treatment of children
- Stimulation of expected developmental milestones
- School readiness assessments
- Evaluation and therapy for kids with learning difficulties
Formats for Pre-School Class Reports
- Easy to use formats for pre-school class reports.
- For children age 3 months – 6 years old. Each age band has their own class report.
- Developmental areas include movement, activities of daily living, communication, cognitive skills, personality traits, play, ball skills, and more…
Online child assessments
Child Development Tracker On-line screening tool
These on-line child screening tools were developed with the following in mind:
- To assist parents and teacher to track a child’s development
- To recognize a child’s strengths
Early childhood Development checklist / Mylpale vir Kinderontwikkeling
Determine if a child is functioning according to his/her age level or as a guideline for age-appropriate stimulation activities (for teachers, therapist, parents). This is not a standardized test. Includes age-appropriate milestones from birth up to age 6. It also includes age-appropriate stimulation activities.
Tips for parents and teachers
Why should we limit out children’s screen time?
Our kids are growing up in a technological age. They are confronted with tablets, smartphones, laptops, DSTV and so much more. Your phone is seen as part of your image and our kids want the latest and greatest. So why should we limit them? The biggest concern I have is that kids are not spending…
Infinity walk
(Developed by Dr. Deborah Sunbeck) What is Infinity Walk? It is a whole body/brain activity that profoundly impacts sensory, motor, perceptual, emotional, cognitive and social performance when done for 10 minutes daily. You walk in the form of a lazy 8/figure 8; this provides a model for a continuous flow of clockwise and counter clockwise…
What is vestibular dysfunction?
We need a properly working vestibular system for: Movement reactions Motion tolerance Motor control Postural alignment Balance Vision How does the inner ear work? Utricle and saccule – detect gravity and linear movement Semicircular canals – detect rotational head movemen Poor vestibular functioning could lead to: Poor muscle tone: impaired gross motor and fine motor coordination Gravitational insecurity: poor emotional…
ADHD vs Postural control
How does the child present in the classroom/at home ADHD Fidgety Poor concentration Impulsive Restless Poor listening skills Gets up a lot Talks a lot Shouts out answers Loses things Cannot wait for his turn Makes unnecessary mistakes Postural control Has trouble sitting still Want to move continuously Clumsy Slouches in chair Supports head Changes…
Hand dominance
Hand preference usually starts to develop by the age of 3 years. Hand dominance should be fully intact by the age of 5 years 6 months old. By now your child should use 1 hand, dominantly, for all of the tasks he performs. If you child is still switching hands to perform tasks there might…
What is visual perceptual abilities?
These skills are necessary to interpret / analyse / understand seen information. These skills are the building blocks for reading, writing and maths. Foreground-background The ability to focus on 1 letter / number / object while not being confused by the surrounding / background information. *Kids who struggle with this ‘steals’ words / letters from…
Eye muscle exercises
Don’t do these exercises for more than 2 minutes at a time as this will cause a headache. Hold an object close to your face (touching your nose) while focusing your eyes on it. Move the object slowly away, up to arms-length, while you keep eyes focused on it. Move the object back to your…
What is bilateral integration?
That is the ability of both sides of the body to work together to perform a task. Signs/symptoms of a child struggling with bilateral integration Appearing to be uncoordinated when doing tasks Difficulty in performing gross motor tasks Preferring not to cross the imaginary midline of the body Not choosing a dominant hand to write/draw/colour…
The basics about balance
Balance is a multi-sensory activity that enables us to know where our bodies are in the environment and to maintain a certain position. Normal balance depends on information from the inner ear (vestibular system), other senses (such as sight and touch) and muscle movement (motor skills and proprioception). Our sense of balance is specifically regulated…
ADHD and/or ADD
The following is taken from Kaplan and Saddock (the book that the doctors use for diagnosing children). Diagnostic criteria according to the DSMV Either (1) or (2): Inattention: six (or more) of the following symptoms of inattention have persisted for at least six months to a degree that is maladaptive and inconsistent with developmental level:…
Need an Example of the Formats for Pre-School Report?
Follow me on Instagram
Warning: The account for carla_occupational_therapist needs to be reconnected.
Due to Instagram platform changes on June 1, 2020, this Instagram account needs to be reconnected to allow the feed to continue updating. Reconnect on plugin Settings page