Occupational Therapy North Essex

All children and young people have a very important job to do. They have to grow, learn, socialise and play. Children do this every day by exploring the boundaries of their abilities. When they’re successful, they develop and thrive and the sense of achievement they get usually makes them happy.

Children and young people with learning, physical, sensory, developmental, and cognitive difficulties can have their ability to grow, learn, socialise and play delayed.

They might find it difficult to cope with basic functional activities like getting dressed or brushing their teeth. At school, they may struggle with activities such as writing, cutting or participating in PE.

Occupational therapists work with children and young people, parents/carers and teachers to find solutions that minimise the difficulties children face, because we recognise that you know your child best.

After an initial assessment we will help you identify goals with your child to work on, we will use play and various activities to work on a variety of skills. We will also provide parents/carers with strategies to work towards achieving these goals. Where appropriate we will assess for equipment that may be needed to maximise independence and postural development.

If you are concerned that your child is experiencing difficulties with two or more functional activities, you should speak to your GP, school SENCO or health professional about whether a referral to the occupational therapy service would be valuable.

Examples of functional difficulties are:

• Dressing/undressing, managing the planning and fastenings
• Using cutlery and feeding self
• Self-care: washing, brushing teeth, bathing
• Balance (jumping, hopping, skipping)
• Ball skills (throwing, catching, kicking)
• Drawing & writing
• Using scissors
• Posture – sitting (floor, chair), standing
• Following instructions
• Organisation – finding way around, retrieving correct books, layout of work in school books

There are tools and strategies that can be used at home to help children and young people who have difficulties which might require help from occupational therapists. You could view the help pages to the right and try the toolkits below with your child over the course of a few months.

This service accepts referrals for Children and Young People who are registered with a Northeast Essex GP.

To be eligible for a referral, the young person must demonstrate, age appropriate functional difficulties in two or more areas. Difficulties might be self-care tasks, school work, or accessing play and leisure activities, and are impacting significantly on their daily life.

Referral form for preschool children

Following triage and acceptance of referral,  parents/ carers will be offered an initial telephone/ video call to gather information and look at appropriate strategies. Possible outcomes could include:

• Face to face at nursery/preschool/ home
• programme/advice to support goals
• Paediatric Services Referral Form OT

Referral form for children with sensory difficulties only (i.e. function not impacted by any other physical difficulties).

If your referral is accepted you will be offered an initial telephone appointment to discuss your child’s sensory needs.

Support you may be offered:

• More specific sensory strategies to support your child’s ongoing sensory needs
• Liaison with your child’s nursery or school
• OT Referral Form Sensory Only April

We will contact you if we require more information about your child. As we’re not the only occupational therapy provider in Essex, and depending on the difficulties your child is experiencing, we may need to arrange that the request is forwarded to another provider.

If we accept your child’s referral we will aim to see them within 18 weeks, but there may be variations to this timeline. While you wait to be seen, you could trial the strategies in the toolkits, if appropriate, and recording progress will benefit your child as you can share these results with us during your assessme

• Developing Balance Skills
• Developing Cutlery Skills
• Developing Dressing Skills
• Developing Hand Skills
• Developing motor skills (rolling and sitting)
• Developing Pre-Writing Skills
• Early Years Sensory Processing 
• Encouraging New Foods 
• Fun Ways to Play
• Potty Training 
• Riding a Trike 
• Sleep
• Standing and Walking 
• Tummy Time 
• Using both hands 

• Balance
• Ball Skills 
• Bottoms and Toilets
• Calm Behaviour 
• Core Stability 
• Cutlery Cups and Plates 
• Fine Motor Skills 
• Handwriting
• Maximizing Attention
• Organising yourself and your belongings: Ages 5-11
• Organising yourself and your belongings: Ages 11-18
• Scissors Skills 
• Sensory Processing 
• Tying Shoe Laces
• Using both sides of the body together (Bilateral Integration)