Occupational Therapy
We specialise in enabling children and young people to participate as fully as possible in the activities of everyday life, become as independent as possible, and interact with others and the world around them..
The children who use our service find things like dressing, feeding, handwriting, socialising and play difficult. This could be due to a problem with their fine motor skills, co-ordination skills, perception skills and/or sensory processing (the ability to make sense of the world around them).
We aim to support your child to become as functionally independent as possible and able to interact with their peers and environment so they can play, learn and take part in daily activities.
We do this by:
- Providing you and anyone else involved in supporting your child (e.g. education staff) with training and advice
- Providing recommendations, approaches and activities to support your child in a range of different environments
- Providing advice and recommendations for specialist equipment (such as splints, sensory strategies, adapted cutlery, writing aids, specialist seating, and switches)
- Contributing to Educational Healthcare plans and transition planning
- Providing direct therapy with your child individually or in a group when needed.
We work closely in partnership with you, your family, education staff and a range of professionals to help your child achieve the goals that we have agreed with you.
Once your referral has been received, it will be assessed quickly (triaged) by clinicians to see how we can best help. Often, it’s possible to give you advice over the phone so we’ll also discuss what might happen next as your child develops, and how and when to contact us again if further advice is needed.
If a clinic assessment is required, a letter will be sent to you offering an appointment at a clinic closest to you. We continue to follow NHS guidance and will wear appropriate PPE for any face to face contacts. If you have a scheduled appointment with one of our teams and either you or a member of your family have symptoms of Covid-19, please call to reschedule your appointment on one of the contact numbers in the Contact Us section.
It might be more appropriate for the assessment to be carried out at your child’s school or nursery, in which case this will be organised with you and the school/nursery.
At the assessment, we’ll discuss your concerns, take a brief history, and assess your child. Much of this will be through observation, play and fun activities.
Sometimes there will be more than one clinician present, particularly if the assessment is for more than one type of therapy. We offer integrated assessments (joint sessions with a physiotherapist, occupational therapist or speech and language therapist) where possible, to reduce the need for too many appointments. For physiotherapy assessment, your child might need to be partially undressed so wearing shorts and a vest might be more suitable than jeans and sweaters.
After the assessment, we’ll discuss the best way to reduce the impact of any difficulties that have been found. We’ll provide a report and suggested activities and/or exercises to be carried out at home and/or school. Further appointments will be offered as required. This might be either be one to one therapy or in groups.
If no further therapy is required at the current time, your child will be discharged with clear advice about when to return to the service for further support if required.
We accept referrals from parents and carers, teachers, special educational needs coordinators (SENCOs), GP and other healthcare professionals.
Please check that all the strategies relating to their difficulties in the relevant sections in our Health and Development area have been tried, and if you still have concerns please make a referral as below.
East - Slough, Windsor, Ascot, Maidenhead or Bracknell
We accept referrals for all children and young people from 0-19 years using our online referral form.
West - Reading, Wokingham or Newbury
We will only accept referrals for children who are school aged and have an Educational Health Care Plan (EHCP).
For children in the west who do not have an EHCP please refer to Dingley Paediatric Occupational Therapy Service at the Royal Berkshire Hospital. Please see the Royal Berkshire Hospital website for details of their referral criteria and how to contact them.
If your child/young person is already known to our service and you have a query, concern, or need advice, or you need to cancel/re-arrange a scheduled appointment, please call your local administration team:
- Bracknell: 0118 9044803
- Newbury: 0300 3654000 (option 2)
- Reading: 0300 3654000 (option 1)
- Slough: 0118 9044802
- Windsor and Maidenhead: 0118 9044801
- Wokingham: 0300 3654000 (option 3)
