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MoveAbout Therapy Services

Occupational Therapy Central Coast NSW

What is the vestibular system?

Author: Zoe Gianduzzo, Paediatric Occupational Therapist
5 min read

The vestibular system is not well known and yet has a massive impact on your body and daily life. Unlike other sensory systems in the human body, the vestibular system has branches into all parts of the brain. It’s a powerful system that helps integrate many functions of the brain together. So what is it, really.“

The vestibular impacts many functions within the body

The Vestibular System:

Have you ever been on a boat and gotten sea sick? Or had an ear infection that’s caused you to experience vertigo? That’s your vestibular system! It’s located in your inner ear, right next to the auditory system. It processes movement in your body and where your head is in relation to gravity. It’s how you know how fast or slow you’re going and whether you’re upside down or right side up.

Why is it important?

The vestibular system impacts the whole brain. It helps with self-regulation, body awareness, gross and fine motor skills, focus and attention, and much more. If however, your body is unable to process vestibular information accurately, it can have a huge impact on your daily life. 

What does my vestibular system do for me everyday?

  • It helps you to move and walk. The vestibular system has branches into the cerebellum and the brainstem, which help keep your body up against gravity. Without this ability, your body would slump into gravity, making everyday tasks very difficult. 
  • It helps you to learn. Studies have shown that people learn best when they are moving, the vestibular system becomes alert and can help you integrate your learning more effectively. Information is best stored in your memory when you embody it. This is part of the reason why we fidget when sitting at a desk for too long – the body is trying to stay awake and learn! Incorporating movement breaks throughout the day, especially if you are at school or you work at an office desk, is essential in keeping your brain active and alert. 
  • Supports self-care and household chores – such as dressing yourself, washing your hair, sweeping the floor, or washing the dishes. This is due to the basal ganglia and cerebellum which help with refinement and precision of movements, often necessary for daily tasks. Next time you sweep the floor or wash your hair, pay attention to how much your head goes out of upright. It’s more than you think! Anytime our head moves, we need to be able to bring it back into an upright position; this takes a lot of processing in our brains. 
  • It helps you to navigate new environments. You are given a map of where you are in space which supports you in finding new places and remembering directions. This map is not just your environment, but also your body in relation to the environment around it. The auditory, visual, and proprioception systems also play a role in moving about space. 
  • Supports emotional regulation. The vestibular system has branches going into the thalamus – the sensory hub of the brain. Here your body sorts through and manages all incoming and outgoing sensory information. This becomes the basis for emotions; every emotion is a sensory experience and every sensory experience is an emotion. Your vestibular system is a key player in this.
  • It can help you manage autonomic functions like blood pressure and heart rate variability. This is because your baroreceptors (sensors that manage blood pressure) activate anytime your head goes upside down, changing pressure in your blood vessels. Decreased blood pressure means decreased heart rate, meaning you are more likely to be regulated and feeling good in your body. So go ahead and hang upside down!

What does this mean for my child?

Your child needs to move, dance, crash, swing, run, bike, and more, in order to feel good in their body. Sometimes, it can be helpful to let your child get movement into their day first thing before doing any chores or homework. So if you have a swing or a trampoline in the backyard, use it! The vestibular system is so powerful in helping our bodies do the things they need to do. Check out our other articles on sensory diets and regulation for more information on how to make everyday life feel a little easier for your child. 

Check out these resources for a more detailed explanation of the vestibular system. You can also talk to your occupational therapist for more information. 

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Is my child ready for school? 10 tips for school readiness

Author: Zoe Gianduzzo, Paediatric Occupational Therapist
3 min read

There’s a moment when every parent asks themselves this question. Is my child ready for school? The lead up to ‘big school’ can be daunting for parents. It’s normal to feel uncertain. To help ease your concerns, we’ve put together 10 tips for school readiness. “

How do you know if your child is ready for school?

Is my child ready for school?

For many children school is an exciting (and daunting) new adventure. It is for parents too, but for many different reasons. For children starting school we think about their self-regulation, social skills, focus and attention, language and communication skills, self-care skills, pre-academic skills, and gross and fine motor skills. At the age of 4 or 5, we’re not expecting our children to be immediately amazing at school. Most children will experience some sort of challenge when it comes to this big transition. Here are 10 tips to help your child feel as ready as possible when starting school:

  1. Make sure your child is excited about school. If they mention feeling worried or anxious, try to figure out what the worry is about. Talk to them about what you’re noticing in their body, and how they can change it. You can also model helpful behaviours and emotions to your child during this big life change.
  2. Talk about what school might look like and how the day might happen. Help your child form a general plan in their brain. E.g. they understand what recess and lunchtime are and know there will be specific times for desk work and play. Providing predictability is a simple and easy way to reduce anxiety or behaviours.
  3. Familiarise your child with their school, classroom, and teacher (if possible). At minimum, you can drive past the school regularly so they become familiar with what it looks like and where it is. Even better if you can walk through the grounds, check out the classroom or meet their teacher before the big day. 
Being able to focus on desk work is an important part of school readiness.

4. Develop a consistent morning routine before school starts. Routines are a simple yet effective way to support regulation, focus, and attention throughout the day. Practice your school morning routine in the last week or two before school starts so that it becomes second nature to them. This makes it one less thing for your child to get used to on their first day. 
5. Go for outings. Visit the library, the zoo, the beach, or the park to practice getting ready for the day – pack a backpack with a lunch box, tie up shoes with laces, and bring a jumper. This way your child can practice getting organised for the school day. You will also be right next to them during these outings to help them be as independent as possible; opening packets of food in their lunchbox, re-doing their shoelaces, and taking off and on a jumper. 

6. Practice fine motor. Engage in fine motor activities in all sorts of places, not just the table! Buy some chalk and draw on the concrete driveway. “Paint” the fence with water. Play board games on the ground. Introducing a range of fine motor activities will strengthen your child’s overall skill, necessary for school. Teachers will love you for getting some scissor and glue stick practice in!

7. Play, play, and more play! Play is how children learn and develop their skills, especially social and gross motor. Have opportunities for you to play with your child, and for your child to play with others. We’ve got some great video resources to help you with this. 

8. Engage in ‘sit-down’ activities at the table. Practice sitting at the table and focusing. Start with a motivational, fun activity for 2-3 minutes, and slowly build the time up as you go. This could be drawing, reading, crafts, or whatever your child is interested in!

9. Let your child struggle and make mistakes. And make sure you’re right beside them when this happens. Use encouraging words to help them persist and get through it. This will help them develop their resilience and self-efficacy, necessary for the school environment. This is all about preparing the child for the road, not the road for the child. You won’t be there at school, so helping them be comfortable with challenges and mistakes will really support their learning journey.

10. Encourage reading and a curious mind. School is a place for children to learn about themselves, others, and the world around them. Fostering a sense of curiosity and wonder, especially with books, will help your child feel comfortable in play, learning, and asking questions. 

If you feel like your child is struggling to achieve any of these areas before school starts, talk to your paediatrician or an occupational therapist for further guidance. Contact MoveAbout today.

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Kids need core strength too

Author: Kimberley Taylor, Paediatric Occupational Therapist
3 min read

Kids need core strength too. It isn’t just something new mums try to regain after having a baby. Core strength supports everything we do – even handwriting.“

kids need core strength too; for posture, balance and movement.

What is core strength?

People usually simplify core strength as a reference to the muscles around your stomach. But it’s so much more than this. Core strength is a range of deep inner muscles, from the pelvic floor, stomach and back, right up to the neck, and even some muscles in the face! We rely on these muscles to maintain posture and stability in our spine, hips, and shoulders. This provides us with a stable base so that we can use other parts of our bodies such as our arms, legs, and head.

How does core strength support gross and fine motor skills?

You need to feel stable in your body in order to move it effectively. Our core muscles provide stability, so that our arms, legs, and head can move in a more flexible and dynamic way. This leads to the development of more refined gross and fine motor movements necessary for many activities in our daily life.

What happens if an individual has weak core strength?

Without core strength everyday life is much harder than it should be. If you are unable to keep your body upright and maintain posture, activities such as walking, sitting, balancing, jumping, skipping, or climbing become very difficult, sometimes impossible. You’ll fatigue quickly. Without the ability for refined movement of the arms, legs and head, it also affects other abilities such as handwriting, dressing yourself, or brushing your teeth.

If we think about these activities in the context of a child’s everyday life, this can make home and school challenging. If your child is unable to join in play with their friends because they don’t have core strength and endurance, this can impact their self-esteem and social skills.

Signs of reduced core strength:

  • Difficulty maintaining an upright posture. They may appear to slump when seated in a chair or when standing upright and moving around.
  • Leaning on furniture (e.g., tables, walls, chairs, etc.).
  • Difficulty remaining balanced (e.g. frequently falling or tripping over objects or themselves).
  • Difficulty remaining still and paying attention to a task.
  • Poor fine motor skills (e.g. handwriting, using cutlery, fastening buttons and zips).
  • Difficulty with self-care skills such as dressing, bathing, etc.

If you are concerned about your child’s core and postural stability, an occupational therapist can support you by providing services directly and via parent coaching. If you’d like to know more about core strength and how occupational therapy could help your child, the team at MoveAbout Therapy Services are available for a chat today.

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The Seven Drops for when Disaster Strikes!

Author: Jake Robinson, Paediatric Occupational Therapist
5 min read

Meltdowns – we’ve all been there, because all children have them at some point or another. Have you ever wondered why they always happen at the most inopportune moments, like when you’re trying to leave the house, running into the shops to grab milk, or even when things seem like fun. As parents we need to be able to identify when our child needs support to help their body find a regulated state. Caroline Kranowitz’s ‘seven drops’ for when disaster strikes offer some simple strategies to use to avoid or manage a meltdown.“

The seven drops to use when disaster strikes to avoid a meldown.

Next time your little one is struggling to keep their cool, remember these seven drops for when disaster strikes.

Drop your voice

When a child is explosive, demanding, and needs immediate ‘emotional first-aid’ we need to lower the volume of our voice. Words can be hard for children to understand and interpret, especially in a heightened emotional state. Dropping your voice is a powerful way to reduce the expectations and demands on your child in that moment. Dropping your voice can look like:

  • Whispers
  • Gestures only
  • Facial expressions

Drop your body – get down on the child’s level

Research about stress and early brain development shows that children relax when caregivers are physically on their level. When you are down on a child’s level they are better able to relate and read a person’s intentions, which reduces anxieties around the situation. By getting down on the child level and to the side of them you are reducing yourself as an imposing figure, making it easier for children to gain visual information (body language) and connection. 

Drop what you are doing

As parents you don’t get many moments to yourself, often you want to just relax and watch a show, read a book, or just focus your attention on a task. In these moments it can be easy to get caught up in these activities and dismiss your child seeking you out. By dropping what you are doing you are seizing the moment to relate to your child in a positive and meaningful way. This can be as simple as pausing a show to watch your child do a cartwheel, or closing your work computer to answer your child questions. These moments are precious and you may not have another opportunity to connect like that again.

Drop your guard

No one likes to see their child struggling or upset. But it’s okay to let your child take risks, although they must be safe risks. Taking safe risks is how children learn and develop new skills. You won’t always be able to protect your child from difficulties in life. Children are bound to make mistakes and face challenges throughout their lives, but they must learn and develop their own way to cope and recover.

Drop you defences

Your child is not having a meltdown for fun, it’s not something that feels good for them. It’s not fun for you either. People may stare, shake their heads, and judge you as a parent. It is important to remember that these people don’t understand your child and the challenges they’re facing. In these moments it is easy to become defensive towards others, but instead you should meet it. Address people if needed and explain your situation, “My child has a neurological condition, this makes it hard for them to process sensory information in busy settings without becoming overwhelmed. So can you please give us some time and space”. 

Actively putting down your phone can help you intentionally connect with your child.

Drop your Batteries

Put your phones away and have a moment to connect. These moments are few and far between and will be gone before you know it. Electronic devices can be a dampener on a child’s want to experience and gain new physical and mental activities. Active bodies and brains are a child’s source of energy and learning. Hands-on play will always beat battery powered toys. 

Drop your misconceptions that fun is frivolous

We are all born to be pleasure-seekers, everyone has a desire for fun and enjoyment. For children, good sensations are neither an ‘extra’ or a reward, they are a necessity for life and learning. Fun does not have to be a complex game with rules, it can be as simple as pulling faces, making noises, or dancing to music in the background.

To explore the seven drops for when disaster strikes further, check Caroline Kranowitz’s “The Out of Sync Child”. 

Working with an occupational therapist can help you identify the strategies that will best support your child’s regulation. Get in touch for a friendly chat about your family’s needs.

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What is Co-Regulation?

Author: Kimberley Taylor, Paediatric Occupational Therapist
5 min read

What is co-regulation? Parents and carers of young children are often engaging in co-regulation without even knowing it – but once you understand the technique, you can use it to support a healthy and supportive environment for your child.“

What is co-regulation? Get down and communicate with kids at their level.

To understand co-regulation, we first need to understand the concept of ‘self-regulation’. Simply put, self-regulation is your ability to adjust your level of alertness to match the task that you are doing. Our level of alertness varies throughout the day, and what might be appropriate at one moment may not be appropriate at another. For example, if you are highly alert in the evening, falling asleep might be difficult. Likewise, if you’re in a low alert state during an important meeting, you could struggle to focus. Self-regulation allows us to correct our level of alertness. 

So, what is co-regulation?

Co-regulation occurs when a parent or another trusted adult supports a child to feel regulated. This is done by modelling, guiding, and coaching the child through their emotions and responses to a situation. It’s teaching through doing. 

Kids can’t self-regulate until they can co-regulate. Typically, the ability to self-regulate doesn’t begin until the age of seven or eight, but co-regulation begins while you’re in the womb. Within neurodiverse populations, the capacity to self-regulate may occur much later in childhood or even not at all. Understanding co-regulation is vital if we are to support our kids in their everyday lives.

Clues to a child’s regulation level:

Posture and movement/activity level

Is the child slouched over? Or are their shoulders high against their ears? Are they moving fast? Or are they moving slow?

Emotional tone 

What feelings/emotions are they conveying in their voice, face, body?

Voice

Are they speaking in a high or low pitch? Does it sound strained?

What is co-regulation? Look for facial clues to understand your child's state of regulation.
Face and mouth

Are they gritting their teeth? Are their eyebrows raised? This can also include any sounds they may be making.

Breath and heart rate

Is their breathing short and shallow? Is their heart beating fast? Are they holding their breath?

How do we achieve co-regulation?

There are a number of strategies we can use help achieve co-regulation:

Be the stronger rhythm

  • Remember that in order to co-regulate, you also need to be regulated. What strategies do you use to calm down or stay focused? Make sure you’re doing something everyday to help keep your own body regulated.
  • Avoid using strategies that are going to dysregulate you. For example, certain types of music, sounds, lighting, etc.

Breath

  • Model taking slow deep breaths to your child whenever you feel frustrated or upset. The more they see you breathe, the more they will breathe. 

Be aware of your voice

  • Bigger is not always better. Raising your voice may only escalate your child even further. 
  • Another way to provide intensity without volume is to whisper, or make your voice song-like.

Position your body

  • Consider where you position yourself. Standing tall in front of your child can be intimidating for them, try crouching down to their level or moving side-by-side rather than in front of them. 
  • Sometimes the best thing you can do is wait and be present in the room. Being a calm presence, without using words, can be powerful for co-regulating your child.  

Use your emotional facial expression

  • Let your child know that you understand how they’re feeling. You can say, “I can see that you’re upset”, “I hear you, you are angry”. Make sure that your tone of voice, gestures, and body language matches your facial expression.

An occupational therapist can help assist and coach you through these strategies and tailor an approach to support your child’s regulation. If you’d like to know more about regulation and how occupational therapy could help your child, contact the team at MoveAbout Therapy Services today.

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Treatment intensives

How to supercharge your child’s progress with treatment intensives.

Simply put, treatment intensives involve therapy in high frequency over a short period of time. This approach can accelerate progress when applied under the right circumstances. So, how do you know if this approach is right for your child?

Author: Jake Robinson, Paediatric Occupational Therapist
5 min read

What are treatment intensives?

In the world of Occupational Therapy intensives refer to participating in a high volume of sessions over a short period of time. This form of therapy is targeted to address specific challenges and goals. Intensive formats of therapy can include multiple sessions within a day or multiple sessions over a one to two week period. 

Intensives can provide children and their families with new tools to address and support significant changes to a child’s daily functioning.

What can I expect from an intensive? 

Intensives can cover a wide range of challenges and goals for a child, as such, families are asked to narrow down a specific goal or challenge for the intensive to focus on. Research suggests that intensive therapy provides a greater opportunity for summative gains in sensory, motor and social emotional performance. Intensives provide a cumulative effect, where children and parents are able to practice and build on strengthening and skills obtained in previous sessions.

Who can benefit from treatment intensives?

Treatment intensives are beneficial for children with a variety of diagnoses. At MoveAbout, our therapists support many children with diagnoses such as Autism, ADHD, learning disabilities, Down Syndrome, Anxiety, as well as children that experience a range of challenges impacting their participation in daily life.  

Intensive programs are commonly run to support children within a range of areas including: 

  • Gross Motor skills
  • Fine Motor skills
  • Emotional regulation capacities
  • Sensory processing
  • Social skills
  • Communication skills
  • Attention and engagement capacities
  • Motor planning skills
  • Play abilities
  • Functional daily living skills, e.g. feeding, dressing

Therapy intensives are effective tools to stimulate an increased rate of positive progress, and are designed to complement your child’s ongoing therapy program.

If you think your child could benefit from this intensive approach, speak with your therapist about what’s involved. This will determine how suitable it is for your child and your family. 

For more information about treatment intensives or to make an enquiry about an assessment for your child, contact MoveAbout Therapy Services and you’ll be connected with an experienced and compassionate paediatric OT.

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