.png)
School preparation group
Preschool or Kindergarten entry
This group aims to be a ‘test run’ for children about to enter Pre-School or Kindergarten. The skills required to successfully enter school will be practised in a group environment and possible areas of concern can be addressed to ensure the transition to school is as smooth as possible.
Cooking club
8 years >
This group aims to provide an opportunity for school age children from aged 8 and above to practice their social skills while creating something together. Additionally, skills of independence, hand skills and conversational skills will be practised within the setting of this group.
BREAKFAST CLUB
Social Skills / Cooking Group
This group aims to provide an opportunity for children aged 4-6 to increase their independence with breakfast time.
During each session children will prepare breakfasts and in doing so develop their use of kitchen appliances/tools, hand skills, social and communication skills, and following instructions.
This group will run once or twice a year depending on expression of interest.
If you have any further questions or would like your child to participate, please speak to your therapist or send us an email.
COOKING CLUB
Social Skills Group / Cooking Group
This group aims to provide an opportunity for school aged children aged 8 and above to practice their social skills while creating something together. Additionally, skills of independence, hand skills and conversational skills will be practised within the setting of this group.
The aim of the group is to develop social skills, fine motor skills, increase exposure to new foods, food handling and use of appliances / kitchen tools (activities of daily living) and mealtime etiquette and conversational skills.
During the session, we will cook a main course and possibly a dessert. For each session, we split the ingredients list and ask each participant to go shopping as independently as possible to purchase the ingredients to enhance their skills in grocery shopping.
This group runs every second term and spaces are limited.
If you have any further questions or would like your child to participate, please speak to your therapist or send us an email.
This group aims to be a ‘test run’ for children that are about to enter Pre-School or Kindergarten. The skills required to successfully enter school will be practiced in a group environment and possible areas of concern can be addressed to ensure the transition to school is as smooth as possible.
The group includes fine motor and gross motor activities to give your children skills to aid their confidence and competence needed to be able to learn and thrive.
This group runs in term 4 of each year.
If you have any further questions or would like your child to participate, please speak to your therapist to determine suitability or send us an email.
MEALTIME GROUP
This group provides support for children that have a limited diet and have trouble exploring new foods.
The mealtime group aims to assist children with oral defensiveness to explore foods in a fun, non threatening environment with the aim to increase their confidence to trial new foods and achieve greater variety in their diet.
The group uses play as the core mode of intervention with the children encouraged to interact with the food in a fun way. Children are not forced to engage with any food they are not comfortable with but encouraged to push their boundaries and tolerance levels in a fun and social way. The benefit of a group environment for this type of intervention is significant, with children often observed to try foods in a different way than they normally would as they see the food safely being engaged with by their peers.
This group runs once or twice a year depending on expression of interest.
If you have any further questions or would like your child to participate, please speak to your therapist to determine suitability or send us an email.
EARLY PLAY
This playgroup is based around the pre-imaginary play skills necessary for every child to learn to engage in play with others.
We aim to create an environment where the kids can practice these skills with the support of their parents. In addition, we will educate you on how to foster the development of these skills during the group and in the home environment. We will focus on one skill each session and will ask you to continue to practice in the home.
The topics will be:
-
exploring and manipulating objects
-
observing and imitating others
-
joint attention
-
joint enjoyment
-
sharing
-
turn taking
-
waiting
-
following the lead of adult and/or child
If you have any further questions or would like your child to participate, please speak to your therapist to determine suitability or send us an email.
SOCIAL THINKING
This group aims to put what we have been practicing in individual sessions into a group situation. This will ensure the kids not only know the theory, but can learn to transfer these skills into a natural setting with other children.
We are planning on running five one-hour sessions during school holidays where we will consolidate the social thinking concepts taught to your child.
If you have any further questions or would like your child to participate, please speak to your therapist to determine suitability or send us an email.
HANDWRITING INTENSIVE
Handwriting skills are especially important for primary school aged children. This group involves a range of fine motor activities and handwriting practice which are designed to improve your child's pencil grip, writing legibility, spatial organisation of work and letter formation.
There are two groups - one on learning how to form letters, and another for those kids that already know
how to form letters but need some help with sizing, spacing and alignment when forming words and placement on lines.
For group 1 we use letter families as a way to simplify letter learning. One letter family will be introduced each day so it is important that you are able to attend each session.
For group 2 we introduce simple three letter words initially and then move to longer words and short sentences.
These groups are run by our therapy assistants under the guidance of our occupational therapists. They run every school holidays for a whole week, with daily one hour sessions.
If you have any further questions or would like your child to participate, please speak to your therapist to determine suitability or send us an email.
ALL ABILITY DANCE CLASS
Step Together Physiotherapy and Little Hands Occupational Therapy have combined to develop and deliver this school holiday program.
This group uses the medium of dance to enable children of all abilities to express themselves creatively through dance. Apart from rhythmic and movement skills, the therapists will support children in developing a wide range of skills, including dressing, mealtime and social skills.
This is a great way to practice school and life skills during the holidays in a fun and motivating environment!
The primary goal for the program includes:
-
Dance, creative expression
-
Co-ordination and rhythmic skills
-
Self-care skills, including dressing up, mealtime preparation and lunchbox management.
-
Social skills such as turn-taking following a group routine and participating in the group context.
This group runs during school holidays based on expressions of interest.
Please speak to your therapist if you would like your child to attend or send us an email.