Occupational Therapy
Occupational Therapists at the GCFC are predominately trained in Sensory Integration. Sensory Integration is the ability to organise and interpret the information we receive through the senses from our own bodies & the environment. This enables us to produce an appropriate response for particular situations, the task & environment.
Our intervention services aim to support children and their families when children encounter difficulties in a range of areas. Whilst working within a Sensory Processing frame of reference, we offer a range of treatment interventions including, but not limited to, the following:
Sensory Processing Disorder/SPD
There are many ways in which an SPD can present below are just some of the difficulties:
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Oversensitivity to noises, household appliance e.g. blenders, vacuums, lawnmowers etc
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Oversensitivity to grooming tasks, messy play, being touched
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High activity levels, fidgeting, being constantly on the go
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Poor emotional and behavioural responses
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Poor sleep patterns
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Fussiness with eating
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Difficulty paying attention, staying on task
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Dyspraxia
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The trouble with reaching academic & developmental milestones
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Under-reactivity to sensation e.g. not noticing when their name is called, missing instructions
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Difficulty matching self to the environment
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Trouble developing age appropriate play & social skills
Interactive Metronome
The Interactive Metronome (IM) is a research-based training program that helps children and adults overcome attention, memory, and coordination limitations. IM works for people of all ages who have a variety of conditions affecting their cognitive and physical abilities.
Interactive Metronome (IM) is believed to improve the resolution and efficiency of an individual’s internal brain clock(s) and temporal processing.
In turn, it is hypothesized that this results in more efficient brain connectivity, communication, and synchronization via increased integrity of the brains white matter tract communication system, producing more efficient communication between critical brain networks. In particular, research and theory suggest that IM training increases the efficacy of the parietal-frontal brain network, the brain network most associated with general intellectual functioning, working memory, controlled attention and executive functions.
Therapeutic Listening®
Developed by Vital Links, Therapeutic Listening is a research-based tool for treating people of all ages who have difficulty with processing sensory information, listening, attention, and communication.
Parents, teachers, and therapists have seen significant results by using Therapeutic Listening including:
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Increased Focus and Attention
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Better Moods
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Balanced Energy Levels
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Greater Tolerance to Noise
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Improved Sleep
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Better Handwriting
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Fewer Tantrums
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Less Anxiety
DIR®/Floortime™
The Greenspan Floortime Approach is a system developed by the late Dr. Stanley Greenspan. Floortime meets children where they are and builds upon their strengths and abilities through interacting and creating a warm relationship.
It challenges them to go further and to develop who they are rather than what their diagnosis says.
In Floortime, you use this time with your child to excite her interests, draw her to connect to you, and challenge her to be creative, curious, and spontaneous—all of which move her forward intellectually and emotionally. (As children get older, Floortime essentially morphs into an exciting, back-and-forth time of exploring the child’s ideas.)
For any age child, you do three things:
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Follow your child’s lead, i.e. enter the child’s world and join in their emotional flow;
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Challenge her to be creative and spontaneous; and
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Expand the action and interaction to include all or most of her senses and motor skills as well as different emotions.
As you do all this, while staying within her focus, you are helping her practise basic thinking skills: engagement, interaction, symbolic thinking and logical thinking. To master these skills requires using all these senses, emotions, and motor skills, as The Greenspan Floortime Approach™ explains.
Dr. Greenspan developed Floortime to help families support their child’s development. Floortime can be done at home or at a clinic, but it’s useful, especially at the beginning, to have some guidance from a comprehensive source.
Tomatis®
Tomatis® is a sound training therapy providing pre-programmed selected and processed music to stimulate the Auditory Processing System. This stimulation enables a precise integration of acoustic information and allows the brain to better receive, select and process this information.
The Tomatis® Method combines over 50 years of experience with the latest research in neuroscience and cognitive science. Tomatis® sound training therapy has helped millions of people worldwide.