The writer is a guest author for Heba, having spent their career as an occupational therapist practising in the UK.

When I qualified as occupational therapist (OT), I quickly realised I wanted to help children and young people. To be able to work with individuals at an early age can make such a difference across their life, and supporting their families as a whole has been incredibly rewarding as you come to know who they are, their goals and how we can achieve them together.

How do you become a paediatric occupational therapist?

The main goal of OT is to enable people to reach their individual potential. Working with children adds another skill level, and support is in place for OTs to do further study and training to extend their knowledge. In fact, most paediatric OTs will have extended, post-degree qualifications specialised in children’s care. I chose, for example, to specialise with qualifications in sensory integration.

Working with children as an occupational therapist

As OTs, we learn to use specialist approaches and techniques to help children and young people reach their goals and developmental milestones. Things that can work well are using toys and games to help therapy aims. Using modelling clay to make animals, for example, will help increase fine-finger strength and coordination, as well as helping concentration and imagination.

We aim to maximise fun-making activities relevant to the child so that there’s achievement in all activities – including those at school, during play and at home.

As paediatric OTs we study hard to learn as much about child development, neurobiology, and behaviour as we can. We are aware of the many physical and cognitive traits and diagnoses children may experience. We can then use this knowledge to assess a child's strengths and challenges, and aim to develop a personalised treatment plan so we can set to work to help them achieve their goals.

Some of the skills and approaches we may use include:

Task analysis: Breaking down activities into smaller steps to make them more manageable. For children, this might be breaking down how to brush your teeth before bed, for example.

Sensory integration: Helping children regulate their sensory input to improve their attention and behaviour. An example might be helping a child consider their emotions in terms of traffic light colours. We might work on strategies to stay “green”, to understand when things become “orange” and to avoid getting to “red”.

OTs are able to help consider how, very often, changing the environment can help a child achieve better outcomes. For example, changing lighting, sound reduction, using carpet not hard flooring, furniture changing, heights of desk, chairs etc can all make a therapeutic difference for a child.

Why we love this work

We are passionate about helping children reach their full potential and lead happy, fulfilling lives. Whether it’s a one-to-one weekly session in a child’s home with their mum helping a child learn to dress themselves, or running a social skills friends and relationships group in a school, or spending time with a child making a visual timetable, so they can follow their daily routine.

To give you one example, we often use something as an OT called ‘social stories’. One of my clients, George, a 14 year old boy with complex needs was experiencing anxiety regarding an upcoming hospital appointment. George was scheduled for a scan, so we wanted to get him prepared for this.

We started by exploring pictures and discussing the events that would take place during the appointment. Photos of the exact hospital, pictures of the scanner, we found out the names of those who would be doing the scan and the process. Over a period of time running up to the scan, we worked together to craft an A4 ring bound book with clear detailed words and pictures to make the hospital visit more familiar and less intimidating.

This worked amazingly well. George remained calm and happy and the scan was easily completed.

The variety of work I get to do is amazing. I have the privilege to support a diverse group of wonderful young people across a number of different places, in the home, at school or in the community. I always work closely with families and other people supporting the child – it’s all about teamwork, with the child at the centre.

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