Our Occupational Therapists in Brent provide a high quality service to children and young people who:
- have a Brent GP
- have a Brent Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP)
The team work with children and young people to help them develop the skills they need to be a part of everyday activities (known as occupations) as independently as possible. These activities might include:
- personal care skills, including dressing, toileting, feeding, and brushing teeth
- completing school activities, such as using scissors or using a pencil
- being able to participate in fun leisure activities.
We work in partnership with you and your child, as well as with other people who are important in your child's life, such as their teachers.
Our aim is to support you and your child to be confident in overcoming barriers your child may experience when participating in day to day activities. To do this, we may:
- suggest alternative ways of doing activities
- provide specialist equipment
- provide advice on how you can adapt your environment for your child
- provide advice on learning new approaches.
Our team look after children and young people who have a functional difficulty with self-care, accessing school activities or taking part in leisure activities. This must be as a result of delay or difficulty with:
- limb/fine motor skills
- visual perceptual skills
- sensory processing skills
- motor planning skills
We will also look after children or young people who have a functional difficulty because of:
- developmental coordination disorder
- difficulty with accessing the physical school environment (such as a child who is a wheelchair user).
Please note we do not provide equipment at home.
- Telephone: 020 8102 3456
- Email address: clcht.brentspa@nhs.net
- Location: Chalkhill Primary Care Centre, 113 Chalk Hill Road, Wembley HA9 9FX
We accept referrals from anyone who has the consent of the child or young person’s parent.
Routine referrals will come through to the Brent SPA. The SPA will be available from 08:00 to 17:00. Outside of the SPA opening times, please use the SPA number and your call will be routed directly to the clinical teams that operate out of these hours. to contact the SPA, telephone 020 8102 3456 or email clcht.brentspa@nhs.net.
Occupational Therapy resources
What is the PEO Model?
The PEO model is person-centred method commonly used in Occupational Therapy. It considers how person, environment and occupation interact and how we can use this to improve your health. The model involves 3 components:
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'Person' is all about you - your skills, your strengths, and your needs. For example, you may be good at balancing but not so good at using your hands to guide a bike in the right direction.
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'Environment' is everything around you - like the weather, the people you're with, and the things you interact with. For example, on a sunny day you might go to the park with family so they can help guide you on your bike.
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'Occupation' is what you're doing - like playing a game, drawing a picture, or riding your bike to school.
If you put it all together, the person, environment, and occupation can help you learn to improve your skills, like learning to ride your bike to school. When all the elements are working together to help the young person we call that occupational performance.
Click the links below to download the exercise guide.
Fine motor skills
- Fine motor skills - promote hand control and improve the ability to manipulate small objects (dexterity)
- Finger strengthening and isolation - develop accurate movements where precise manual dexterity is required
- Hand dominance - establish clear hand dominance for the development of handwriting
- In-hand manipulation - improve ability to move the thumb and fingers independently from each other
- Hand strengthening - strengthen hand for every day activities
Gross motor skills
- Core strength - improve postural stability
- Ball skills - help to improve eye-hand coordination, body awareness, and planning
- Balance - general - learn general balance skills
- Balance - younger child - develop balance to help co-ordination for everyday movement
- Balance - older child - gain the ability to maintain the body in a controlled position during activity and when moving
Sensory motor skills
- Bilateral activity - level 1 - promote the use of both hands together, for more complex actions, in a coordinated fashion
- Bilateral activity - level 2 - promote the use of both hands together, for more complex actions, in a coordinated fashion
- Bilateral integration - use both sides of the body at the same time in a controlled and organised manner
- Crossing midline - crossing the midline of the body during activities
Sensory perceptual skills
- Auditory defensiveness - to support self-regulation
- Decreasing oral seeking behaviour - to reduce the biting and chewing of nonfood items
- Early visual perception - ability to interpret what they see in order to use that information in a functional way
- Hand-eye coordination - the ability to control hand movements guided by vision
- Improve range of foods eaten - to introduce new foods and improve diet
- Motor planning skills - being able to think what to do, plan how to do it and then being able to do it
- Motor sequencing - building on motor planning skills
- Movement breaks - to promote focus and attention at school
- Self regulation - the ability to adjust and control energy level, emotions, behaviors, and attention
- Visual memory - the ability to re-visualise something that you saw previously
- Visual perception - ability to interpret what they see in order to use that information in a functional way
- Visual perception skills (school specific) - to support with visual perceptual difficulties within the school environment
- Visual sensitivity - to help self-regulate when overwhelmed with visual stimuli
Home
- Zone of regulation - recognise and learn to stay in different zones
- Services around Brent and surrounding areas - find more support
School
- Touch typing - learning to touch type on a computer
- Sensory circuits - help to reach the level of alertness or calmness needed to concentrate during lessons
- Organisational skills in the classroom - develop organisation skills
- Classroom strategies - classroom modifications - getting ready for learning in the classroom
- Classroom strategies - movement breaks - movement breaks to help concentration
Further support
If you need further local support, you can find information and advice for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) aged 0-25 on the Brent council website.
Schools training programme information leaflet - The Brent Children and Young Peoples Occupational Therapy Service are excited to offer a free virtual training package to all Brent Mainstream schools from September 2024. See upcoming dates in the leaflet.
Dressing
- Buttons and fastenings - learn to dress and develop fine motor skills required for fastening garments
- Putting on a coat - develop dressing skills
- Putting on lower limb garments - coordinate both lower limbs to complete the task in sequence
- Putting on socks - putting on socks with repetition and fun opportunities
- Putting on shoes - putting on shoes and socks with repetition
- Tying shoelaces - learn the bunny loop method
Eating
- Meal times - help with setting up for meal times
- Knife and fork use - play activities to learn cutlery skills
- Developing spoon use - spoon-feeding activities
Consistency, Repetition, and Routine
- Consistency, Repetition, and Routine - it takes a minimum of 6-20 exposures to new information/movement to encode in the brain for learning new skills
Backwards chaining technique
- Backwards chaining technique - to develop the skills required for dressing
- Backwards chaining technique (hand over hand) - to help the child learn to dress/undress
Handwriting
- Handwriting information - to help children develop their prewriting and handwriting skills
- Developing pencil grasp - to develop a functional pencil grasp
- Hand strength for pencil grasp - develop finger strength for improved pencil fluency
- Pencil control - to improve the use of a pencil/writing tools
- Prewiriting skills - to enhance the development of early writing skills
- Tracing shapes - activity sheet to practise tracing shapes
Play
- Developing play skills
- Developing pretend play
- Developing social play - turn taking and group play
- Developing toys (4 months - 2 years) - cognitive and motor skills
- Early play ideas - encourage the development of the child’s play skills
- Exploratory play - to promote use of the senses such as vision, hearing, taste and touch
- Imaganative play - access to miniature toy play (as age-appropriate)
- Structured play - play with toys which will help with fine motor and visual skills development
Self care
- Alternatives to toothbrushes - alternatives for toothbrushes for children reluctant to brush their teeth with a standard toothbrush
- Nail cutting - help children tolerate nail cutting
- Washing hands - coordinate both sides of the upper body while hand washing
Toilet training
- Toilet training information - to enable the child to follow the routine for toilet training
- Toilet training - to begin the early stages of toileting