Be Your Best Occupational Therapy

19/06/2025

NDIS is such a valued, life-changing scheme for so many Australians. For many who access the scheme, services provided by OT's amongst other Allied Health professionals provide them with the skills, support, equipment and home changes to enable them to live their best lives.

Access to OTs (and other Allied Health) is at risk as the government has elected to freeze the maximum hourly rate able to be paid to OT businesses for the seventh year running, despite the immense increase in cost of providing services over this time. They have also cut the rate able to be paid to OT businesses who travel to visit participants (a necessity in most circumstances!) by 50% - this means that the cost NDIS will pay for a therapist to travel to a participant barely covers the wage (hourly rate + super + leave accrual) that business needs to pay their senior therapist to travel to the participant. We can't have senior therapists leaving the profession - complex disability requires experienced persons doing the jobs!

I absolutely support that the NDIA needs to make changes and cuts to ensure a sustainable service, as a tax-payer funded scheme. But there are many (ha! Just ask me!) better ways for this to occur that will not adversely impact the very people NDIS was designed to support (the participants!) Please sign and show support!

https://otaus.good.do/stop-cuts-under-the-NDIS/OTA-petition-NDIS/?fbclid=IwY2xjawLAovdleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFIYmFVcnpSMllaRVEzeVRRAR64cuiiYSIMnGbq2v_tPws1pgWmx8ceyGQkQZuFPEPFjN_2-_gyRHQ5y8jlbQ_aem_Kv51QNbYDYMs8DH7wNykdQ

No OTs, No NDIS: Pay Us Fairly The National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) has made a devastating pricing decision—one that freezes therapy support rates for the seventh year in a row and slashes travel funding for occupational therapists by 50%. These changes are already driving providers out...

21/03/2024

Dressing skills - despite it being (sometimes excruciatingly) slow, facilitating our little people to help with dressing and un******ng works from a very young age on many of the building block skills needed for writing later on.

12/03/2024

Spot It is one of my favourite therapy games! It works on in-hand skills (holding, dealing cards), concentration and is great for all the visual skills needed as building blocks to handwriting.

08/03/2024

Animal walks! They’re my favourite warm up, and a fun way to work on wrist, shoulder and core strength! Crabs, bears and frogs tend to be the most common walks that kids suggest, but what other animals can you walk like?

02/03/2024

From a young age, chalk on blackboards / upright surfaces, as well as using both hands to rub the board clean, works on so many pre-writing skills, and builds great upper body strength. Little pieces of chalk encourage a developing pencil grasp, and the drag of the chalk gives great feedback to the body!

18/02/2024

Eeek, tech gremlins appear to have eaten all the scheduled posts I had planned for the past fortnight, and I neglected to check that they were posted! So let’s start again!

Let’s talk about Home Programs and why they’re important. Really, Home Programs are where the magic happens! If you can carve out 15 mins a day to spend time doing the activities your OT has recommended, this will continue to build the skills needed to achieve your goals. I recommend 15 mins, as this is what the science supports, but I always encourage the families I work with to talk openly with me about what’s realistic for them - I don’t want to be adding to stress by forcing additional work into an already busy life! I love trying to work alongside families to be creative in how we can complete our program within activities that are already occurring each day / week, to lessen the load.

Here’s an example of handwriting changes through daily practice of writing - this is my daughter’s writing after a targeted period of holiday input. She has moved to enjoying writing, particularly in cursive!

25/01/2024

Oops, we had a bit of a quiet period there where I intended to post some returning to school tips, but then got caught up in my own return to school chaos!

Now that the school year has started, homework might start being sent home, or if not homework, home programs for any kids receiving OT input for handwriting. I've talked before about changing up writing postures, but here's a reminder - work on the wall in a high kneel position, or single leg kneel position, or work on the floor in a four point kneel, is fantastic to provide shoulder and wrist stability and strengthening. Give it a go!

14/01/2024

Prior to handwriting, we want our pre-prep kids to be able to form these 'Pre-Writing' shapes. By ~5yo, children should have mastered these forms. Drawing stick people is a good way to check this if you're unsure.

12/01/2024

Another prep ready tip: Draw, colour, doodle, scribble! Just get those hands ready for lots of 'tool' use - crayons, chalk, pens, pencils, ice, cotton tips - whatever they want to use, let them at it! Ideally, we're working towards a 'dynamic' pencil grip now, where little fingers are what is controlling the tool, not wrists, elbows or shoulders, but for the younger kiddos, they may not quite be there yet. Using little, broken crayons / chalk / pencils can help them to build the strength in the right fingers for grasping a pencil for writing.

06/01/2024

Wow - the first week of January is over! Only 2 weeks until school starts for 2024. For first time Preppies, this is likely a huge few weeks preparing - let's review some ideas to make sure their little hands are ready for starting school too!

Practicing getting school shoes practices using both hands together, dexterity, coordination and building strength - regardless of whether it's velcro or laces. Practice pulling the tongue out and tugging hard on the laces or velcro. Good for hands, good for independence!

04/01/2024

More kitchen helping to strengthen little hands. My 3yo loves crushing her weetabix, pouring the milk (this is an amazing strength builder if you can cop the occasional spill!) and squeeeeezing honey for her breakfast. This all works on the little muscles in the hands, using the hands together, hand-eye coordination to avoid spills, and shoulder strength (lifting a big bottle of milk is hard work!) - all pre-cursors for handwriting in later years! And if there are spills, we've already established that clean-up is another great strengthening activity 😅

02/01/2024

Pe***ng clothes on and off the line is such great hand strengthening work - little ones (my youngest here is 3) often love helping, and this is great pre-handwriting work. It’s a sneaky way of including hand exercises for older children too though, while getting some chores done!