Learning to Shine Occupational Therapy For Kids

13/05/2026

Paint Wall Fun at Supported Playgroup last week 🖌🎨

Have you always got cardboard & recycling lying around? Glue the recycling to some cardboard and pop the paints out for a creative way to get your kids painting on a vertical surface

30/04/2026

Time to order more shaving cream!

Shaving cream is a versatile and inexpensive Occupational Therapy tool, used to improve fine motor skills, handwriting and sensory processing.

Grab yourself some shaving cream and try some of the below ideas at home;

🚿Spay on walls of shower for vertical play, encouraging letter writing and shape drawing with fingers, strengthening shoulders at the same time. + we love an easy clean up!

🖌If you want to add colour; spray on a baking tray & add a few drops of water based paint. Add paint brushes or cars to encourage movement, crossing midline and tracking.

👝 Spray it into a zip lock bag with glitter or paint for a mess free tactile experience.

*Always supervise children to ensure they do not get soap in their eyes or ingest.

28/04/2026

Food play in Occupational Therapy promotes desensitisation to new textures, reduces mealtime anxiety, and improves motor skills in children by allowing them to interact with food through sight, smell, and touch without the pressure to eat.

It builds positive, confident eating behaviours by engaging senses in a non-threatening enjoyable and creative environment

25/04/2026

Pony Assisted Therapy Day at Hollyhall Farm - A Beautiful Day of Connection and Growth

Learning to Shine hosted a very special Pony Therapy day with 18 of our clients and their families joining us for a morning and afternoon of sensory exploration, movement, and connection.

The purpose of this program was to offer sensory richness, emotional safety, and confidence-building experiences through structured, hands-on interactions with ponies in a calm rural setting. Activities were designed to support support sensory regulation, communication, motor development, and emotional wellbeing - and the children embraced every moment with enthusiasm.

It was wonderful to see new friendships forming, families connecting and children creating lasting memories with Teddy, Rosie and Alaska. Days like this remind us of the power of nature, animals, and community in supporting children's growth.

24/04/2026

Come and join our OT designed STEAM group program, commencing Friday 8th May 4pm

This term will see the children creating a Water Wall.

Engaging in sensory play and engineering challenges to allow children to experiment with gravity, flow and material properties, while experimenting in open ended hands on exploration.

Sessions are small groups to ensure personalised support and meaningful connections.

Call us on 4869 3221 to book your child's spot.

22/04/2026

Do you or someone you know need Aged Care or in-home Disability care?

John will be in the Southern Highlands on Wednesday 20th May.
John is available for Aged Care, Adult OT Sessions, Home Modifications and Equipment Prescriptions.

Call us on 4869 3221 to book with John.

We are thrilled to welcome Just Better Care Illawarra's newest Occupational Therapist, John.

John is an enthusiastic Occupational Therapist who brings fresh knowledge, dedication, and a strong commitment to achieving positive patient outcomes by providing expert OT services in the Illawarra.

John will be working Tuesday to Thursday and has immediate capacity, so to take advantage of this reach out to John on: Ph: 0492 906 640 or Email: john@learningtoshine.com.au

16/04/2026

We are thrilled to welcome Just Better Care Illawarra's newest Occupational Therapist, John.

John is an enthusiastic Occupational Therapist who brings fresh knowledge, dedication, and a strong commitment to achieving positive patient outcomes by providing expert OT services in the Illawarra.

John will be working Tuesday to Thursday and has immediate capacity, so to take advantage of this reach out to John on: Ph: 0492 906 640 or Email: john@learningtoshine.com.au

15/04/2026

Our books are now open!

We currently have capacity for new clients and offer;
* Comprehensive OT Assessments
* 1:1 therapy sessions
* Small group programs
* School readiness groups
* Supported Playgroups

If you're looking for OT support in Moss Vale area, please get in touch.

10/04/2026

The ability to cross the midline can directly impact your child's daily tasks such as dressing, writing and reading.

How do I know if my child is having challenges with midline crossing ?

There might be a few things you observe:

* If asked to draw a line across the paper, your child will turn the paper so that there is no need to cross the midline.
* Your child may begin to write with the dominant hand and upon reaching the centre of the body they will change the pencil to the other hand. Or your child will swap constantly between hands without the emergence of a dominant hand for tasks
* Your child may have difficulty visually scanning from the dominant to the non-dominant side which may be evident when reading or copying

Some of our favourite activities that you can try at home;

🌈Have your child draw a large rainbow, starting on one side of their body and moving across to the other side. Draw lots of lines with lots of colours for practice.

🔴 Play twister! Encourages limbs to cross over each other

🙆Yoga Poses for torso rotation. Check out kids yoga on Youtube

🧹Wiping surfaces; Have you child wipe down a table, window or floor with a cloth, encouraging large sweeping motions from one side of the body to the other

If you have concerns about your child's ability to complete these activities, give us a call on 4869 3221 to discuss further

08/04/2026

Follow us on Instagram to see more of what we are up to in the Learning to Shine Clinic 🔆