Play & Learn Occupational Therapy

21/08/2025

F I R S T - W E - B U I L D - I T

Join us by endorsing our response to Thriving Kids

On 20 August 2025, Minister Butler announced the Thriving Kids initiative, shifting children with disability, developmental delay, neurodivergence, and developmental vulnerabilities out of the NDIS into a $2 billion “foundational supports” program.

While ambitious, Reimagine along with many other advocates, peak bodies, parents, carers, and practitioners are concerned the proposal risks harm: it was not co-designed with families or practitioners, it underfunds the scale of need, and it places children into systems that are already failing.

Reimagine Australia has released our collective response: “First, We Build It” — a call to pause, co-design, and rebuild early childhood supports in ways that are inclusive, safe, and grounded in human rights and disability justice.

You can read our DRAFT Position Statement; First, We Build It here:https://reimagine.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/DRAFT-First-We-Build-It.pdf

We are inviting families, practitioners, organisations, and allies to endorse this statement. Endorsements will be included in our submission to the Minister, amplifying our united call for restorative reform.

If you share our concerns and vision, please take a moment to complete this form. By endorsing the statement, you add your voice to a growing coalition calling for reform that is co-designed, inclusive, and grounded in justice. Whether you are a parent, professional, community leader, or ally — your support matters.

Add your details here, by COB Friday 22 August, 2025, to become a co-signatory: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc8Hh9W6eknDT6tR7SiJ9WXaYNUn3zmYuoHyhO1-RFisitPdg/viewform

We have a short window of opportunity to make an impact, so please share this information widely amongst any networks you have across early childhood.

23/07/2025

Play & Learn OT - community paediatric OT position in western Adelaide.
Imagine doing the work you love, with the time, support and flexibility to do it well ... come and join our team to bring that vision to life!
Check out our website www.playot.com.au or reach out to Rachel for more information

22/06/2025

22/06/2025

Please help!!

13/06/2025

Are you a parent of a child accessing community-based therapy support - be aware of the proposed NDIS changes - they WILL impact your supports.

13/06/2025

Let your voice be heard!

Stand Up for Disability Care: Stop the NDIS Cuts

10/06/2025

If you want to learn all about feeding therapy, this is one you don't want to miss!

Build your feeding therapy confidence in the Circles to Feeding™ - Pediatric Program

05/06/2025

"When my brain is messy" - a beautiful story describing regulation and sensory differences.

31/05/2025

We're looking for our next AWESOME team member - get in touch for more info!

14/03/2025

Raw and beautiful, thanks Hugh.
Let's spread compassion and understanding x

23/10/2024

"Bodies aren’t always calm. Calm isn’t always best. Calm isn’t the same thing as regulated."

I see children on my school OT caseload who are three, and four, and five, and six. They are behaving in all sorts of inconvenient ways for traditional schooling.

They touch things when they pass by them in the hallways. They stand up from chairs and move around the room, or they fall out of their chairs to the floor, or they pretend to drop a pencil and fall and chase after it. They play with anything on their desk and anything in their pencil box and anything they’re wearing and anything they can get their hands on. Their body knows that playing is how they *ought* to be learning.

When they are sad, they howl with sadness and throw themselves down. When they are happy they scream with delight or run around the room. When they are excited they are bursting out of their body with joy. When they are afraid they bolt from what it is that scares them, or tuck themselves under a desk, or weep. Their body is feeling and they are listening to those feelings.

The adults want them to be calm, calm, calm. To use their calm voices and be big kids and not disrupt class and follow the rules.

I see children on my school OT caseload who are eleven, and twelve, and thirteen. They don’t know how to talk about what they are feeling. They don’t know how to make their brain wander back from wherever it has wandered off to, to learn from a lecture. They know how to keep their hands still, and walk in a line, and be unobtrusive in class.

They know how to ignore what they’re feeling to earn an arbitrary reward or avoid an arbitrary punishment from an adult. They don’t know what they are feeling. They don’t know why they react so explosively when they are angry, or why their mind goes into a panic when they deviate from routine. They don’t have the words for it. They don’t have the tools to cope with it. But they know how to look convenient and quiet and calm. Most of the time.

Bodies aren’t always calm. Calm isn’t always best. Calm isn’t the same thing as regulated.

[Image description: Title text reads, “A regulated nervous system doesn’t look like this or this…” The first item is a straight line, labeled “Always calm”. The second item is a line with long-lasting peaks and valleys, labelled “lots of highs and lots of lows. Then it says “But this…” and shows a sine wave, with recurring, regular hills and valleys. It says, “Regulation simply means having the capacity to move in and out of stress while still being able to return to ‘baseline’ with ease.” The image was made by . End description.]

20/10/2024

Happy OT week!