Kilkennyoccupationaltherapy

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Kilkennyoccupationaltherapy

IAIM Infant Massage Instructor
Children's Occupational Therapist

Baby massage classes available PM/Call for more details

08/08/2025

Thank you to for me these lovely little NogginStik rattles for use in baby classes. We eventually got them to Ireland. I love these little rattles because:
✔️they work brilliantly in the pre crawlers classes
✔️we can get neck extension while in prone
✔️we can work on fine motor skills such as:visual tracking, flexion and extension of the fingers, work on grasp reflex, cause and effect and pronation supination of the wrist
✔️we can work on head turning
✔️the little teether ears are great for oral motor stimulation

… now just to try and get more of them to Ireland 🇮🇪

05/08/2025

A lovely little family reminded me of this at the weekend. Expose the child to the life you want to live with them ❤️ because what makes you as a family happy will inevitable be good for that little person in your life. Even if it doesn’t feel like it in all the moments, it will build, for them, a little more resilience within their nervous system, wen they do the hard thing with the support of their family all around them.

Sometimes, the child and family need support with exposing the child in just the right amount of doses so their nervous system does not become overwhelmed. This is where Occupational Therapy can support. We are trained to grade the activity to ensure the child has just what they need to try the things they avoid in every day life situations.

01/08/2025

I am reposting this with permission from because there is no better way to say it.

“When you meet your baby their brain is only 25% built. But in just 3 years it becomes 80% of its adult size. All of that miraculous growth is highly shaped by you.

Neuron’s that fire together wire together and does that don’t won’t.

Which means:

✔️the love they feel when you hold them

✔️the safety they feel when you respond to their cries

✔️the joy they feel through your eyes

Are creating their brain architecture.”

This is social emotional development, this assists with supporting their:

✔️Independence
✔️emotional attunement (being able to recognise on a conscious and subconscious level their own emotions and emotions of others) which reinforces regulation. Regulation leads to …
✔️attention
✔️a strong sense of self and who they are in space
✔️Resilience
✔️happiness
…all protecting their:
🧠mental health (now and in their future).

31/07/2025

Recent testimonials from a baby class. The tummy time! Method pre crawlers club is for babies of all ages from 2 weeks to pre crawling (whatever age this is). The classes are carefully adapted to meet the needs of each individual baby. Please see reviews from parents who recently attended to learn a little more from a parent’s perspective.

29/07/2025

A little reintroduction for anyone that doesn’t know what Kilkenny Occupational Therapy is all about.

28/07/2025

🧍‍♀️Therapeutic use of self; what is it?
It is how the Occupational Therapist uses her skills, experience and continued professional education to continuously assess the child and the environment to assist the child in producing more mature and integrated responses, which in turn have a positive influence on their activities of daily living.

📚Psychoeducation; what is it?
It is an OT and parents (and teachers when required) working in partnership to best support the child. It is an intervention strategy (and in my opinion, the most important) that keeps the parents at the centre of the intervention being completed with a child, providing information and support on every element of the activity and environment in which the child engages (within our scope of practice).

💡These are the most powerful pieces of equipment we can have in our toolbox.

18/07/2025

**suitable from 2 weeks to pre-crawling, please contact me for prep work if your baby is younger than two weeks*

Term 1: Fully booked (please DM to be placed on waiting list as sometimes places come available closer to the time)

Term 2: spaces left

A group of parents and their babies come together to learn a unique set of skills to encourage optimum movement, fun and development for their pre-crawling baby.
The focus of the class is to encourage development from an Occupational Therapy perspective using movement, play and education.

The 5 week class aims to equip parents with:
✔️ Evidence-based advice and strategies on the “8 phases” of assisting baby to move in and out of positions depending on their motor ability and sensory preferences.
✔️Each week will cover different topics related to child development from an Occupational Therapy perspective
✔️The importance of “movement medicine” and how to incorporate healthy movement and play into activities of daily living with your baby
✔️Tea/coffee, cake and chats while your little one sleeps after a busy morning of movement and play.

⏰Each class lasts around 90mins (some days I ask questions that take the whole day to answer. Some days I ask questions as part of research. And some tea and coffee sessions are used as focus groups! 😂🙈)

🫔For more information please have a look at the link in my bio and DM me or email me to secure your place.

💶Some of the cost of the classes can be redeemed by health insurance depending on your plan and Occupational Therapy cover.

18/07/2025

Baby Massage Classes Autumn 2025 dates:

📆Commencing 4th of September ( 1 space left) please DM to be placed on waiting list as people sometimes can’t make it closer to the time.
And
9th of October (plenty of spaces available so far)

📚Learn all the massage strokes. Each week there will also be a different topic discussed using an Occupational Therapy lens 🔎

☕️🧁Tea, buns, chats, laughs and cries are included and essential for our sanity!

⭕️The circle of trust

💸Classes are €130 which may be redeemable with health insurance depending on your baby massage/ occupational therapy cover.

07/07/2025

Occupational Therapy intervention is always the best, most beneficial and fulfilling when the whole family is included.

28/05/2025

I heard about the 4 Pillars of Health on . Helen Vaughan, a Psychotherapist on the show was speaking about it. As I was listening, I thought this is exactly what I try to incorporate into each mother and baby class. I realised I emphasise more on connection and movement in my role as an Occupational Therapist, however in the past few years, up skilling on feeding skills and sleep, and learning from experience, I am delighted to incorporate these skills into baby classes as a form of health promotion and intervention if needed.

CONNECTION I.E PLAY is up there at the top because we incorporate movement and feeding skills into PLAY AND CONNECTION to foster success, this in turn positively influences sleep. We can start this process from the moment the baby is born because believe it or not, newborns make the quickest brain connections❤️

Looking forward to starting back group work in a few weeks.

Helen
(Paeds OT)

25/05/2025

The 3 Pillars for successful OT intervention

💤Sleep: this one is at the top for a reason. Once we get sleep right then we have a regulated brain that is ready to learn and explore. If Sleep is an issue then we start with this as our goal. This is done through parental education alongside 1:1 OT intervention. Once we assess overall development and sensory integration differences and rule out medical issues then we can start a programme that bests supports sleep for the whole family.

💩Toileting: if the child is struggling with bowel issues then this can make intervention extremely difficult. A child in pain is not able to learn and explore. Once we assess overall development and sensory integration differences and work alongside the child’s GP/ Paediatrician then we can start a programme that supports toileting.

🍼Feeding: if the child is struggling with eating, again, this makes learning from the world around them in a regulated manner very difficult. Once we assess overall development and sensory integration differences that may impact feeding and rule out medical/structural issues then we can start a programme that supports feeding.

Once we get our 3 pillars in order and understand them then we can start making developmentally appropriate goals that support independent skills. If we start with the 3 Pillars in order then we can hit the ground running.

🔑what is the key to these pillars? Early intervention and health promotion (education). In baby classes we explore normal development, what it looks like, it’s different variants (the baby’s teach us that one) and how to support it
through movement and connection.

24/05/2025

**suitable from 2 weeks to pre-crawling, please contact me for prep work if your baby is younger than two weeks*

Term 1: Fully booked (please DM to be placed on waiting list as sometimes places come available closer to the time)

Term 2: 3 spaces left

A group of parents and their babies come together to learn a unique set of skills to encourage optimum movement, fun and development for their pre-crawling baby.
The focus of the class is to encourage development from an Occupational Therapy perspective using movement, play and education.

The 5 week class aims to equip parents with:
✔️ Evidence-based advice and strategies on the “8 phases” of assisting baby to move in and out of positions depending on their motor ability and sensory preferences.
✔️Each week will cover different topics related to child development from an Occupational Therapy perspective
✔️The importance of “movement medicine” and how to incorporate healthy movement and play into activities of daily living with your baby
✔️Tea/coffee, cake and chats while your little one sleeps after a busy morning of movement and play.

⏰Each class lasts around 90mins (some days I ask questions that take the whole day to answer. Some days I ask questions as part of research. And some tea and coffee sessions are used as focus groups! 😂🙈)

🫔For more information please have a look at the link in my bio and DM me or email me to secure your place.

💶Some of the cost of the classes can be redeemed by health insurance depending on your plan and Occupational Therapy cover.

Address

Hugginstown
Kilkenny

Telephone

+353838579883

Website

https://www.kilkennyoccupationaltherapy.ie/about.html

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Kilkenny Occupational Therapy

Our Story

Group work and 1:1 assessment and intervention are provided by Kilkenny Occupational Therapy. Kilkenny Occupational Therapy is passionate about early intervention and believes health promotion and education provided to parents in the early years is key to helping a child reach their full potential.

My name is Helen and I run the company Kilkenny Occupational Therapy. I have been an Occupational Therapist for the past 8 years and have specialised in paediatrics for the past 4 years. I am also a Certified Infant Massage Instructor. Baby massage classes are provided in the Kilkenny area. The importance of the tactile system is widely known in the OT community and we want to bring that to new parents through the medium of baby massage classes. In the classes all the massage strokes are thought along with the recommended theory from the course. Over tea and cake we then go into more detail about child development and how to encourage this through the use of baby massage, games and songs. Kilkenny Occupational Therapy is passionate about child development and believes early intervention is key to their development. Parents are encouraged to chat about their baby's development and look at what they are doing and why. We encourage parents not to compare their baby’s to others as children learn at their own pace. A little guide is provided to parents to encourage their child to reach their potential.

Once restrictions are lifted and there is more scope for face to face practice again, we also plan on running movement groups in local pre-schools. "Little Movers N' Shakers" will bring early sensory development and the importance of engaging the sensory systems to children and parents in the local community. Parents will also get a chance to encourage these skills at home with each child being sent home with different play ideas to help development after each session. For updates, classes and group work announcements follow my page @kilkennyoccupationaltherapy. Our website is currently under construction and will go live soon. Our website will provide details of all courses completed and continued professional development.