Noel & Trusler Occupational Therapy

26/10/2024

Before the end of Mental Health month October, I’d like to share this powerful interview with Trevor Noah. There are often links with ADHD and depression, anxiety and bipolar mood disorder. Every person has a unique presentation and I think Trevor highlights the importance of understanding oneself beautifully.

📺 Watch the full episode here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsztuzyXdhY&ab_channel=TheDiaryOfACEO❤️ Subscribe to our main channel - www.youtube.com/TheD...

05/08/2024

We’ve all had our ❤️ skip a beat when we see kids climbing the highest tree or hanging upside down from a terrifying height. Children have a built in drive to explore their environment and different ways to interact with it. Children develop their vestibular system through movement that is exploring gravity and their heads in different positions, including up-side-down!

Sensory integration involves all the sensory systems working together to produce adaptive behaviours which enhances engagement in various occupations such as self-care, play and education. Sensory Integration therapy is an Occupational Therapy specific intervention which incorporates using all the senses of vision, hearing, touch, smell, taste, vestibular and proprioceptive senses (the senses of balance, movement and body position in space).

The suspended equipment and swings used in the Occupational Therapists practice are specialised tools providing unique, challenging movement opportunities that targets specifically development of vestibular and proprioceptive processing.

10/06/2024

Body Awareness:

Have you come across a Draw-A-Person Assessment before?

In every occupational therapy assessment we will ask the child to draw a picture of themselves. We do this to gain an understanding of their body awareness. Using a standardised scoring method, we can determine an age-equivalent score. There is however much more interpretation that goes into deciphering their pictures.

Body schema is a knowledge of our body: all its parts and how they are positioned. Body awareness is the perception of our body in space and movement and how it relates to objects around it. This forms the basis of developing spatial awareness which is a key ingredient of learning to read and write.

Occupational Therapy intervention involves engagement of the body in various positions and movement patterns to increase body awareness. We never teach a child how to draw a picture of themselves but rather involve their bodies actively so that the knowledge of what to draw becomes innate. This increased awareness becomes reflected in their pictures of themselves over time.

27/05/2024

May is the birthday month in the office with Jean’s birthday today and mine on the 16th - what a good reason to celebrate with coffee!

13/05/2024

12/05/2024

This made me giggle! Happy Mother’s Day to all those who mother in so many beautiful varied ways.

Happy Mother’s Day

02/04/2024

Thank you Saisi for this beautiful video celebrating Autism.

21/03/2024

Today is Humans Rights day in South Africa but also World Down’s Syndrome day. As OT’s we encourage parents to bring children with Down’s Syndrome for therapy as soon as possible as early intervention and education can make a huge difference. OT’s focus on function and understanding of the progression of milestones enables us to zone in on the strengths a child has as well as the gaps we can facilitate progress in. Down Syndrome is for life and OT’s advocate for independence and engagement in meaningful occupations no matter your individual challenges. OT’s work with people with Down Syndrome at any age or stage in their lives.

Down syndrome is the most commonly occurring chromosomal condition. One in every 691 babies in the United States is born with Down syndrome. A common trait a...

12/03/2024

Occupational Therapists cannot stress this enough to parents.

11/03/2024

Watch this space as we delve into each area of our practice next.