Nicola
Nicola is an enthusiastic and passionate Paediatric Occupational Therapist. She studied her Masters in Occupational Therapy in Australia and has worked with children with a range of difficulties in London since 2009. She specialises in assessing and treating children with sensory processing, motor and functional difficulties using a sensory integrative frame of reference combined with sensory-motor and functional approaches. Nicola is an Advanced Sensory Integration Practitioner (trained by SI Network UK) and has post-graduate training in Developmental Coordination Disorder, Irlen Syndrome screening and Makaton signing. She has experience using a range of treatment strategies with children with ASD, ADHD, dyspraxia, dyslexia, developmental delay and social communication difficulties.
Occupational Therapy input can include individual sessions at the practice, using specialised sensory integrative and sensory-motor equipment, as well as home and school visits to work on daily functional skills and consultation regarding sensory strategies, programmes and handwriting input. Nicola also runs weekly after-school group sessions and holiday intensive group programmes to work on the development of handwriting and fine motor skills.
Lucy
Lucy is an experienced occupational therapist and mother of two, who loves working with children and engaging with them in a nurturing therapeutic relationship. Having worked in paediatrics for over 7 years she is passionate about her profession of helping children to flourish through meaningful occupation. She found her calling for Occupational Therapy in her late 20’s after a successful career in media and graduated with first class honours Bachelor of Science in 2007. Since then she has developed her skills and now specialises in assessing, collaborating with and treating children with sensory processing, motor and functional difficulties. Lucy uses a client centred, goal directed performance approach, while drawing on her knowledge of functional, sensory-motor and sensory integration frames of reference. Lucy has had further training in sensory integration with the SI Network UK, completing both the Theory and Intervention and Advanced Clinical Reasoning modules. She has also very recently updated her knowledge with the College of Occupational Therapy course ‘Essential Skills for Contemporary Occupational Therapy Practice: Children and Young People’. In addition to this, Lucy has a keen interest in yoga and has completed a number of courses at The Special Yoga Centre, including ‘Special Yoga for Special Children’ and ‘Teaching Yoga and Mindfulness to Children’. Throughout her occupational therapy career, she has had experience treating and connecting with many children diagnosed with a variety of difficulties including ASD, ADHD, dyspraxia, dyslexia, sensory processing disorder and social communication difficulties.
Lucy’s assessment process involves an initial telephone interview to identify the main occupational concerns, followed by an activity analysis and formal assessment of relevant skills to determine the barriers to successful participation. She will then produce a report outlining the main priorities, details of functional difficulties and recommendations for intervention if required.