Occupational therapy helps individuals achieve independence and improve their quality of life by addressing physical, cognitive, and emotional challenges.
Occupational therapy can help with a wide range of issues, such as difficulty with fine motor skills, coordination, and self-care tasks, as well as difficulties with social skills, emotional regulation, and attention.
Improve fine motor skills, Enhance coordination and balance, Increase independence with self-care tasks, Enhance social and emotional skills and Boost self-confidence.
Our Occupational Therapists use a wide range of personally tailored therapy techniques to best suit your needs. As well as being fully qualified and accredited, our therapists have extensive training.
Improving how your child moves their tongue, lips and cheeks - so they can eat, breathe, sleep and speak well.
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We help children improve how they move their tongue, lips and cheeks so they can eat, breathe, sleep and speak well. Our Speech Pathologists are highly skilled in orofacial myofunctional therapy, and they can help:
Our therapists ask questions and interact with the child to work out whether there is a problem, and if so, how we can help. We are interested in how the child eats, breathes, concentrates, sleeps, moves and speaks so we will speak to the parent/caregiver to gain this information, and play and talk with the child to see how they move their muscles to perform these tasks. We will often ask you to bring some snacks for the child to the session so we can see how they eat and drink.
We will talk our findings through on the spot, and make referrals to other health professionals such as GPs, ENTs, Dentists, Orthodontists and Audiologists if required.
We make a therapy plan based on each child’s individual needs and family circumstances which usually involves exercises and activities to complete each day. We like to check back with you regularly, either face to face or via video to make sure that the program is working, and to make updates so we continue to make progress and achieve our goals.
Orofacial Therapy (also known as ‘orofacial myology’) is a specialist treatment approach that some health professionals, such as Speech Pathologists, Occupational Therapists, and Dentists who have completed additional training can provide. The aim of OMT is to improve how we move the muscles of our mouth and face so we can eat, breathe, sleep and speak well. Due to habits, weakness or medical reasons, some people have developed incorrect muscle patterns, such as breathing through their mouth and pushing their tongue forward when they speak and eat. This can change how our face develops, our teeth grow, our biting, chewing and our speech. OMT re-trains and re-patterns our muscles to have optimal resting posture and to move in the correct way. This is done through exercises that need to be completed every day and updated as improvements are made.
We are happy to help you decide whether this would benefit your child. If you child breathes through their mouth, grinds their teeth, pushes their tongue forward when they speak or eat, dribbles or drools, finds it hard to chew food, uses a dummy or sucks their thumb, has a potential or diagnosed tongue tie, is a messy eater, has disrupted sleep, or has had a relapse after orthodontic treatment then it will likely be beneficial. We also make referrals to other health professions (eg. Dentists, Ear Nose and Throat Doctors, Orthodontists) if we feel that would be beneficial.
It really depends on what your child needs to improve, how committed you are to home practice and how much progress your child makes. We start with an assessment session where we ask you and your child lots of questions, observe how they move their muscles, look inside their mouth, watch them eat a snack and talk with them. Based on the results, we will discuss whether you would benefit from weekly or fortnightly therapy and discuss the therapy plan.
Therapy sessions are usually weekly or fortnightly. We usually review the previous exercises given and see how the child has progressed. We talk about any changes that have been made, and how home practice went. We then go through the next set of exercises and make sure the child can do these and knows what to do for their home practice.
For younger children (below 10) it is important that a parent/carer attend the sessions so they can assist the child with their home practice. Older children and adolescents can attend sessions independently, assuming they are able and likely to complete the home practice independently.
Yes! Ideally the assessment session is at our office in Leichhardt but we can do this online if this does not work for you. Ongoing sessions can be face to face or online.
No, not at all. Children are learning to move their lips, tongue and cheeks in a different way which may feel strange at first, but it is not painful in any way.
Yes of course! Make an enquiry via phone, email or through our website and request a short 15 minute consult in our Orofacial Myofunctional Therapy Clinic. Our Speech Pathologist will contact you to discuss whether this service would be beneficial for your child.
Occupational therapy can help with a wide range of issues, such as difficulty with fine motor skills, coordination, and self-care tasks, as well as difficulties with social skills, emotional regulation, and attention.
Improve fine motor skills
Occupational therapy can help your child improve their ability to use their hands and fingers for tasks such as writing, cutting, and buttoning.
Enhance coordination and balance
Occupational therapy can help your child improve their balance and coordination, which can be beneficial for activities such as sports and other physical activities.
Increase independence with self-care tasks
Occupational therapy can help your child develop the skills they need to be independent with tasks such as dressing, eating, and personal hygiene.
Enhance social and emotional skills
Occupational therapy can help your child develop the skills they need to interact with others, such as turn-taking, sharing, and problem-solving.
Boost self-confidence
Occupational therapy can help your child feel more confident in their abilities, which can have a positive impact on their overall self-esteem.
Our Occupational Therapists use a wide range of personally tailored therapy techniques to best suit your needs. As well as being fully qualified and accredited, our therapists have extensive training and experience in the following:
Want to know more about how our services can help meet your child’s needs?
