Assessment
At CATS, we can provide comprehensive Occupational Therapy assessments. All our Occupational Therapists are highly experienced specialists, and they all have post-graduate qualifications in Sensory Integration.
We will send you screening questionnaires before your child's assessment. These will help your therapist create a tailored assessment specifically designed for your child's needs.
Assessments may look at a combination of:
- Functional skills (activities of daily living)
- Sensory Processing
- Motor skills
- Emotional regulation
After the assessment, you will receive a detailed report with recommended strategies and resources.
We are unable to provide assessments specifically for EHCP assessments and reviews, and our therapists cannot advise on school placements or therapy hours required. However, Our assessment reports can be used as supporting evidence for EHCP applications and shared with your child’s school and other professionals to ensure continuity of support strategies.
Sometimes, upon reviewing your child’s referral, we may not feel that your child is right for our service. In this instance, we will always do our best to signpost you to other services which may be able to help. If we feel it is possible that your child may meet the criteria for Development Coordination Disorder, we will advise you to see our Paediatrician first, as this is a prerequisite for possible diagnosis. Sometimes, we may recommend a referral to other services after your assessment. We will always discuss this with you, and you are under no obligation to undergo further assessment with CATS.
We offer assessment services to clients in Norfolk, Suffolk and North East Essex. If you would like to make a referral to our Occupational Therapy Service, please fill out the referral form. A member of the team will contact you within five working days.
Intervention sessions
Activities of Daily Living
The Occupational Therapy team at CATS are pleased to be offering intervention sessions for children and young people who have already had an assessment with us, based on the COOP (Cognitive Orientation Occupational Performance) approach. This approach helps children and young people to develop skills, use strategies, and solve problems. This could be from tying their shoelaces to using a knife and fork but most importantly, the goals are child led.
The benefits of using the COOP approach to acquire new skills include:
- It is an evidence-based intervention
- Helps to develop essential problem-solving skills
- Children and young people learn to develop transferable skills
- Helps children to become independent by taking control of their learning and setting their own goals
- Encourages children to take part in daily activities developing their own strategies for completion of a task
- Improves confidence and self-esteem
- Coaches and guides children to have their own ‘lightbulb’ moments
If you are interested, please contact us for more information at admin@catservices.uk
Sensory Session
Our Occupational Therapists are able to offer one-off sensory sessions for children who have had an Occupational Therapy assessment with us. Getting started independently can feel a little overwhelming. We therefore recommend this session to provide you with practical skills and ideas tailored to your child and their sensory profile to help get ideas and the confidence to get started. This will be tailored to your child and what you feel will be most helpful. This could include:
- A home or school visit to set up an appropriate sensory circuit
- An individualised sensory diet/plan
- A play-based session demonstrating sensory games to work towards goals, which families can continue at home
- A six-week review
Interoception Curriculum
We are able to offer Occupational Therapy Intervention using The Interoception Curriculum for up to twelve sessions. Interoception is the ability to read, interpret and respond to internal body signals. This can be what we call homeostatic body signals, such as hunger, thirst, temperature and the need to use the toilet, as well as internal emotional signals. Many of the children we work with struggle with this. The Interoception Curriculum is a fantastic programme which at first helps children become more aware of their internal states and ultimately builds on developing body awareness, emotional regulation and management strategies.
You can read more about the Interoception Curriculum here: Kelly Mahler's Interoception Training: Boost Body Awareness
Contact us for more information admin@catservices.uk
