What is Occupational Therapy at Linden Lodge?
The Occupational Therapy service at Linden Lodge supports students in engaging in meaningful occupations throughout their daily life. They consider the student’s physical, sensory, cognitive, socioemotional and cultural needs within their specific environment. Occupational Therapists (OTs) analyse the tasks that students needs or wants to engage in and determine how to best support active participation and fulfilment.
The OTs aim to improve the overall quality of life for students and their families by fostering participation in daily activities and developing self-help and independence skills.
To enhance participation, OTs consider various factors such as postural control, fine motor skills, sensory processing, visual perceptual skills, motor planning and executive functioning. They also support access to learning by assessing and providing specialist seating to ensure postural needs are met within the classroom. This is achieved by working closely with physiotherapy to implement 24-hour postural management plans.
Meaningful activities for our students could include a variety of areas such as
- Self-care
- Toileting
- Eating
- Drinking
- Playing
- Handwriting, typing or recording work
- Using a switch or ipad to access AAC
- Making a cup of tea or sandwich
- Dressing themselves
- Sleeping
- Socialising or engaging in hobbies
We work closely with our students, families and education to set goals that are meaningful and important to the student in their daily life.
Linden Lodge OT Specialist Provisions:
The Occupational Therapy service at Linden Lodge offers a range of specialist services to our students which include:
Sensory Integration: Our sensory integration practitioners, trained in Dr. Jean Ayres’ Model, support the team in meeting students’ sensory needs within the school environment. They conduct in-depth sensory assessments, such as the Sensory Processing Measure, to evaluate each student’s unique sensory profile. These assessments guide interventions, ensuring students are supported in participating in learning activities.
SOS: Approach to Feeding: Developed by Dr Kay Toomey, an expert in feeding difficulties, this approach equips therapists with the skills to provide feeding support through individual or group sessions. OTs and speech and language therapists work closely to assess and implement feeding strategies for eligible students. The program includes a comprehensive assessment, weekly direct feeding therapy, caregiver education, and follow-up reviews. It benefits children with diagnosed feeding disorders or oral aversions, as well as those with limited dietary variety, maladaptive food behaviours, or difficulty managing advanced food textures (excluding dysphagia-related issues).
Therapeutic listening: Therapeutic listening uses electronically modified music to support the central nervous system's integration and organization. This method benefits students with issues like poor attention, communication and socializing difficulties, transitions, sleep or biological function problems, motor skill planning, and mood or arousal level challenges. Trained therapists design tailored programs to complement other sensory strategies. Students undergo a 2-week block of intense therapeutic listening, with progress closely monitored. Further steps are discussed with parents and the MDT. The program requires students to wear headphones to access the music.
DIR: Floor time: DIR® (Developmental, Individual-differences, and Relationship-based model), developed by Dr. Stanley Greenspan, emphasizes person-specific perspectives and the critical role of relationships in human development. It highlights how emotional connections fuel various areas of growth. In March 2023, our entire therapy team received a 2-day introductory training, with some therapists pursuing advanced modules. Through 1:1 sessions and staff training, we support students across the school using this approach.
Upper limb: The Occupational Therapy team assesses upper limbs for muscle tone, range of motion, grip strength, and fine motor skills. We provide generic upper limb splints to prevent complications like contractures and promote functional hand use. For further assessment and custom splinting, we refer to local orthotics departments.