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Occupational therapy (OT) helps individuals develop, recover, or maintain daily living and work skills. It focuses on enabling people to participate in meaningful activities

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What can I expect during an occupational therapy session?

Sessions may include assessments, individualised treatment plans, and hands-on activities designed to improve skills in daily living, play, or work.

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How do I know if my child needs occupational therapy?

Signs may include difficulty with fine motor skills, trouble focusing, challenges in social interactions, or delays in self-care tasks like dressing and toileting.

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What types of conditions do occupational therapists treat?

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What types of conditions do occupational therapists treat?

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OT addresses a wide range of conditions, including autism spectrum disorders, sensory processing disorders, cerebral palsy, ADHD, and physical injuries.

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How do I know if my child needs occupational therapy?

Signs may include difficulty with fine motor skills, trouble focusing, challenges in social interactions, or delays in self-care tasks like dressing and toileting.

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Who can benefit from occupational therapy?

Children with various needs, including those with developmental delays, disabilities, injuries, or chronic illnesses, can benefit from OT.

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How long will my child need occupational therapy?

The duration varies based on individual needs and goals. Some may require short-term interventions, while others may benefit from ongoing support.

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What is early intervention in occupational therapy?

Early intervention involves providing support and services to young children with developmental delays to enhance their growth and learning potential.

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How can I support my child’s OT goals at home?

Engage in activities that reinforce the skills being worked on in therapy, such as practicing handwriting, using scissors, or playing games that require focus and coordination.

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Please contact your OT or Physio to book

Group

Day and date   always 15:30-16:30

A. Fine Motor Skills for daily life

Handwriting tips and tricks, scissors, cutlery, packets & other daily FMS activities

Friday 1 August 2025

Tuesday 2 September 2025

Wednesday 1 October 2025

Thursday 6 November 2025

Friday 5 December 2025

B. Dressing- socks and shoes & shoelaces and dressing!

Intensive practice, resources and chat about strategies.

Friday 8 August 2025

Tuesday 9 September 2025

Wednesday 8 October 2025

Thursday 13 November 2025

Friday 12 December 2025

C. Organisation and planning – Routines

Strategies to make mornings easier – aimed at older children. Create your own morning routine and bag packing visual template

Friday 15 August 2025

Tuesday 16 September 2025

Wednesday 15 October 2025

Thursday 20 November 2025

Friday 19 December 2025

D. PADL -Self-Care skills

to include toileting, teeth brushing, washing

Learning and fun!

Friday 22 August 2025

Tuesday 23 September 2025

Wednesday 22 October 2025

Thursday 27 November 2025

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Here are our life skills groups dates for the summer.

Please book on using the contact details in this image. You must have received an invite letter from your OT to be able to book these groups.

Please call the CDC directly if you have any difficulty booking on to these groups 01752439400 or speak to your allocated OT.

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We cannot accommodate siblings in this group - sorry!

We do not permit phone use outside of emergencies in these groups - the aim is to share coaching strategies.

Please let us know if you feel your child would benefit but would not tolerate the group setting.

You will need an open OT referral to book on to a group.

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Activities of Daily Living (padlet.com)
Have a look at our ADL Padlet for info on washing, dressing, sleep, play and encouraging independence in your child

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Plymouth Information, Advice and Support for SEND

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Plymouth Information, Advice and Support for SEND

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Plymouth Information, Advice and Support for SEND (PIAS) provides information, advice and support relating to Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) for parents, carers, children and young people within the Plymouth Local Authority area.

https://www.plymouthias.org.uk

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Early childhood for families of SEND- Plymouth | Plymouth

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Early childhood for families of SEND- Plymouth, Plymouth. 136 likes · 62 talking about this. Support service for families undergoing diagnosis in the EARLY childhood years 0-5.

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Devon Information Advice & Support provides advice in accordance with the SEND Code of Practice. DIAS can support Parents, Carers and Young People aged 0-25 with SEND and give advice and support around education. Our enquiry is open 10am - 3pm but at other times you can leave a message or emall us your enquiry on devonias@devon.gov.uk. You can find information, leaflets, factsheets and resources on our wesbite www.devonias.org.uk

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Devon Information Advice & Support, Exeter, Devon. 2,699 likes · 29 talking about this. Providing information, advice and support about special educational needs to families

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When you see or talk with an Children's Occupational Therapist, we often talk about these skills

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Plymouth Occupational Therapy - Sensory Resources

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Have a look at our Sensory Padlet!

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Classes cater for children with a range of additional and behavioural needs.

Programmes are individually developed, with both parents and children’s input, depending on the specific needs of each child.

With low child to instructor ratios, children get lots of time with the instructors to develop their skills.

Their all incorporating programme not only helps to develop physical skills such as balance, strength, flexibility and coordination but also sensory, social, communication and cognitive skills.

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Our classes cater for children with a range of additional and behavioral needs.

Programmes are individually developed, with both parents and children's input, depending on the specific needs of each child.

With low child to instructor ratios, children get lots of time with the instructors to develop their skills.

Our all incorporating programme not only helps to develop physical skills such as balance, strength, flexibility and coordination but also sensory, social, communication and cognitive skills.

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Our classes cater for children with a range of additional and behavioral needs. Programmes are individually developed, with both parents and children's input, depending on the specific needs of each child. With low child to instructor ratios, children get lots of time with the instructors to develop their skills.

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Tiny Happy People is here to help you develop your child's language skills. Explore our simple activities and play ideas and find out about babies and toddlers' amazing early development.

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Tiny Happy People is here to help you develop your child's language skills. Explore our simple activities and play ideas and find out about babies and toddlers' amazing early development.

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Children’s language development and parenting advice - BBC Tiny Happy People

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A chatty child is a happy child, so Tiny Happy People is here to help you develop your child’s communication skills through simple interaction and play.

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Pathways is a website with a over 300 games, activities and videos to help support the development of children in the early stages of life.

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Your Baby is Growing So Fast!

Babies form 1 million new neural connections per second. Their development shouldn't be a guessing game.

Our goal: Track milestones and identify warning signs early

Intervene as soon as possible to take advantage of baby's growing brain.
Early intervention = better outcomes.
Learn More About Early Intervention & Early Detection

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Pathways.org | Tools to maximize child development

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Free online resources to make sure your child's development is on track. View our informational videos and brochures or visit our baby games calendar.

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OT resources for older children and Teens

Information on activities supporting teens with neurodevelopmental needs

Quick link : Older children and Teens

Short address: CDCgo_link_youngpeople

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This service is only available for families living under Devon County Council

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Baking and cooking with children can be lots of fun and it is a great life skill for them to learn.

Hand eye co-ordination -pouring ingredients in bowls and jugs

Hand strength - stirring, whisking, or using an icing bag

Bilateral skills - rolling and flattening dough

Can motivate reading - Read the recipe and you are rewarded with the final creation.

Following instructions, important school skill

Organisational skills - getting the correct ingredients and baking utensils ready

Maths - opportunity to include real life maths; measuring liquids and weighting out ingredients. Older children could multiply the recipe

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School Preparation Pack
Going to school can be a scary thing for children of all ages. This pack was deigned by the occupational therapy team to help ease anxiety and promote organisational skills when going back to school

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If your young person is finding opening packets difficult, opening the packet in advance and securing with a peg or placing the snack in a zip lock bag might be worth a try.

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Handwriting and Pen Skills

Handwriting is a complex processing of recording language by hand, using Paper and a pen or pencil.

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Self Care Skills

Involve the most important occupational children learn as the grow.

These skills are encompassed in the child’s Activities of Daily Living (ADLS).

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Making writing exciting - Model writing 

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Making writing exciting - Model writing 

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Some children don't connect well with writing in the school room.

With the advent of phones and computers they are less likely to see adults (aside from teachers) using and benefiting from writing in their day to day life.

You can work to build writing activities into your daily life - the child doesn't need to do the writing to benefit, just to see how it fits in and is useful in daily life.

Ideas

Write the shopping list with your child, take it with you and encourage child to tick off items as you find them (real world scavenger hunt!), even if the list is on your phone this still demonstrates executive skills such as planning and organisation.

Play a board game where the score needs to be written down

Ask your child a question such as 'what do you want to do tomorrow?' 'what game shall we play after school' 'which park shall we go to' or similar and write their answer down. When it comes to the time make sure they see you refer back to what you have written down.

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Sensory

Refers to the way a person’s nervous system receives sensory messages and turns them into response.

Senses include Sight, Sound, Touch, Taste, Body Position and Movement.

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Fine Motor Skills

Involve the use of precise and co-ordinated movements of the fingers and the hands.

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Cutlery Skills
A great way to practice cutlery skills outside of meal times is to practice using playdough. Grab a plate, playdough and a knife and fork. Roll the playdough and ask your child to cut it up into pieces.

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Posture
Writing on a writing slope promotes a more upright sitting posture for writing and provides additional support to the wrist if writing is uncomfortable or effortful. An alternative to using a writing slope is to try leaning on a sturdy lever arch folder.

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A fun way of developing a pincer grasp, which is needed for lots of activities such as fastening buttons and playing with small toys, is to draw with small chips of chalk.

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Tummy time is not just for babies!

Laying on the tummy has lots of benefits including strengthening the back to develop postural control, propping on the elbows to improve upper body strength and it provides comforting proprioceptive input to the core.

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🌧🌧🌧If you need a rainy-day activity, why not try recreating our indoor obstacle course idea 🌧🌧🌧

We’ve included an example to get you started but you can get creative and use what you have available in your house. You can use sofa cushions or duvet covers to jump on, rolled up socks for aiming, chairs for crawling under, upside down plastic bowls or pans for balancing on, the list is endless…..

Key tips:  Make sure the obstacle course isn't out of the child's range of ability.  This will help to improve their level of confidence and prevent discouragement and activity avoidance. Also make sure the items you use are safe to be used!

What you will need:
Bean bags
Cusions/pillows
Football

This activity includes walking across bean bags in a straight line. Walking on bean bags and any uneven surfaces is a great way to improve balance skills. Arrange cushions for your child to be able to jump to and from, varying the distance to suit your child's abilities. Over time as their skills improve the distance between these pillows and beanbags can be increased. The last obstacle is where you kick the ball to aim at a target. This will develop concentration and body coordination.  And everyone loves scoring a goal!

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Nuts & Bolts
Provide your child with different sizes of nuts and bolts.

Ask the child to pick up a nut and a matching bolt then screw them together.
Problems solving to twist and turn the nuts and bolts together builds grasping and manipulation skills. This will translate to increased independence opening containers and drink caps.

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Dobble is a great game for practicing skills such as visual motor skills, fine motor skills, motor planning, coordination of both hands, dexterity, focus, attention, and concentration.

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Occupation is important for children’s development, health and well-being. A key function of occupational therapy is enabling children and young people to participate in the daily activities (occupations) that they need or want to do”

Royal College of Occupational Therapists, 2019

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We are the Occupational Therapy Team based at the Child Development Centre in Plymouth.

We have created this page to show our children and families more of the fun and engaging activities we get up to and lots of really useful resources.  We hope you enjoy it!

We will be regularly updating the page with more new and exciting things as we move through the year so please do save our page to your favourites and return regularly.

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Visual Perception Skills

The visual skills needed to understand, evaluate, and interpret what is seen.

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Executive Functioning

Term used to describe the many tasks that one’s brain performs that are necessary to think, act, and solve problems.

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What to expect when you visit an Occupational Therapist  

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What to expect when you visit an Occupational Therapist  

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Coming to an appointment can be nerve wracking for both parents and children.

When you arrive at the child development centre you will be greeted by the friendly reception team who will book you in and direct you to the waiting room.

From there the occupational therapist will collect you from the waiting room and take you to either our clinic room or the gym.

The OT will talk with you about any concerns you may have about your child. From there the OT will ask your child to carry out some activities to assess their level of ability. From here the OT will be able to make a plan going forward which they will discuss with you.

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Hello, my name is Andrea, and I am a Therapy Technical Instructor.
I grew up in Cornwall. When I see children in clinic, I like to play games. My favourites are wiggle worms and Pop-up Pirate.

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Technology for children; supporting daily life at home and school

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Technology for children; supporting daily life at home and school

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Please see this OT padlet for an overview and suggestions about apps, software and hardware that will support children with extra needs to access the curriculum, manage homework, get organised .. and more!

Technology in Children's OT (padlet.com)

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Bilateral Co-ordination Skills

The ability to use both sides of the body at the same time.

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This Padlet was made by the Children's Therapy Team  - Plymouth NHS Trust. To contact the department please call 01752 439 400

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Child Development Centre
Beacon Park Rd
Plymouth PL2 2PQ

Parking:
There are some free parent and child parking spaces outside the Child Development Centre allocated for your use, including two disabled parking bays. However please be aware the spaces are very limited and if you are attending without your child please leave these free for parents with young children or those with mobility difficulites. At peak times you may need to make alternative parking arrangements. It might be helpful to know that the roads around the centre are free to park with no time limitations. Please factor in time to find a space when planning to attend your appointment with us.

Bus:
There are several bus stops within a 10-15 minute walk of the centre. The nearest bus stop is Scott Business Park on Beacon Park Road which is a few minutes walk to the Child Development Centre. You might find it helpful to use Traveline to plan your journey.

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Visual Motor Integration Skill

The co-ordination of hand movements based upon the perception of visual information.

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To book on to any group or you have a query about a group please call on 01752 439 404 or email us plh-tr.plymouthchildrensot@nhs.net

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Writing in the sand can be a great way for children to practice their handwriting, letter formation and pre-writing skills. Showing your child the letter you would like them to copy is a fun way of getting involved!

If you cant get to the beach then using rice, flour or sugar in a tray at home!

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Did you know you can say thank you to our staff.

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Did you know you can say thank you to our staff.

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Learn more or share your thanks at https://www.plymouthhospitals.nhs.uk/saying-thank-you

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Have our staff gone the extra mile?

Say "Thank You" and help us 'Learn from Excellence'
Would you like to thank a member of staff that has gone the extra mile? Want to recognise a colleague for their exceptional work?

By completing this online 'thank you' form, the staff member(s) nominated will receive a copy of what you have written in a card. This means that the staff will get private and timely feedback that genuinely describes what they did well, what went well as a result and what we can learn from it. You, as the nominator, can choose to include your name or not.

We know from feedback that getting a personal card makes staff who receive them feel appreciated and we have already taken steps to make changes to the way we do things based on the nominations that we have had.

If you have any questions or concerns please contact the LfE team via email ( plh-tr.learningfromexcellence@nhs.net).

Thank you for taking the time to "Say Thank You and Learn from Excellence".

Was this page helpful?

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Would you like to thank any of our staff members or teams for the care you or your family member received? We would love to hear from you.

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Friends and Families | Empowering Families with Disabled Children | Plymouth | South West

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Friends and Families | Empowering Families with Disabled Children | Plymouth | South West

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We support and empower families with children living with a disability. We do this by providing services and activities for the whole family so that everyone gets to live their best life.

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Have a look at our Primary School Padlet for information on skills and ideas to help support learning

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Our Paediatric Community Occupational Therapy Team is running drop-in life skills sessions to support your child’s development in everyday tasks. We support parents and children to practice skills such as toothbrushing, dressing, using cutlery, organising, and more, in a supportive and fun environment. (Scroll down for current dates)

Each session will focus on a core skill area, including:

Cutlery use and other fine motor skills - opening packets, scissors and handwriting

Buttons and zips, Socks and shoes, Dressing (t-shirt, shorts, coat) Shoelaces

Organising and problem-solving, secondary school skills.

Personal activities of daily living Toileting , Toothbrushing and hair care

Each session will provide information on managing sensory differences within the subject area.

Sessions are held weekly on a rolling basis, with each one-hour session led by an OT and technician for up to 8 children. We aim to coach you in practical strategies that you can use at home with your child.

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Is your child a picky eater?

Want some advice for supporting your child to eat better?

Have a look at our Good Eating Padlet