About our service

Our Children’s Occupational Therapy team work with children and young people from birth up to 18 years old (and to the term before their 19th birthday if in specialist full-time education) who have difficulties or a disability which affects their ability to carry out everyday tasks. 

Our Occupational Therapists (OTs) help and support children and young people to carry out the things they need or want to do in a wide range of areas like self-care, school work or play. If a child or young person has learning, sensory or physical difficulties, their ability to grow, learn, socialise and play can be affected. 

Our passionate and dedicated team is made up of qualified Occupational Therapists, Occupational Therapy Assistants and Therapy Assistant Practitioners working across County Durham and Darlington. All qualified OT's are registered with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) and have the required enhanced DBS checks.

You can find out more about our other services below. 

Drop in sessions are designed to offer education staff the opportunity to speak to an Occupational Therapist on an informal basis and get practical, easy to use advice. These sessions are specifically intended for children and young people who are not already known to the Occupational Therapy service.

Our Occupational Therapists will assess for and recommend certain items of equipment to help your child be more independent and successful in their daily lives. The aim is to promote your child’s health and wellbeing by enabling them to maintain a good position throughout their day. Further details on the assessment and provision of specialist equipment.

We offer Sensory Smart Classrooms (SSC), working with professionals to increase their awareness of:

  • The sensory systems
  • How sensory processing differences can affect a child or young person
  • How under and over sensory responses challenge a child or young person
  • Advice & strategies to incorporate into the school/nursery environment
  • Know what to do next and when to refer

The requirement for this training involves all attendees to watch a pre-requisite training video and virtual (Microsoft Teams) attendance to a strategies and advice session with an OT. We encourage all professionals interested in SSC to contact the OT admin office.

A child's ability to take part in everyday activities such as eating meals, self-care activities, managing dressing fastenings, classroom tasks such as drawing and writing or playing in sports are all achieved through a good foundation in the sensory systems.

SSF aims to work with parent and carers to help them to understand, recognise and know how to support and meet their child's everyday sensory needs. There are three sessions:

  • Session 1 - An introduction to the sensory systems and the reasons why children may be experiencing sensory difficulties.
  • Session 2 - An interactive session where case studies are used to help identify how sensory differences can impact on a child or young person.
  • Session 3 - Is a practical and interactive session that discusses activities and useful strategies for helping a child/young person develop their sensory skills. Strategies are considered and parents/carers can have the opportunity to think about how to put these strategies into place at home every day.

SSF forms part of the Children's Occupational Therapy intervention package and is only available when recommended by an Occupational Therapist.

How to access our services

We see children and young people within a variety of settings, including nurseries, schools, special schools and their home. Following a referral into our service, we will provide different levels of intervention dependent on need. This may be one of the following:

  • Universal intervention - verbal advice provided during a telephone conversation, with signposting to relevant information and services
  • Targeted intervention - initial strategies and advice will be given over the telephone or where appropriate either an Occupational Therapist or OT Assistant will be allocated to the child to make contact with the parent or the school to initiate intervention at home or school
  • Specialist intervention - the Occupational Therapist will identify the need for a more detailed assessment and will provide specialist therapeutic intervention where necessary

How to make a children’s Occupational Therapy referral 

We have an open referral system which means that anyone who knows or works with a child or young person registered with a GP or living within County Durham and Darlington can refer to our service. This includes parents, carers, teachers, other health professionals, consultants and GPs. We do ask that if a professional is referring, they obtain consent from the parent or carer before the referral is sent.

To refer to our service, please call the central helpdesk on: 0191 387 6359 or download and complete a referral form and email it to: cdda-tr.childrensoccupationaltherapy@nhs.net.

Alternatively, you can download and post this form to: Children’s Therapy, Chester Le Street Community Hospital, Front Street, Chester-Le-Street, County Durham, DH3 3AT. Clinical staff can also utilise the electronic computer system, SystemOne.

During your appointment

Please bring your completed parent questionnaire, which will be sent out with your appointment letter. This looks at your child's functional areas of difficulty which will be discussed with the Occupational Therapist. Your child may be asked to participate in activities at the table or on the floor to assess their need. Be mindful that your child may be required to do exercises on the floor.

Siblings are welcome to attend appointments. However, if it is possible to arrange childcare this would make the session easier for parents to talk to our therapist without distractions.

Get in touch

No matter where you live within County Durham and Darlington, you can contact our team through our central helpdesk: 0191 3876359 or email: cdda-tr.childrensoccupationaltherapy@nhs.net.

You can also these contact details if you wish to rearrange or cancel your appointment. 

This guide is intended for use by parents and carers, education staff and other practitioners supporting children or young people living in County Durham. It outlines the complete offer of Occupational Therapy services and support across the County, irrespective of provider. If you have any doubt about where your provision comes from, please check this with your local GP in the first instance.

Our team have developed a ‘top tips’ one-stop resource hub to help families and schools, made up of useful online websites and other tools.

Websites with useful ideas for Occupational Therapy

Your therapy source: Lots of activities and games to try for handwriting, fine motor skills, visual perception, sensory motor and self-regulation, and life skills. Downloadable content and links to extra information. 

Recycling OT: lots of different posts that have some helpful ideas such as hand exercises, games and ideas for fine motor skills, handwriting, organising etc.  

Mama OT Blog: A helpful site that gives tips and tricks for parents and carers on independence skills. 

Box of Ideas: a website that boasts 1000s of ideas, guidance and information for early years to employment, such as practical skills and ideas to try for home and school.  

The OT Tool Box, some good sensory Self-Regulation ideas:

Kids Independently Developing Skills (KIDS)

The Henry Approach: HENRY provides a wide range of support for families from pregnancy to age 12 including workshops, programmes, resources and online help

Occupational Therapy Advice Information Leaflets

Please click on the links below to view advice sheets in the following areas, if you have any trouble accessing the documents, please contact us and we'd be happy to help:

School Top Tips

Handwriting:
Sometimes writing can be difficult to read. Some children may struggle with pencil control, pressure and fluency; letter sizing and reversals, some ideas for these areas are included in this leaflet: Top Tips for Messy Handwriting

Handwriting can be slow for many different reasons, poor letter formation, difficulty copying from the board, or hands getting tired when writing. Some children may have 'bendy' finger joints. This means they can become tired or their hands may ache when writing large amounts of text. Some ideas to help with slower handwriting are included here:  Top Tips for Slow Handwriting

Some useful websites to help with developing handwriting skills include:

Scissor Skills:

Gross Motor Skills:

Organisation at home and school:

Self Care Skills

Feeding: Please have a look at our information leaflet that addresses cutlery ideas and managing picky eating: Feeding Leaflet

Cutlery: Please watch this short video on our recommendations for how to help develop cutlery skills, using your knife and fork together in play and moving onto food. It talks about the best cutlery to use for your child when developing this skill. Cutlery Top Tips video.

Getting Dressed: Please have a look at our information leaflet that addresses the skills you can practice to help develop dressing skills. Getting Dressed Leaflet

Socks: Please watch this short video on our recommendations for how to make dressing socks easier and progressing this skill for your child. Socks Top Tips Video

Buttons and Fastenings: Please have a look at our information leaflet that gives some ideas on how to manage buttons and other fastenings when dressing. Managing buttons and fastenings Leaflet

Shoelaces: Please watch this short video on our recommendations for developing shoe lace tying. Shoelace Top Tips Video

Hair, Teeth and Nail Care: Please have a look at our information leaflet that gives some ideas on how to help manage hair/teeth brushing and hair/nail cutting. Hair, Teeth and Nails Leaflet

Toileting: Please have a look at our information leaflet to help give you some ideas on managing issues related to toileting. Toileting Leaflet

Play

Sensory Top Tips

Sleep

Specialist links

Fun and Games: Fun activities for children with hemiplegia. You will need to fill in the form to get access to this great resource. 'Fun n Games'

We always welcome your feedback to help us develop our service. Please contact our Patient Experience Team to share a comment, compliment or complaint.