Starting secondary school and leaving school to progress to education, training or employment at 16 or 18 are important transition points for children and young people with SEND and their families. Achieving for Children provides help and support with the process of Preparing for Adulthood as part of their local offer.

If your child has an EHCP their link therapist will work with school staff to support them through these points of transition.  Our transition pathways, which describe our role in the process are here:

Our therapists work closely with the mainstream schools in the Richmond Borough to provide advice and strategies to the adults supporting children with additional needs. We tailor our recommendations so that they can be delivered using the ordinarily available provision within the school. Please see the Ordinarily Available Provision document to learn more about this.

The Occupational Therapy Team have created the Mainstream Resource Pack and the Sensory Processing Resource Pack for the benefit of teachers, parents and carers who are supporting children with additional needs. They provide general advice and strategies that can be used to support the development of motor skills, self-care skills, and sensory processing abilities.

The Mainstream Resource Pack has been shared with all the mainstream school settings across the Richmond borough - this has been separated into three parts to make it more easily accessible:

  1. Screening tools
  2. Activity leaflets
  3. Equipment and strategies

The sensory processing resource pack aims to help parents, carers and educators identify sensory differences, and provide strategies that can be implemented into your child's daily routine.

The early years from age 0-5 are a crucial time for developing the building blocks of the fine motor, gross motor and self-care skills that will take them into their school years. Please see the resources below for how you can support your child's development at home.

Mark making and prewriting skills

Postural control

Sensory regulation

Self-care

Sometimes, children need additional support when developing their fine motor, gross motor, self-care and sensory regulation skills. Below are some advice sheets that can be used at home to help your child build their skill set!

Fine motor skills:

Handwriting (see the Supporting Your Child with Handwriting tab for much more information):

Sensory regulation:

Self-care:

Here are some ways to support an older child or teenager with sensory regulation and executive functioning difficulties. 

See our Secondary Transition and Preparation for Adulthood tab for more information about how we can support your child into adolescence and adulthood.

Emotional regulation is something we all need to learn to effectively maintain our wellbeing. Young children with speech, language and communication difficulties can have challenges identifying and expressing their emotions using language. Zones of Regulation by Leah Kuyper uses a colour coded system to support students with this.

Zones of Regulation Explained - an advice sheet explaining The Zones of Regulation

Video resource - a video tutorial on Zones of Regulation 

Zones of Regulation Board - this can be used to show and remind your child of the different zones and the emotions that belong to them

Emotions Choice Board - these emotion cards can be used to support children to identify how they are feeling

Inside Out Zones of Regulation - the Zones of Regulation with Disney’s ‘Inside Out’ Characters

Zones Tools - these cut out ‘Tools’ cards can be used to support students to identify ways they can re-regulate and get into the Green Zone.

Here are some resources that you can use at home to support your child's handwriting development.

Handwriting legibility and formation

Developing hand and arm strength

How to make writing more comfortable

Handwriting practice tools

Handwriting presentation

 

Messy play is a brilliant way to introduce your child to different textures, smells and colours in a way that supports their sensory development. It is useful for reducing sensitivities to or avoidance of certain textures and smells. As such, messy play can also be used as a strategy to help manage feeding difficulties and support exploration of different foods. Additionally, messy play is a great way to develop fine motor skills, self-care skills and concentration and focus! Please see below for some messy play resources that you can try at home with your child.

Messy Play presentation

The Richmond Occupational Therapy team offer virtual training to schools as part of our SEND support offering for schools. We invite SENCos and school staff to attend so that they can gain useful strategies and advice. We aim to upskill schools so that they can utilise the ordinarily available provision to achieve best outcomes.

We have pre-recorded some of the most popular school trainings so that they are available to access 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Please see them below:

Royal College of Occupational Therapists

The Royal College of Occupational Therapists is the UK's only professional association for OTs.

Children's Centres in Richmond borough

Children’s Centres aim to provide children and their families with the best start in life. There are six centres around the borough of Richmond.

Achieving for Children

Achieving for Children is a social enterprise company created by the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames and the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames to provide their children’s services. 

Portage

Portage is a home-visiting educational service for pre-school children with SEND and their families. Portage aims to:

  • Work with families to help them develop a quality of life and experience, for themselves and their young children, in which they can learn together, play together, participate and be included in their community in their own right.
  • Play a part in minimising the disabling barriers that confront young children and their families.
  • Support the national and local development of inclusive services for children. 

Local offer

Information on local services and support available for families including children and young people aged 0 - 25 years with special educational needs or disabilities. 

Independent Advice and Support Services

The organisations offer (mostly free) independent advice and support on all SEND matters including the Assessment, Education, Health and Care Planning processes.

Independent Parental Special Education Advice

This website has free resources to help families get the right education for children and young people with all kinds of special educational needs and/or disability (SEND). 

Contact a Family. A national charity working to provide information, advice and support to families. They run events for families and children with disabilities, advise on legal or financial support and have a useful database of specific condition support groups. 

Special Kids in the UK. Special Kids in the UK aim to bring families together for friendship, to share information and to support one another via their online forums and regular events throughout the country.

Small Steps. Charity based in Richmond that run conductive education group classes for pre-school children with physical disabilities.   

Skylarks. An independent Richmond-upon-Thames based charity that provides activities and therapies for children with disabilities and additional needs. They also support and provide therapies, courses and information for their whole families.  

Parent Partnership. A local charity providing impartial advice for families of with children special educational needs.

Henry's Bleu Moon - a local parents and carers support network. Bringing together parents and carers of children with SEND. To connect up parents and carers of children with additional needs and create a support network across Richmond and Kingston.

  • Whizz Kids - provide equipment, support and life skills for disabled children.
  • Companion Cycling in Bushy Park – based in bushy park this group run inclusive cycling session for all ages and levels of ability
  • Riding for the Disabled Association – a national group for inclusive horse riding.
  • Park Lane stables (RDA) - their horses and ponies provide invaluable therapy, achievement and enjoyment to people with disabilities in and around London
  • Specialist swimming teachers – Teddington pool are able to offer both accesses to public sessions in for families use their hydrotherapy pool, as well as 1:1 swimming lessons for children with additional needs.
  • Wheelchair basketball – Richmond’s well established and successful wheelchair basketball team - The Knights 
  • Weir Archer Academy - wheelchair racing- based in Kingston, they host regular training opportunities as well as being and involved in local wheelchair racing eventsContact: info(@)weir-archer-academy.com
  • RISE – hosting regular inclusive sporting events in the Richmond area for children to come along and try a new sport, as well as running a variety of inclusive sports groups from football, yoga, golf, and dancing
  • British Paralympic Association - This website provides details about a huge variety of national inclusive sports opportunities.
  • CP Sport – a national charity that promotes and supports sporting opportunities for people with cerebral palsy
  • English Federation of Disability Sport 
  • Phyz Swimming is a support group that allows parents/carers to use the Hydrotherapy Pool at Teddington Pool

Action for Kids. Acton for kids is a charity that helps young people with physical and learning disabilities across the country find greater levels of independence and opportunity through the provision of mobility aids, employability training and family support.

Always look on the Bright Side of Life Charitable Trust. Grants to make children smile. The trust awards one off grants to children in need for activities/ items (not household)/trips that children’s families are unable to afford. The child must be disadvantaged due to financial circumstances, disability/ill health or other category. 

Boparan Charitable Trust. The Boparan Charitable Trust aims to help children and young people up to the age of 18, throughout the UK, who are disadvantaged either through poverty, disability or life-limiting conditions.

Bruce Wake Charitable Trust. Equipment for leisure/activities for physically disabled wheelchair users. Applications on behalf of individuals will only be accepted through a charitable organisation or equivalent recognised body.  

Cash for Kids. Cash for Kids is Bauer Radio’s network of local charities, which operate across 22 areas around the UK. Our mission is to respond to the needs of children in our communities, and we aspire to enable all children to live life to the full and achieve their individual potential.  

Cauldwell Children. Offers a range of support to children with disabilities including family support, short breaks equipment, treatment and therapies. You can apply direct and the process is straightforward.  

Children Today. Children today encourage applicants, usually parents, to come to them for funding and other services on a regular basis as their child’s needs change. Hopefully, this will continue as they grow and develop, gaining more independence and an improving quality of life that is also shared by all those around them. They will continue receiving support until the child reaches the age of 25 years.

Cerebra. Cerebra is a unique national charity that strives to improve the lives of children with neurological conditions, through research, information and direct, on-going support.

Disability Grants. Disability Grants is a web resource which has been set up for people with disabilities and for parents/carers of disabled people. There is a wealth of information on this site to help you find suitable funding, including blogs and forums to help you get a heads up from others who have gone through this process.

Dreams Come True. Dreams Come True is a UK children’s charity. Their mission is to enrich the lives of children and young people with serious and life-limiting conditions across the country by making their dreams come true. Over the last 25 years they have fulfilled dreams for more than 5,000 children and young people as well as their friends, family and carers.

Florence Nightingale Aid in Sickness Trust. The Florence Nightingale Aid in Sickness Trust provides life enhancing grants to help people of all ages in need who are ill, convalescent or disabled. 

Family Fund. Will look at any grant request that relates to the needs of a disabled or seriously ill child, young person and their family. If you are raising a disabled or seriously ill child, the family fund may be able to help with a grant for household items, equipment, sensory toys, a family break or something to help with college for 16/17 year olds. You can apply as a parent carer, or agencies can apply on their behalf

Happy Days Children's Charity. The charity supports families with children aged 3-17 who have learning difficulties, physical or mental disabilities, acute, chronic or life limiting illnesses, been abused or neglected, witnessed domestic violence, been bereaved or act as carers for a parent or a sibling. Eligible applicants can apply for the costs of the following activities: Day trips/theatre trips/theatre workshops and group activity holidays.

Just 4 Children. Just 4 Children is passionate about the relief of sickness and prevention of health of children in the UK and Ireland by providing and assisting in the provision of grants to enable them to obtain medical treatment, therapies, living environments, equipment and holidays which would  not otherwise be available to them.

Local funders. There are a number of local funders such as Richmond Parish Lands Charity, Hampton Fuel Allotments and Barnes Workhouse Fund that offer grants to individuals and families particularly in relation to fuel grants, white goods and other household equipment and education. For a full list of the local funders 

Newlife Charity. Newlife is the UK's largest charity funder of children's specialist disability equipment. We also run the UK's only national emergency equipment service, for terminally ill children.  Newlife Nurses support thousands of families, we campaign for policy change and we fund targeted medical research, to improve child health.   

Richmond and Kingston Local Offer. This site provides information on local services and support available for families including children and young people aged 0 - 25 years with special educational needs or disabilities. Families can also find information about charitable funding here.

The Family Holiday Association (FHA). Supports families on a low income, that have not been on holiday for the past four years and have at least one child between three and 18 years of age can obtain financial support for a break during 2016 and 2017. The FHA can only accept applications from referring agents (such as a teacher, social worker or health visitor, etc) and not directly from families. The website also has a great resource page which lists other charities and trusts that can support holidays and short breaks

The Henry Smith Charity (Richmond).  People experiencing hardship or distress who live in Richmond, Ham, Petersham or Kew. Applications in writing from referring bodies such as citizen advice and social services.

Tree of Hope. Tree of hope is the crowdfunding charity that helps children and young people with a disability or illness by supporting their families to raise the money they need to pay for specialist care that is not freely available through the UK healthcare system.

Turn2us. A fantastic website that offers help and information for anyone experiencing financial hardship or debt problems, or who is looking for funding to support an individual need within the family such as a short break. It has a grant and benefits search engine which can be tailored to meet your requirements including locality, and a phone helpline that is free to call and gives you access to trained staff who can talk you through your options. The service is available to individuals and organisations acting on their behalf. 

Whizz-Kidz. This charity provide equipment, support and life skills for disabled children. Creating independence to live a life of freedom at home, at school and at play and the independence to be themselves.

The boys have loved this group. All the staff have been great – Thank you.

- Richmond parent

Well organised, structured, good encouragement and good discipline. Gave parents ideas to incorporate into everyday life and weekend activities.

- Richmond parent

Lovely supportive team. I was able to talk openly without judgement.

- Richmond parent

Skylarks

Visit the website for a list of all the events, activities, talks, workshops, clinic & therapies they have coming up. 

Reflections and Redlees Stay and Play Sessions

Drop in stay and play sessions in Feltham and Isleworth for children and young people with special needs and their families. There is a relaxing white room, a ball pool, soft play area and garden for you to enjoy. Sessions run weekly, Sundays and throughout the school holidays. 

Richmond Parent Carer Forum (PCF)

Richmond PCF is offering virtual drop in sessions for parents and carers of Children and Young People (CYP) aged 0-25 years who are concerned about their CYP’s progress and would like support from other parents.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I bring siblings?

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

What should I wear?

For occupational therapy appointments we advise that both parents and children do not wear their best clothes. Please note both parents and children may be required to do exercises, participate in messy play and activities on the floor. 

  • Superheroes group – children will need to wear appropriate clothing to exercise in e.g. shorts and t-shirt.
  • Messy Play group - please prepare to get messy! We do not advise that you and the child wear your best clothes.  You may want to bring a change of clothes for both you and the child.

Can I communicate by email with the therapist?

Yes, email communication is possible. Parental consent for sharing programmes and documents via email is required.