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Play With Me! is an information evening run by Sprout Paediatric Therapy Services exploring the importance of Pretend Play for children. This evening will provide information for parents, teachers, child care workers, carers, and other health professionals alike.
“Play With Me” will be facilitated by Carah Jones, an Occupational Therapist with a passion for and experience in helping children develop their pretend play skills. This information evening will include a theoretical presentation as well as practical activities to enhance the skills and knowledge of those present.

Where: 941 Nepean Hwy Mornington
When: Monday 22nd August
6:30 – 8:30pm
Cost: $50

School holiday intensives. Sprout is also pleased to be able to offer a new initiative to families who feel they would like a shorter more intensive program to KICK START their child’s therapy or give it a BOOST!!

Some of our OTs will be working troughout the holidays and are happy to take clients for sessions (as many sessions as we can schedule) throughout the holiday break. This can be beneficial for a child’s therapy program as it has been shown to have quicker results when frequency of sessions is increased in an intensive period. This may also suit some families who have difficulty making sessions regularly in term time or have funding they want to use within a time frame. Contact 0405 326 798 for info.

Our newsletter is only sent out via email. Please email Monica
playsp_ot@yahoo.com to update your email details if we don’t already have them.

Bounce, Boogie and Breathe– a dance, yoga and movement workshop for kids

This program will provide your child with a chance to explore music and movement in a fun social environment. Your child will explore a range of movement genres, including dance and yoga while promoting body awareness and motor development.
This workshop is facilitated by OTs who specialize in working with children with special needs and aims to;
Provide a safe place for children to improve awareness of how their bodies move in relation to themselves and peers.
Use fun activities that develop core postural skills which children need for development of good gross and fine motor skills.
Promote improved breathing patterns for children to enhance ability to calm and self regulate themselves.
Encourage creativity and confidence in children through the use of movement, music, breathing, and safe social play.

Help your child make and keep friends!

Enrol your child in a Friendship Group program that will help your child identify what makes a good friend, provide fun co-operative group experiences to learn about friendship skills and facilitate your child’s emotional self-expression and assertive communication.

Help your child recognise and expand his/her social skills by using the group as a place to practice
Provide opportunities for your child to make friends and have positive experiences with peers their age.

Groups will run at both our Mornington and Ormond clinics;

Groups will be run at both our Ormond and Mornington clinics during the school holidays and can only run when we have a minimum of 4 children in a similar age range that are interested in attending.

These group programs cost $340 ($360 for FaHCSIA clients). Registrations are essential as there are a maximum of 6 places in each group.

Last newsletter we discussed Assessment for Articulation and Phonology difficulties in Early Childhood. In this second part we discuss Treatment.

TREATMENT refers to what we do about all these errors. Sometimes we do nothing as the errors are within the expected range for age. However, when more significant difficulties are found we need to take both the articulation skills and phonological patterns into account.

Activities must be functional and appropriate to the age and stage of the child. For many children under age 5, talking is not a conscious act, it’s just something they do as naturally as breathing. Games which utilise the natural motivation of the child to ‘get the message across’ generally work best and are also the most fun.

Your therapist will have lots of ideas and game suggestions and getting siblings involved can also help.

Have fun learning speech with your child!

Elizabeth Barker (CPSP)
Speech Pathologist 0408 379 268