By Waheeda Essop (Occupational Therapist)
We live in a world where childhood development is constantly being researched and evaluated. While this is beneficial in the world of science and social studies, it does leave parents with constant worry regarding their parenting abilities and whether their kids are on the right path.
Considering our new world changes and challenges, knowledge from ‘what mama taught me’ may not always be sufficient in bringing up kids. Parents often benefit from outside guidance and help. And these usually come from child experts, occupational therapists, paediatricians, speech therapists and psychologists, to name a few.
If one considers a child growing, he or she learns and grows from input from family, teachers, peers and the physical environment. So to enhance, stimulate or remediate, these elements should play an active role.
While child experts are sufficiently qualified and have an array of skills to improve your little one’s growth, they’re often focused and specialised in a particular area. While remediation can occur with individual therapy, overall growth needs the involvement of all the elements.
A team approach to therapy allows a holistic complete view of a child in his or her environment. It encourages communication with parents, teachers and other treating therapists. It gives parents a broader perspective on other influencing factors, providing opportunities to ‘make better’, optimising development.
Take Home Points on Therapy and the Team Approach:
- Knowledge in childhood development is ever-changing, and keeping up with this is challenging for parents
- The life demands on children today, are high, with a serious need for outside input
- Therapy is not necessary about ‘fixing’, but also ‘improving’ or ‘enhancing’
- Therapy can also be about getting your little one from ‘average’ to ‘above average’
- Therapy works effectively when approached multi-disciplinary with effective communication between experts
- If your child is not been seen by a multi-disciplinary team, encourage your therapists to make necessary referrals and communicate with you and your child’s teacher.
“It is easier to build strong children then to repair broken men.”
– Frederick Douglass
Meet the ECI Centre’s Therapy Team: https://ecistore.co.za/eci-centre/
