Therapy FAQs

 

Some of our usual questions include....

 

How long are your waiting lists at Skillbuilders?

Naturally this will vary from time to time and between the different therapies. This can get longer at various times, particularly in Term 4 of each year. We have different waitlists for our Specialist Clinics and for children with more urgent concerns - eg Fluency Clinic, Toddler Language Clinic, ASD Assessment, High School Handwriting Clinic, and Sensory Processing Clinic. When you contact us to discuss your child's needs we can give you a clearer time frame. 

How long are your therapy appointments?

Individual therapy appointments are either 30 or 50 minutes, depending on the needs of the child. Speech Therapy appointments tend to more often be 30 minutes and OT appointment are mostly 50 minutes. This reflects the nature of the activities that we're doing with children and their capacity to continue participating in the session. Physiotherapy sessions vary depending more on the referral reason, eg 30 minutes for a baby with a torticollis compared to 50 minutes for an older child working on gross motor skill development.

Group sessions are usually either 1 hour or 1 1/2 hours.

 

Where does therapy usually happen?

We decide this with you based on the therapy goals and practicalities of timing, and availability of the child, therapist and parent. Sometimes it's best to work on therapy goals in a fairly controlled environment where there are less distractions and plenty of resources available, ie at our centres. Sometimes children learn best in their home environment and this facilitates transfer of skills and setting up of home programmes. While therapy services provided at school facilitate communication between the therapist and the teacher, therapy provided at our centre or at home facilitates communication between the therapist and the parent/s. There are pro's and con's to each option, therefore we have a chat about it! Sometimes a combination is needed. There is also the cost of travel time to consider in this decision.

 

How often will my child need to have therapy?

We discuss this with you at the end of the initial assessment session. Mostly children have weekly sessions, however sometimes this will be less frequent, eg if the therapy goals can be worked on readily via a home programme children could have fortnightly sessions. Sometimes children will have an initial session for assessment, followed by a session to establish a home programme, then come monthly to review and extend the programme. These decisions are also determined by other factors like availability, the need for other therapies (eg if a child needs both Speech and OT), scheduling issues, cost.

 

Will the therapist discuss my child's needs and progress with other people involved?

Yes, but only after discussion with you, and with your written permission. We have a permission component included on our Parent Questionnaire that we ask every new family to complete. You can specify on this form the nature of the team work you would like, eg if you would like us to contact your child's teacher.

 

What if my child and the therapist don't 'click'?

Occasionally this happens. The therapeutic relationship is very important so please do what you can with your child and the therapist to support this process. If it's just not 'clicking' please let us know so that we can help. Our aim is for your child to make great progress so we will do what we can to ensure this happens.