Intensive Paediatric Therapy in the Home

Dear Parent / Guardian

Thank you for your expression of interest in our Intensive Therapy in the Home program.

The Intensive Therapy Program is an innovative treatment approach for babies and children with cerebral palsy and other 'neuromuscular challenges'. It is designed to address the unique and desired goals of each child and the child’s family. The program aims to improve the child’s independence with daily living skills. Participating families may expect to see improvements toward the chosen goals and learn how to better assist their child with new and developing skills.

The program will

• aim to enhance the child’s independence with their daily living skills including self-care (e.g. eating, drinking, dressing, personal hygiene, toileting); play and leisure skills; kinder & school related tasks (e.g. writing, drawing, cutting); and mobility & transitional skills (e.g. moving between the above tasks & 'parts' of tasks)
• provide a 'carryover' of learned daily tasks performed in the child and family's home, community, school, regular therapy etc
• will complement children's ongoing regular therapy outside these intensives
• enable parents to see an improvement towards their child’s functional goals
• enable parents to learn how to better assist their child to develop new skills and to further develop their existing skills

• provide families with a treatment option which is not currently available in the community
• aim to provide an engaging playful interactive therapy that the child will enjoy

• provide therapy based on family driven functional measurable goals

The program will not:

• replace the child’s regular therapy
• prescribe equipment and orthotics
• provide ongoing support past the duration of the treatment
• provide case management or counseling

Selection for the program will be based on application. The program is open to children with cerebral palsy aged 0 – 18 yrs who are medically stable and able to work with a therapist whom they are unfamiliar. A caregiver must also be present throughout the intensive, to optimize the requested new task learning being carried over at home and in other environments. The other main selection criteria are age and nominated task.

Priority will be given to selected tasks/goals/outcomes that align closer to those typically addressed by an occupational therapist: i.e. that aim to enhance the child’s independence with their daily living skills including self-care (e.g. eating, drinking, dressing, personal hygiene, toileting); play and leisure skills; kinder & school related tasks (e.g. writing, drawing, cutting); and mobility & transitional skills (e.g. moving between the above tasks & 'parts' of tasks). The child’s severity of Cerebral Palsy is not a factor in priority. The daily tasks addressed will include mobility and transitional movements; walking per se will not be addressed as the primary goal.

The treating therapist is Dr Kathryn Bain, OT, C/NDT. Dr Bain graduated with a Diploma of OT (Lincoln Institute, Melbourne); B. App. Sci. (OT) (Curtin University, Perth) and HScD (Sydney University). Her doctoral research explored ‘The impact of NDT on the performance of daily living tasks in children with cerebral palsy’. More recently a further research project was published: Bain, K., Bombria, S. D., Chapparo, C. J., Donelly, M., Heard, R., & Treacy, S. (2023). Goal attainment of children with cerebral palsy participating in multi-modal intervention. Child: Care, Health and Development, 1– 10. https://doi.org/10.1111/cch.13117. She is certified in both NDT (NDTATM) and SI (SIPT) and is a (USA) Paediatric Advanced OT Instructor. She was the co-founder of Children's Therapy Services and the Kids+ Foundation in Geelong, and is the Director of ‘Paediatric Therapy & Workshops’. Her enthusiasm lies in combining the roles of clinician, researcher and teacher - in Australia and internationally – towards families and children achieving their functional goals through playful intervention.

Please complete the application form and return it to Paediatric Therapy & Workshops as an attachment to an email to kathrynmbain@gmail.com. All consent forms, and the daily task checklist must be completed and returned prior to commencement of the intensive. We would appreciate if you can type your responses to this form, but handwritten applications will be accepted. Please make contact by email if you have any questions while completing the form.

Finally – please invite your therapist/s to the final session of the intensive – if this would be considered helpful.

With my regards

Dr Kathryn Bain, 

Director, Paediatric Therapy & Workshops

Please see below information about choosing the ‘daily tasks’ you would like addressed during the intensive.

Parents are asked to select from the list or indicate other ‘tasks’ not listed.

Daily task check list

Thinking about the main goals that you and your child are ready to work on next, please select six ‘daily tasks’ from all of the tasks listed below (individual tasks, not the task headings). Please number your selected tasks in order of priority from ‘1’ to ‘6’ (please choose 6 individual tasks maximum).

Please add any other daily tasks you would like addressed that are not listed