Assessment Services
The first formal step of therapy is completion of an assessment. Our therapists are skilled healthcare professionals who are able to assess and assist people who are facing challenges in their every day life.
Our Occupational Therapists consider “occupations” (activities) which people need and want to complete during their day, and these often fall into the categories of self care, leisure, and productivity. Our Speech and Language Therapists consider speech, language, communication and feeding skills.
Whilst considering functional strengths and challenges (or lagging skills), we also consider the systems that underly these areas. As you can see from the Pyramid of Learning, cognition and intellect are at the very top of the pyramid. If any of the lower levels are not functioning as they should be, the upper levels will not have as much support and tasks will be trickier for the individual to achieve.
At Helping Kids Shine, we typically recommend that we complete a comprehensive and assessment to identify the factors that may affect the young person’s functional skills and participation in activities. This means that we will meet the caregivers and young person on a number of occasions, and in different environments. We will also gather supplemental information where required. The outcome of this process is an assessment report which identifies the young person’s strengths and challenges, summarises our understanding of the reasons behind their functional challenges, and identifies goals and strategies/treatment recommendations. Where possible, we make sure we include the voice of the young person and their caregiver(s) when we are setting goals. If required, we can write to the standard required for expert evidence to be used in special educational needs/additional learning needs appeals.
At times, we may recommend an initial consultation, to ensure that our service is what is needed for the young person. This initial consultation will provide the opportunity to meet the young person and their family, and further recommendations for input will then be made.
Yes. We believe it is extremely important to listen to neurodivergent voices and to learn from them. We ensure that we attend training and engage in support from neurodivergent-led organisations. We are keen to celebrate strengths and we also presume competence in the young people that we work with.
The first step is to fill in our enquiry form. Your enquiry will be received by our Directors and if appropriate you will be invited to a free of charge Discovery Session. If we feel that the needs are not linked to Occupational Therapy or Speech and Language Therapy we may seek further information, or we may recommend contacting another service. In the virtual Discovery Session, you will have the opportunity to discuss your young person’s needs and the support you are looking for. We will be able to propose a plan and discuss the investment. If we feel we are a match to work together, we can then register you as a client of Helping Kids Shine.
There is no simple answer to this question! The way an assessment is structured will depend on the young person’s individual needs and the needs of their family. Some young people may be able to engage in structured assessments of their skills, whereas others will engage in play and we will use our observation skills to understand what is going on for them. For every young person, we ensure that we get at least one opportunity to speak to their caregivers whilst the young person is not present. This enables us to gather information which may be difficult for caregivers to discuss when their young person is with them, without impacting on their self esteem.