Therapy News
It's okay to play with your food (sometimes)!
What is Food Play? Food play, often referred to as messy play, encourages children to engage with food in a playful manner outside of mealtimes.
Benefits of Food Play:- It promotes exploration, particularly for picky eaters, by allowing them to interact with food using all five senses—sight, smell, touch, hearing, and taste—in a comfortable and stress-free environment. This exploration may enhance a child’s tolerance for new foods. - Food play aids in sensory regulation; consuming crunchy and chewy foods provides oral sensory and proprioceptive input. Such sensory experiences can help children concentrate on tasks and learning activities when combined with sensory tubs filled with food and educational materials. Many children find activities like filtering rice and pasta to be particularly soothing. - Additionally, food play fosters creativity and imagination, which can enhance pretend play skills.
Food Play ideas:- Threading dried pasta and Cheerios- Car play with cocoa, cereals, and rice- Finding sea animals in jelly- Building castles with Weetbix- Painting with yogurt
Cultivating a positive Food Play experience:
Children often require multiple exposures to a new food before they feel comfortable interacting with it. Encourage your children by praising them when they engage with the food through touch or scent.
Begin with foods or textures that your children already enjoy.
Incorporate utensils, such as forks and spoons, during play to alleviate any pressure to touch
Therapy Team News
Curriculum Cupboard ResourcesThe curriculum cupboard will be open every Monday (2:00pm – 2:30pm) and Thursday (8:15am – 8:45am) for staff to borrow classroom resources. Please contact the Therapy Team if you need access to resources outside of these times.
Climbing Gym & OT Rooms 1 & 2
Please follow the new protocols before entering the OT Rooms and Climbing Gym. There is a “Stop” sign with the rules on the door of each space. These spaces are to be used as proactive regulation spaces, rather than as a breakout space for a student who is already heightened.
Any staff who supports students in these spaces must complete a short induction with the OTs. Please contact the OTs if you have not completed this training. Please email one of our Occupational Therapists (Tinas Wong or Kevin Loo) if you would like to book a slot for your classroom to access any of these spaces. We will be migrating this booking system to SharePoint shortly.
SPOTBites Weekly Activities
Please look out for a weekly email from our Allied Health Assistant, Angela Psiroukis, regarding the Therapy Team's weekly activities for students. Activity packs will be released every Monday, 8am, in the main staff room.
Therapy Referral System
Please submit any requests for support from a therapist via the Therapy Referral Tab on SharePoint. Our team triages new referrals every Monday morning and allocates a therapist and priority to these new referrals. This ensures that the most urgent referrals are addressed in a timely manner. You can submit referrals for SP and OT support, including requesting for us to attend classroom team meetings, care team meetings, SSGs etc. Please note that due to limited capacity, we may not be able to attend every meeting request, but we will prioritise any urgent requests.