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Monday 8:30am - 5pm Tuesday 8:30am - 5pm Wednesday 8:30am - 5pm Thursday 8:30am - 5pm Friday 8:30am - 5pm

Paediatric Potentials OT

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Australia
Upper Mount Gravatt, QLD
Paediatric Potentials OT

Motivate | Achieve | Grow | Unlock your child’s potential with

Through demonstrated excellence in clinical and school-based practice, our goal is to provide high quality, educationally relevant services to children, their families and schools. These services include, but are not limited to:

The evaluation and provision of individualised Occupational Therapy programs in collaboration with the child, family and educational team. Interventions directed toward developing, enhancing or maintaining daily living skills, including play or leisure skills, social skills, academic skills, self-help skills and prevocational skills. Education of the child, family and educational team in implementing appropriate interventions to facilitate success.

18/10/2026

Learning to use scissors is an important childhood milestone. Cutting helps children develop:

📝Fine motor strength
⛹🏼Hand–eye coordination
✂️Bilateral coordination (using both hands together (one hand cuts while the other holds and moves the paper))
💡Planning and problem-solving skills (working out how to turn, position, and follow a line)
😁Confidence and independence – supporting participation in kindy, school, and play activities

✂ Scissor skill development happens gradually:
🔹 Toddlers often begin with holding scissors, opening and closing them, and making simple snips into play doh and craft materials.
🔹 Preschoolers progress to cutting straight lines
🔹 By school age, children can cut curves and shapes with more accuracy.

Every child develops at their own pace, but if your child is finding cutting very challenging, an Occupational Therapist (OT) can help identify what skills may be getting in the way and provide targeted strategies.

15/10/2026

Everyone has their own personality and their own quirks. And that's what we love! We are here to build up skills and support your child to be who they are in the best way possible. We are all different, and that's why it makes our job so fun.

14/10/2026

"Why didn't they tell me they needed the toilet until the very last moment?"

Sometimes it's not about motivation or behaviour. Your child may still be developing interoception, the ability to recognise signals from their own body. When children are having difficulty recognising these signals, they may not realise they need the toilet until it's urgent, or even until an accident has already happened!

You can support and build their body awareness by:
- Asking "What is your body telling you right now?"
- Talk about specific body cues such as a weird feeling in their tummy or bottom
- Celebrate when your child notices and shares a body signal with you.

13/10/2026

Little Jobs, Big Benefits: Heavy Work Activities to Get Ready to Learn

Heavy work activities support a child’s body awareness, regulation and readiness to engage in learning tasks. Sometimes, a little movement can help little bodies feel more ready to learn!

Try some of these simple activities in the classroom to help regulate your little one and get their body ready for learning:
• Carry books with both hands, hugging tight against chest.
• Help keeping the door open for peers.
• Sharpening pencils with a manual pencil sharpener.
• Chair pushes: Push down on the seat of the chair for 5-10 seconds.
• Sweep the floor after an activity.
• Help with setting up the tables for an activity by collecting the activity materials.
• Wipe tables after messy play.
• Deliver a message or resource to another teacher.

12/10/2026

How does deep breathing help your child regulate?

When a child is overwhelmed, their body moves into a “flight, fight or freeze” response. Their heart rate may increase, muscles can be tense and it becomes harder for them to think, communicate or problem solve.

Slow, intentional breathing can help their body shift towards a calmer state by activating their “rest and digest” system know as the parasympathetic nervous system. For children, breathing works best when it feels playful, rather than another instruction.

Fun breathing activities to try:
1) “Smell the flower, blow the candle.”
2) Pretend to blow bubbles slowly.
3) Take a slow breath in, then gently blow out birthday candles.
4) “Smell the hot chocolate through your nose, then gently blow on it to cool it down.”

Practise breathing when your child is already calm, so it becomes a familiar tool they can draw on when big feelings arrive.

11/10/2026

Guess the OT goal!

We love to take fun activities and use them to get our kiddos motivated to work on their goals.

The obstacle course is a great tool in therapy spaces. Not only is it fun, but it can also work on so many goals. Depending on how we use it, an obstacle course can work on motor planning, regulation, executive functioning and coordination.

Let us know what you thought in the comments!

09/10/2026

Getting dressed is a BIG skill!

What looks like a simple everyday task, involves many different skills working together. Skills used when getting dressed includes planning the steps, hand and finger strength, core strength, using both sides of the body together, midline crossing, balance, body awareness, problem solving and many more skills!

Try some of these activities at home to build your child’s skills to dress independently:

1) Hoop over the body: Ask your child to step into a hoop and pull it up and over their head to practise the movement needed for pulling up pants or shirts. Try including this step in an obstacle course.
2) Play dress up: Allow your child to dress up as their favourite character for the day! This makes dressing fun and more engaging.
3) The floor is lava: Builds their ability to plan and sequence tasks, allows for midline crossing while using both sides of the body together. It also helps develop balance, body awareness and postural control which are all skills required when dressing.
4) Simon Says: Supports motor planning, body awareness, following instructions and motor coordination. Strengthening these skills will help your child dress independently.

Learning through play is fun!

08/10/2026

Lunchbox skills:

Is your little one struggling to open and close his/her lunchbox? If so, try some of these fun activities at home to strengthen their tiny hands, whilst building the skill!

1) Playdough activities: Allow your child to press, push, stretch and pinch playdough. Ask them to make a creation and try and guess what they have created.

2) Spray bottle games: Set up a pretend car wash where your child uses a spray bottle to spray water on the cars!

3) Put toys in containers during play and encourage your child to open the container to get the toy out. This creates opportunity to practice the skill, while having fun playing.

Remember to have fun while building these skills!

07/10/2026

Fun car games to play with your child

Car rides don’t have to mean screen time. They can be a great opportunity to connect with your child while naturally supporting important developmental skills. From an Occupational Therapy perspective, simple games can help children practise attention, listening, memory, language, visual skills, problem-solving and social interaction.

Try these on your next car ride:

Simon says
Give instructions such as, “Simon says touch your nose.” Your child should only follow the instruction when you say “Simon says.”
Supports listening, following instructions and motor planning.

I’m going on a picnic
Start with, “I’m going on a picnic and I’m bringing an apple.” Your child repeats your item and adds another. Keep adding items and remembering the whole list.
Supports working memory, sequencing and attention.

Alphabet game
Take turns finding letters on signs, shops or number plates, starting with A and working through the alphabet.
Supports visual scanning, letter recognition and cognitive skills.

Guess the animal
Give clues such as, “I am big, I have four legs and I have a trunk.” Let your child guess the animal.
Supports vocabulary, listening and reasoning.

Finish the story
Start a simple story and take turns adding one sentence at a time.
Supports imagination, language, sequencing and creativity.

OT Tip: Keep the games fun and match them to your child’s age and ability. The goal is connection, participation and learning through everyday moments.

Save this post for your next car ride!

06/10/2026

Hand dominance

Hand dominance develops gradually. Most children begin showing a preference around 2–4 years, becoming more established by 4–6 years.
How can OT support this?
• Encourage bilateral coordination
• Practise crossing the midline
• Build hand and finger strength
• Develop fine-motor control
• Support motor planning
• Encourage one hand to stabilise while the other works

OT Tip: Offer activities at the midline and allow your child to naturally choose which hand to use. Don’t force hand preference. Every child develops at their own pace.

Address

Level 5, 57 Sanders Street
Upper Mount Gravatt, QLD
4122

Opening Hours

Monday	8:30am - 5pm
Tuesday	8:30am - 5pm
Wednesday	8:30am - 5pm
Thursday	8:30am - 5pm
Friday	8:30am - 5pm

Website

https://www.paediatricpotentials.com.au/

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