Paediatric occupational therapy group programs
Clever Bees Paediatric Occupational Therapy group programs focus on developing children’s social engagement and specific skill development. We have designed our group programs to encourage thinking, playing, laughing, and learning together. These interactions assist with social skills, group work, emotional regulation, movement, play and coping skills.
Group sessions are also an important tool for our occupational therapists to identify key areas of challenge and strength in a social setting that we may not otherwise have an opportunity to observe.
Our paediatric occupational therapy group programs are run at various locations across Newcastle, Lake Macquarie, Port Stephens, and the Hunter regions and online throughout the year and during school holidays. Both formats provide children with the opportunity to explore and practice new skills in a safe environment.
January School Program 2022
Happy Hands -
School Readiness Group
The group runs from 10:30 am to 11:30 am, and is aimed at children starting school (Kindergarten) in 2022. All sessions will take place at our Williamtown Clinic.
- Tuesday 11 January
- Thursday 13 January
- Tuesday 18 January
- Thursday 20 January
Board Games -
Social Skills Group
The group runs from 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm, and is aimed at children between the age of 6 and 12 years. All sessions will take place at our Williamtown Clinic.
NOTE: Each group has a different set of games played, so children can attend multiple sessions!
- Thursday 13 January
- Thursday 20 January
- Thursday 27 January
Our Telehealth platform
Face-to-face care with Coviu
Clever Bees use the Australian-developed Telehealth platform Coviu. It is completely secure and encrypted and does not store any of your private information outside of the actual session. It is recommended to access Coviu using Google Chrome on a computer with a camera and microphone. However, you can access Coviu from any device, using any web browser, or via the Coviu app.
Clever Bees turns five this year,
and we invite you to come and join us to celebrate!
To celebrate our fifth birthday, we’re running five separate sessions for our current and prospective clients. We’re inviting our clients and their families to come along, play some games, and have some fun during the April school holidays.
The session, like any of our group programs, will provide the opportunity for children to interact in a social environment, develop new skills and, above all, have fun. These sessions will all be held at our new clinic in Williamtown, so you can check out our new location. Want to know the best part? It’s free!
Our birthday celebration sessions will be held on:
- Tuesday 6th April from 10am - 11am
- Thursday 8th April from 10am - 11am
- Tuesday 13th April from 10am - 11am
- Wednesday 14th April from 10am - 11am
- Thursday 15th April from 10am - 11am
Each family can register to attend one of the session days and times below, and it’s ok to bring siblings along. If you’d like your children to attend a second session, there will be a cost of $40.00.
All children attending can participate in the games and activities and receive a party bag at the end of the session. All adults attending are encouraged to stay for the festivities as well.
To register, fill out the form below (HubSpot Link). Please advise how many children and adults plan to attend, as well as any dietary requirements.
Places for each session are limited to comply with COVID-Safe requirements. All RSVPs need to be received by Monday 30th March 2021.
About our group programs
School readiness
The transition to formal schooling is a big step in every child’s life. Clever Bees school readiness group program provides a safe environment to practice key foundation abilities and activities most common at school.
We primarily focus on writing and drawing, playing ball games, making new friends, looking after your belongings, listening to others, and problem-solving when learning become tricky.
Fine motor skill development
Fine motor skills involve the use of the smaller muscle of the hands, such as when doing up buttons, opening lunch boxes, using pencils or scissors. Skill efficiency has a major impact on the quality of task outcomes and the speed in which they are completed. Efficient fine motor skills require a range of independent skills to occur simultaneously to appropriately manipulate the object or perform the task.
At Clever Bees, we focus on the fine motor skills that are essential for performing everyday activities like self-care (clothing zips and buttons, opening lunch boxes, cleaning teeth, using cutlery) and academic abilities (pencil skills of drawing, writing, and colouring, and cutting and pasting).
Handwriting
Clever Bees handwriting group is a tailored program to assist children in developing their overall hand and finger strength, seated posture, drawing and handwriting skills, pencil grasps, core, and shoulder stability.
Handwriting is a complex skill for children to master. It requires the integration of a range of skills including fine motor skills (coordination of the hand and finger muscles), gross motor skills (postural stability and endurance), sensory and perceptual skills (visually interpreting and remembering letter formations), cognition (attention, memory, knowledge, planning, problem solving) and language skills.
We focus on helping children develop the skills to write with accuracy, correct letter formation and flow.
Social skills
Social skills are the skills we use every day to interact and communicate with others. They include verbal and non-verbal communication, such as speech, gesture, facial expression, and body language. Social skills are vital in enabling an individual to have and maintain positive interactions with others. Many of these skills are crucial in making and sustaining friendships.
Our social skills paediatric occupational therapy group program focuses on:
- attention and concentration
- receptive (understanding) language
- expressive (using) language
- play skills
- pre-language skills
- self-regulation
- executive functioning
- planning and sequencing.
Online appointments
We offer online appointments for Occupational Therapy and for behaviour support. By providing our online appointments, we give support to families throughout NSW and Australia. Families may choose to access online appointments to reduce cost of travel and to improve convenience. Some people also prefer to access supports online rather than in person.
Workshops and Events
We love sharing information and ideas with people! We run a variety of workshops and events at various locations including presenting at schools and early childhood education facilities, playgroups and other community groups.
We also offer a range of online parent and professional workshops! Just get in touch to find out more.
Register your interest
If your child could benefit from taking part in one or all Clever Bees Paediatric Occupational Therapy group programs, contact us to register your interest.
