Social Setting
Occupational Therapy

At Kids World Paediatric Therapy, Social Setting Therapy provides children with the opportunity to work towards their individual occupational therapy goals alongside one or more carefully matched peers.

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These 50-minute sessions are tailored to each child's unique developmental needs, creating opportunities to develop and extend skills through meaningful interaction with others.

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Our therapists use the DIR® model (Developmental, Individual-differences, Relationship-based) when providing Social Setting Therapy. They consider each child's Functional Emotional Developmental Capacities, individual sensory and motor processing differences, interests and relationships when planning and supporting interactions with peers.

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Why Use a Social Setting?

 

Many of the capacities children develop through occupational therapy are needed when interacting and participating with other people. Introducing a carefully selected peer creates natural opportunities to extend these capacities in ways that aren't always possible during individual therapy.

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Depending on each child's individual goals, Social Setting Therapy may support emotional regulation, sensory processing, communication, flexibility, problem-solving, motor planning, play and participation with others.

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The focus is not on teaching children to behave or interact in a prescribed way. Instead, our therapists support children to better understand themselves, engage authentically with others and develop the confidence and capacities they need to participate in everyday social environments.

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Supporting Functional Emotional Development

 

An important part of the DIR® model is understanding a child's Functional Emotional Developmental Capacities (FEDCs).

These capacities describe how children use emotions and relationships to support regulation, engagement, communication, shared problem-solving and increasingly complex thinking and interaction.

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Working alongside a peer can provide valuable opportunities to extend these capacities. Depending on each child's developmental profile, this might include opportunities to:

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• Remain regulated and engaged while interacting with another child

• Develop connection and shared enjoyment

• Initiate and respond within back-and-forth interactions

• Communicate ideas, preferences and needs

• Build on another person's ideas

• Engage in shared problem-solving

• Manage differences, uncertainty and unexpected changes

• Develop increasingly complex interactions and shared ideas

• Consider their own and another person's perspective

 

Children may access these capacities differently depending on the environment, activity, relationship and level of support available to them. Our therapists consider what each child needs to remain regulated, connected and able to participate.

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Thoughtful Peer Matching

 

Finding the right peer match is an important part of Social Setting Therapy.

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Children may participate with typically developing peers or with other children whose strengths, developmental profile and therapy goals provide an appropriate therapeutic match.

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Using a DIR® perspective, our occupational therapists consider more than age or diagnosis. We think about each child's developmental capacities, communication style, sensory and regulation needs, motor planning, interests, personality and individual therapy goals.

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We also consider what each child may bring to the interaction. The right peer can create opportunities for shared interests, different ideas, problem-solving and increasingly complex interactions.

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For this reason, Social Setting Therapy is offered when an appropriate peer match is available rather than simply grouping children according to age or diagnosis.

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Individual Differences Within a Shared Session

 

The Individual-differences component of DIR® recognises that every child experiences and responds to the world differently.

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One child may need movement to remain regulated and engaged, while another may find a busy or unpredictable activity overwhelming. One child may communicate ideas readily but find it difficult to adapt when someone has a different idea, while another may need additional time and support to initiate an interaction.

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Understanding these individual differences helps the therapist adapt the environment, activities and interactions so that each child can participate successfully.

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Individual Goals Within a Shared Session

 

Although children participate alongside a peer, therapy remains individualised and each child continues to work towards their own occupational therapy goals.

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The same activity can provide very different therapeutic opportunities for each child.

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For example, one child may be working on remaining regulated when something unexpected happens, while another may be developing motor planning, communicating an idea, responding to a peer, negotiating a change or participating in increasingly complex shared problem-solving.

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Our occupational therapists carefully adapt activities, the environment and the level of support according to each child's developmental profile and goals.

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Learning Through Relationships and Real Interaction

 

Relationships are central to the DIR® model.

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Working alongside another child creates genuine interactions that can't be completely planned or reproduced in individual therapy. Children bring their own ideas, interests, emotions and responses to an activity, creating natural opportunities for development.

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Rather than directing every interaction, the occupational therapist observes and supports what is happening between the children.

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The therapist may help a child remain regulated enough to continue an interaction, support children to understand each other's communication, introduce a playful challenge, adapt an activity to allow successful participation or help children remain engaged while they work through a problem together.

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These shared experiences provide opportunities to strengthen Functional Emotional Developmental Capacities within meaningful relationships rather than teaching social interaction as a set of rules.

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Supporting Progress Beyond the Therapy Room

 

Meaningful progress doesn't happen only during therapy sessions.

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Our therapists work collaboratively with parents and carers to help them understand their child's developmental capacities and individual differences, including what supports their child to feel regulated, connected and able to participate with others.

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Together, we can identify practical strategies and ways of interacting that can be incorporated naturally into everyday family and community life.

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This helps children build on the experiences and capacities developed during therapy across the environments and relationships that are important to them.

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Is Social Setting Therapy Right for My Child?

 

Social Setting Therapy may not be appropriate for every child or at every stage of their therapy.

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Your child's occupational therapist will consider their individual goals, Functional Emotional Developmental Capacities, sensory and motor processing differences and whether interaction with a peer is likely to provide meaningful opportunities to extend their development.

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Children may initially participate in individual occupational therapy before moving into a social setting when their therapist believes working alongside a peer will provide useful developmental opportunities.

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Participation also depends on the availability of a suitable peer match.

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Enquire About Social Setting Therapy

 

If your child currently attends Kids World, speak with their occupational therapist about whether Social Setting Therapy may be appropriate.

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Families considering occupational therapy at Kids World are also welcome to contact our administration team using the form below to discuss our services and current availability.