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Intensives: in the pool, at home, in the playground...

We run intensives for one week in school holidays. See our dates for the year here. (*We do sometimes have multiple weeks on offer, depending on demand, and venue and physio availability*)
Please contact us if you have any queries or are interested in booking in. 
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We commenced intensives in 2017 and they have been fully booked every school holidays since!
We have: 
  • bike riding
  • playground skills
  • pre - sport, sport & active leisure skills (choose an activity you're interested in or we can develop an entry level program for you)
  • mobility skills
  • kayaking
  • aquatic
The activities offer vary each term developing on leve of interest. Kayaking is usually done in warmer months and aquatic is not offered every block.
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See more info here: 

We combine paediatric physiotherapy, aquatic physiotherapy,

Neuro Developmental Treatment (NDT/ Bobath) and swimming teaching

to develop unique treatment strategies to help your child achieve their goals

Aquatic intensives: 
Child:
We will see your child every day for one week over the school holidays. This allows them to back up their learning, and build on it, the very next day. It often works really well for children with a goal of learning a new movement, or for children who have some anxiety around participating in the water. It can be a great little "booster" to get them going again for the next term of school, or for swimming lessons.
 
Family:
We also do intensives where the goal is for a family to become comfortable in taking their child to the pool for leisure, and/or to learn activities to help their movement goals. This works very well over the school holidays when we're all less busy. This is a very rewarding part of our work. We include helping you become confident with use of water wheelchairs or hoists to get your child safely and comfortably in and out of the water; and we work together to develop variety of ways you can play together in the water.  We can target these towards a particular movement goal if that is helpful for you.
 
How does it work?
Please note that the same process applies for intensives as for aquatic physiotherapy. We do an initial physiotherapy assessment home visit to understand your child's goals, history, movement patterns, and to develop a treatment plan together with you. We also complete a risk screen so we can make a plan to manage any health risks during our sessions. This can sometimes be done during the school holidays, or ideally during the term before the school holidays so that we are ready to go! 
If your child is already swimming with us, we will only need to talk about our goals for the intensive block poolside. No additional physiotherapy visits will be needed unless we're looking to review their function at home, or for another particular reason.
 
Which pools do we use? 

We have access to 2 wonderful private swimming pools in Melbourne.

They are indoors and heated to at least 32 degrees C year round.

They both win awards for excellent water quality, and use modern systems that are better for skin, eyes and hair. More info here. 

 

During the school holiday intensives, we are also able to visit local pools which have wheelchair access. They have either a hoist or a water wheelchair to get your child safely in and out of the water. Talk with us about what your needs might be. We'll always do our best to help you out. 

 

See more about:
 

We focus on helping your child participate in their day to day functional activities:

moving around, getting dressed, sitting steady at their school desk, playing at lunchtime,

joining in sport and going  along for family walks and bike rides. 

Land intensives: 
We are able to see you at home or in any other setting over the school holidays as well. This is again particularly useful if your child has a movement goal they are working on, to further their participation in everyday activities. It can also be a great chance to see children whose school and extracurricular activities during the school term make it tricky to fit in a physiotherapy visit. This can be especially useful to get an updated formal assessment done, or to start on kinder or school transition plans. 
 
See more about:
 

We support your child's whole development 

by coordinating with your therapy and education team

to promote communication, social, play, fine motor, problem solving and self care skills in our sessions

Our approach

  • aquatic physiotherapy sessions are aimed at helping your child participate in their everyday functional activities

  • we use a play based approach

  • we combine paediatric and aquatic physiotherapy, Neuro Developmental Treatment (Bobath/NDT) and swimming teaching to develop novel treatment strategies to work towards your child's goals.

  • we reinforce swim safer behaviours every session eg. wait with your parent before getting into the water

  • we practise swim safer skills every session (eg. floating, holding breath)

    • we believe helping children to become safer around water is an important part of an Australian childhood

    • we often use practise of specific water safety skills to work towards a child's functional land goals, by targeting areas a child needs assistance with. eg. range of movement, trunk control, oromotor control, developing rolling, sit to stand, balance, sensory integration especially of vestibular, visual and proprioceptive inputs. 

  • we promote your child developing confidence in their ability to move. For some children, this is the first environment where they have been able to independently move around. And they love it!

  • we support your child's whole development. We use strategies recommended by your therapy team to promote communication, social, play, fine motor problem solving and self care skills. 

  • we can have sessions sharing the pool with other children having swimming lessons. This is great for developing social, communication and play skills, and in transitioning into swimming lessons

  • we can help with ideas for play in the bath and pool to practise skills

  • we can work towards learning to swim. Swimming is an important exercise and leisure activity for many of the children we work with. They may not all look like our Olympic swimmers, but they can learn to swim!

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