she / her

Shayna equally loves supporting families of babies, children and young people to participate in everyday life, as much as she is passionate about supporting our wonderful team of physiotherapists to do the same!

At Splash Physiotherapy we provide innovative services to engage children at all ages from babies through to transition to adult services, to identify their goals and play towards them.

If you can come up with the goal, we will find a way to play towards it!

Our team is firmly grounded in evidence based practice, and at the same time, we work hard to integrate those principles into playful, enjoyable, real life activities that children thrive in. We don't work in gyms or clinical settings where we have to manufacture fun. We work on your real goals in real life, and we will stick with you until those new functional skills are being used in true participation.

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Shayna established Splash Physiotherapy® in 2010 to create a physiotherapy service in the community that could help babies, children and young people learn functional skills to participate in everyday life. Splash Physiotherapy is driven by core values drawn from evidence informed practice in paediatrics.

Shayna is working clinically in all services offered at Splash, developing and supporting the Splash team, and driving the Sports and Recreation Intensives program starting in 2018.

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She graduated from physiotherapy at the University of Melbourne in 2002 and has since completed extensive further study in paediatrics, aquatics, swim teaching, neurodevelopment, motor learning, motor control, pain, and evidence informed practice in early childhood intervention. 

She has swum all her life, loves introducing kids to a variety of sports, and loves kayaking and bushwalking.

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Shayna is passionate about:​

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• working with families

• supporting children to participate at home, school, sport, leisure and in the community

• playing with children towards their goals

• translating the science behind neuroplasticity into practical strategies to help us learn

• discovering each individual's learning needs

• finding the "just right challenge' for a child as that changes throughout a session

• complementing your team's goals in communication, play, fine motor and social skills

• fitting in practice of new skills into your every day life in a way that suits you and your family

• starting with babies as early as possible

• everyone having a chance to learn, at any age

• life long learning, and staying up to date with the evidence base in paediatrics

• combining paediatric and aquatic physiotherapy with swimming teaching to develop novel treatment strategies in the pool

• swim safer skills and behaviours to enable participation in water and reduce drowning risk

• creatively designing services to meet participation goals (physiotherapy visits, aquatic physiotherapy in community pools, sports & recreation intensives, pathways to swimming)

• growing an enthusiastic, playful, supportive team culture at Splash Physiotherapy that is committed to excellence and continual improvement

Shayna's background: 

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Shayna has worked with children and adults in private, public and community sectors in Victoria and the Northern Territory since 2002. She has a wide experience base in rehabilitation, and in musculoskeletal, neurological and cardiopulmonary conditions. She has consistently worked in aquatic physiotherapy, enjoys the opportunity to combine these physiotherapy skills with her background as a swimming teacher and coach. She has worked in early childhood intervention in the community sector as a keyworker in transdisciplinary practice.

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She established Splash Physiotherapy in 2010, eager to combine her skills in paediatrics, Contemporary Neuro Developmental Treatment, aquatic physiotherapy and swimming teaching to help children get on the move and achieve their goals.

Shayna believes strongly in carefully coordinating care between health care providers, and complementing goals in all areas of development, to optimise chance for learning.

Shayna's teaching and sharing: 

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• She enjoys sharing her approaches in providing professional development training for physiotherapists, allied health staff, and swimming teachers.

• She is involved in the ongoing training of the swimming teaching staff at both pools we work with, facilitating a developmental approach to swimming teaching, and promoting inclusion of children with specific learning needs in to the swim school lessons. She also trains ASCTA swim teachers.

• She provides lectures and practical workshops on the Australian Physiotherapy Association Aquatic level 1 and 3 courses, and Paediatrics Level 1 course

• She continues to provide lectures for the Australian Physiotherapy Association aquatics, disability and paediatric groups

• She has presented at conferences of the World Congress of Physical Therapy and the Australian Physiotherapy Association.

• She developed and taught aquatic physiotherapy units of first the RMIT Allied Health Assistance course.

• She has assisted in research projects through Latrobe into community gym based physiotherapy interventions in young adults with Prader Willi Syndrome; and with Southern Cross University into goal directed intensives for children with neurodevelopmental conditions

• She was awarded the "Contribution to the profession" award in 2018 by the Australian Physiotherapy Association. She has volunteered with in positions with the Australian Physiotherapy Association 

  • the Aquatic Physiotherapy Professional Standards Committee (PPSC) 2014 - 2019

  • the Victorian committee for the National Paediatrics Group 2015 - 2021

  • the Victorian committee for the National Aquatics Group 2015 - 2022

  •  the Northern Territory Branch President of the Australian Physiotherapy Association 2004 - 2006

  •  the Northern Territory professional development convenor of the Australian Physiotherapy Association 2003 - 2006

  • the APA Indigenous Health committee 2004 - 2006