About Us
Move and Play Paediatric Therapy is a children’s therapy service based in Mackay, Queensland, that helps babies and children of all ages and abilities to develop into happy, confident and thriving kids.
We believe that all children, regardless of their abilities or differences, have value and should be given opportunity to achieve that value.
To help children achieve their potential, our experienced therapists conduct comprehensive assessments, and develop individualised treatment programs that help children to move and play to the best of their ability. Our programs are tailored to each child and family’s individual needs and can consist of one to one therapy, small group therapy, support to participate in their home, school, and community, social or sporting environments.
-
Founded in 2015 by Emily Hayles, Physiotherapist and Owner, Move and Play Paediatric Therapy was established to help meet the growing need for Paediatric Therapy services for children in the Mackay region. Having worked with children and families for 10years in the public health sector, Emily was frustrated with having to deliver what felt like suboptimal care to children due to time and resource constraints. She could see so much potential in these children, if only they could access better quality or more frequent care that had the flexibility to be delivered according to their individual needs including within their community environments.
Since our early days, our service has grown, and Emily has gathered a team of passionate and experienced therapists and support staff who share her passion and attitude for helping children and families to thrive.
-
At Move and Play, all our therapists are specifically trained in the care of babies and children. Our sole focus at our practice is the care of children and families, and our services and clinic environment is set up specifically to meet the needs of children. And we treat kids as kids – we believe in the value of kids being able to do the things that are important to them.
We work in a child and family centred way. We believe that parents know their children better than anyone else. We collaborate with children, parents and families to add value to their already existing strengths. We believe that your child’s therapy needs to fit into your family life, not life fitting around therapy.
We believe that every child has the capacity to learn, given the right opportunities. We look for these opportunities, not the barriers.
We celebrate all the little successes. Your child’s achievement of ‘millistones’ is just as important and exciting as their achievement of ‘milestones’.
We are known for being helpful, positive and passionate about our work, and for being leaders in helping children in our local community.
Your Child’s Therapy Pathway
At Move and Play, we believe that ‘the point of therapy is to get out of therapy’. What we mean by this is: the reason children and families come to therapy is to learn the skills they need to be able to get out and live life – because life is where the fun stuff happens. Life is where your child gets to spend time with family and friends, go on holidays and adventures, meet new people, explore new activities and environments, create new memories, and build a sense of who they are as a person.
-
This is why we, at Move and Play, design and structure our services to provide children with pathways out of therapy and into ‘real life’. We call this our Therapy Pathway.
We envisage the Therapy Pathway as a stream, with Upstream and Downstream services, and with the ultimate goal of ‘doing life’ as a pool at the bottom of the stream. When families first find out their child might have a developmental delay or disability, they can enter our Therapy Pathway in our Upstream services. Upstream services are designed to provide parents with information, connection, and early therapy supports so they can get started with helping their child as early as possible. Upstream services can include education workshops, books, handouts, blog posts like this one, online programs, and home therapy packs.
Mid-stream services are the services that help children build and develop skills, and include 1:1 therapy, group therapy, and our programs of support.
Once a child has developed a necessary skill, they need to be able to use those skills in real life scenarios, and that is where our Downstream services come in. Downstream services allow children to practice skills in social settings, in real life environments, or in more and more challenging situations with the support of our team. Downstream services include our social programs, our holiday programs, and our Allied Health Assistant programs that occur in homes and communities. Our expectation and goal is that once a child has mastered their skills in these Downstream services, they will be ready to “dive into” getting on with living life, being the best version of themselves that they can be.
Helping children through physiotherapy is quite different to helping adults. Children are built differently, move differently and think differently to adults. It is important that your child sees a physiotherapist who has a good understanding of these differences and is experienced in managing the various aspects of child development to ensure the best outcomes for your child and family.
Our Approach to Delivering Excellent Comprehensive Care: “The Therapy Iceberg”
To deliver high quality care for your child and family that gives your child the best opportunity to achieve their goals, we take a comprehensive approach to supporting your child and family.
We like to call this “The Therapy Iceberg”.
Like an iceberg, to deliver exceptional comprehensive care for your child, there is a portion therapy above the water that you can see, and a portion of therapy below the water that you cannot see.
Team Approaches to Support
Many children that we support need the help of more than one therapy to help them to achieve their goals and be their best. To ensure that your child’s supports are coordinated, efficient, and optimised for your child, we will take a team approach, with you and your child as key members of your child’s team.
Therapy in Natural Environments
A child’s natural environments are the environments in which they spend most of their time: their home, their daycare, their school, and their community. Providing supports to children in their natural environments is best practice and has been shown to deliver the best outcomes for children with developmental delays and disabilities.
Partnering with Parents & Families
One of our values is ‘Treat parents as partners’: Parents know their children like no one else. We share our recommendations but we also listen to parents and we learn from them everyday
-
The visible part of therapy is the direct therapy that your child does with their therapist/s. Examples of ‘visible’ therapy supports include:
The completion of assessments with either (or both) you and your child, to determine their strengths, and the difficulties they might be experiencing. These assessments help to inform your child’s supports and interventions.
Therapy sessions with your child in our clinic to teach skills required to achieve a task or goal.
School visits to observe skills and identify strategies that will support your child’s participation and learning in the school environment and ensure consistency of strategies across home and school.
Group sessions and holiday sessions, where your child will learn and pactice skills with other children.
Parent education, either in a 1:1 or group format, to support parents to support their child, and trial strategies and changes in the home.
Meetings with families to discuss progress, challenges, and priorities for support.
-
The less visible part of therapy that lies ‘below the surface of the water’ are all the other activities your therapist does behind the scenes to ensure that the supports your child receives are optimal for their needs, and give them the best chance of to achieve their goals and live their best life.
Examples of the ’invisible therapy supports’ include:
Reviewing information from your child’s file, including your child’s new client paperwork, any reports from other service providers, and any documentation completed by other therapists from our team who are involved in your child’s care.
Scoring and analysing assessment results to identify areas of need, strategies for support, and priorities for support
Researching information and treatments related to your child’s condition or presentation to ensure that the supports provided are based on the best available evidence. This might include reviewing evidence available through scientific databases and journals or liaising with other professionals across the country or internationally who may have more experience in your child’s condition.
Liaising with and collaborating with other members of your child’s team to ensure your child’s therapy is coordinated, family-centred and effective. This liaison and collaboration may occur in a scheduled meeting, or an unscheduled conversation which can occur in person, over the phone, or via email.
Planning your child’s therapy sessions based on an analysis of your child’s goals, what strategies and interventions have worked in the past, and the recent progress made.
Planning, designing and preparing resources such as visual schedules, social stories, behaviour charts etc
Writing home activity programs to support your child being able to practice their newly developing skills at home or in their school or community environments.
Creating and submitting referrals for your child (when you request or approve for this to happen) to other therapists and outside agencies. It is your right to self-refer your child to outside agencies if you would prefer.
Provide updates and handovers to other people involved in your child’s care, either in person, over the phone, or via email, to ensure consistency and continuity of your child’s care.
Assisting in checking therapy budgets and adjusting the supports we are providing to ensure we are staying within your budget.
Communicate with your child’s school about school-based services including completing applications to visit, sending documentation required for school visits, and
Writing letters or progress reports for the NDIS or other external agencies who require updates about your child’s condition and/or progress, such as paediatricians, rehabilitation specialists, and the education system. These reports will only be done with your approval.
Completing these ‘invisible’ tasks and the related documentation means that we can provide your child with the optimal therapy and supports they need to give them the best chance of achieving their goals. Both the ‘visible’ and ‘invisible’ aspects of therapy are required to deliver optimal therapy and to help your child to achieve their goals. We incorporate both the visible and invisible supports into all of our programs of support with the children and families we work with.
-
You and your child are at the centre of the team, and we consider you the experts in what you want and need. Our physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech pathologists and allied health assistants will bring our specialised knowledge and skills in paediatric care and will work together with you to ensure that your child and family receive the right therapy at the right time.
-
Everyone is working towards the same or coordinated goals, so that each of the therapies involved can build on and support the other therapies, which ultimately leads to better outcomes for your child and family.
You and your child can draw on the expertise of ALL of our team members, broadening the scope and quality of the supports you receive.
Strategies delivered by one therapist are also incorporated into all your child’s other sessions, increasing the repetition of practice for your child
Strategies and supports are coordinated and integrated, avoiding duplication or overlap, and therefore saving funds
Communication is easier and more effective for you – you will be able to share your story and any updates just once to your child’s therapy team.
-
We believe that parents know their children best. We also believe that parents and families are the people who are going to have the most influence on their child’s development and progress. For these reasons, we always take a partnership approach with parents and families when supporting children with developmental delays and disabilities.
-
We will listen to you, and ask you to share, from your perspective, your concerns, your goals, your priorities for supports.
We will listen to and help you with, to the best of our ability, any questions, worries or anxieties you might have about any aspect of your child’s development, condition or care.
We will ask you for information that will help us to work with you to support your child, and we expect that you will share this honestly – this will include information about your child’s funding (eg: NDIS participant numbers and plan dates), your child’s goals (NDIS goals or other goals), other people involved in your child’s care (siblings, extended family, teachers or educators, other therapy or support services), and any progress or changes made in your child’s needs or presentation.
We will inform you, answer any of your questions, and advise you about your options, so that you can make informed choices about your child’s care.
We will explore what your pre-existing family strengths are and utilise and build on these to support your child and family.
Our recommendations will be flexible and individualised to reflect your child’s and family’s unique needs and priorities. We will work with you to develop a therapy support plan that can work towards those unique needs and priorities.
We will encourage you to be responsible for the decisions around your child’s care, and the decisions and choices you make about your child’s care will be respected.
We will ask you to actively participate in your child’s therapy. For some children and parents this will mean we will ask you to actively participate in your child’s therapy sessions. For other children and parents, this will mean we will provide you with regular updates about your child’s progress.
We will provide strategies for you to continue with at home, to support your child’s ongoing progress after our therapy session.
We will share clear and timely information with you about your child’s condition and progress. We ask you to do the same so that we can adapt our supports accordingly.
We will ask you to share any feedback or concerns about your child’s therapy honestly and in a timely manner so that we can work with you, without judgement, to address these concerns. If we cannot help you with these concerns, we will be honest with you about this, and will support you to find an alternative solution.
-
Children learn best in their natural environments and in naturally occurring situations. Many life skills your child needs to learn are difficult to replicate in a clinical setting.
Children are more relaxed and comfortable in their natural environments
Your child’s therapists can observe and understand a family’s lifestyle, routines, and environments, which means that recommendations made
Many skills your child needs to learn are
-
Description text goes here
-
Description text goes here
-
Item description
Telehealth
Text to go here
