Occupational Therapy for Children
Fun, friendly and professional support to build your child’s everyday independence.
North Richmond Community Health’s paediatric occupational therapist works with children and their families to develop skills and abilities that improve your child’s ability to take part in everyday activities.
What we provide
- Assessment and therapy for children from birth – 12 years of age
- Home programs to support the work done in therapy sessions
- Home, school and kindergarten visits as appropriate
- Group programs
How we can help
- Fine and gross motor skills
- Meeting early movement milestones (crawling and walking)
- Self-care skills (eating, toileting, dressing, sleep routine)
- Play skills
- School readiness skills
- Emotional and sensory regulation
- Attention and behaviour
Our services are:
- free (for clients in the Priority Access Group). See our Fees page for more information.
- focused on the goals that are important to you and your child
- offered in your child’s natural environment such as school, kindergarten, child care or at home
- part of the holistic children’s health services offered at North Richmond Community Health, including Speech Pathology for children and Nutrition and Dietetics for children.
Making a referral:
1. Download our referral form: Referral Form – Child Health and Development
2. Email the form to intake@nrch.com.au or post it to:
North Richmond Community Health
23 Lennox St
Richmond, VIC 3121
Parents and carers can contact us directly to make a referral. Referrals are also accepted from health professionals, early childhood educators and schools. For example:
- Paediatrician
- Maternal and Child Health Nurse
- General Practitioner
- Audiologist
- Kindergarten Teacher
- Preschool Field Officer
- other professionals involved in the child’s care.
Once we receive the referral, our intake team member will contact you to arrange an initial appointment.
Please note that wait times to be allocated to an Occupational Therapist can vary. Once your child has reached the top of the waiting list, our intake team will contact you to make an appointment.
Eligibility
Community Health Occupational Therapy (0–12 years)
This service is for children who:
- Are aged 0–12 years
- Live in or attend an education setting (ie. child care, kindergarten, school) in the City of Yarra
NDIS Occupational Therapy (0–12 years)
We also provide occupational therapy services under the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).
This services is for children who:
- Are aged 0–12 years
- Live in and/or attend education settings (ie. child care, kindergarten, school) in the City of Yarra or surrounding suburbs
- Have NDIS funding that includes occupational therapy supports
NDIS services are tailored to your child’s individual goals and may include therapy, parent coaching, collaboration with educational settings (child care, kindergarten, school), functional capacity assessments.
Interpreters
Telephone and on-site interpreters can be arranged in any language at no cost to you.
North Richmond Community Health’s Occupational Therapy service is supported by the Victorian Government.
Contact information
Submit a referral form to start your therapy services.
If you would like to make an enquiry you can contact us using the following details:
Phone
(03) 9418 9965
Our team
Sarah
Senior Occupational Therapist
Sarah joined the team at North Richmond Community Health in December 2018. Sarah brings over 12 years of experience from working in early childhood intervention, private practice, and school settings. She has also worked in health care clinics in developing countries. Sarah has special interests in working with children and their families to support the child’s participation in everyday activities such as play, sensory and emotional regulation, fine motor activities (e.g. drawing, writing), and self-care activities (getting dressed, toileting, feeding).
Sarah has completed her Masters of Public Health, where she conducted research about culturally appropriate health care among families. Sarah has presented this research at conferences nationally and internationally. Sarah employs holistic, family-centered, and strengths based approaches to care, by working collaboratively with the child’s family and team towards relevant goals.
Mai
Occupational Therapist
Mai joined the Child Health and Development Team in March 2020. Mai has her Masters in Occupational Therapy Practice and has worked in Early Childhood Intervention Services across Melbourne before starting at North Richmond Community Health.
Mai aims to support children and their families to participate in meaningful occupation and work towards their goals through a strength-based approach. Mai enjoys collaborating with a child’s support network to implement evidence-based strategies to support learning and engagement in daily life that are both realistic for the family and fun for the child.
Mai enjoys working in the community in both individual and group based settings to work towards building a child’s independence. Mai has a particular interest in areas such as emotional regulation, motor skill development and behaviour.
Leonardo
Occupational Therapist
Leo has been practicing as an Occupational Therapist for more than 10 years. He has supervised a number of occupational therapy and physiotherapy students in Australia and overseas.
Leo is passionate about providing services to children and families in a creative and playful way. He is skilled in assessment of movement and sensory challenges for children with complex movement disorders. Leo is able to complete home and environmental assessments to prescribe appropriate equipment. He is able to support clients accessing funding through the NDIS and has experience liaising with NDIS planners, writing reviews, sourcing funding and delivering therapy services.
Leo has an interest in movement disorders, vison impairment and assistive technology.
Emma
Occupational Therapist
Emma joined the Child Health and Development Team in November 2024. Emma has a variety of experience working with children as a disability support worker and registered nurse before completing her bachelor’s degree in occupational therapy as a mature age student.
Emma enjoys the creative aspect of her role, and strives to make interventions engaging and tailored to each child’s individual needs.
Emma enjoys working across ages and settings and has a special interest in supporting children with their fine motor skill development, social skills, emotional regulation and sensory processing.
Ashley
Occupational Therapist
Ashley joined the team at North Richmond Community Health in 2023. She previously worked in various settings supporting children such as primary schools, community health and early childhood intervention centres. Ashley uses a child led, family-centred and strengths-based approach to work collaboratively towards goals that are meaningful to children and/or their families.
Ashley enjoys working in the community to target goals in the environments they occur. She is trained in several approaches to support goals across the areas of regulation, motor skills and self-care including toileting, sleep, and eating/feeding.