Written by: Lizette Alexander, OT Reg. (Ont)
Co-Founder & Director of Operations at Toronto Children’s Therapy Center
I would like to take this opportunity to wish all of our families and friends at Toronto Children’s Therapy Center a Happy New Year! A new year means a new beginning for Toronto Children’s Therapy Center. Now that the clinic is in its 11th year and into its second decade of service, we are excited to announce a number of wonderful changes that have taken place over the last few months!
Along with our new website, we have launched this blog which we hope will provide helpful information for parents and teachers. We will provide information and activity ideas to facilitate development of skills at home and school. Please note that the suggestions in this blog are not meant to be prescriptive. If you have specific concerns regarding your child’s fine or gross motor skills, printing skills, feeding or self-regulation, it is best if you speak directly with your child’s Occupational Therapist. The suggestions in this blog are meant to be a starting point to facilitate your child’s development and success!
First and foremost, Toronto Children’s Therapy Center would like to welcome Stacy Kramer to our team as Clinical Director. Stacy has been working as a Pediatric Occupational Therapist for over 15 years. She is certified in sensory integration and has received extensive training in the use of sensory processing as a framework when working with children. Stacy has the experience necessary to work with children of all ages and functional levels. She is currently on staff at the Child Development Centre at Toronto East General Hospital.
With Stacy’s expertise, we are now able to provide a more diverse and comprehensive range of specialized Pediatric OT programs and services. In addition to our printing programs (we are very excited about our new Superheroes Writing Series, TM), fine and gross motor skill development programs, we now provide assessment and intervention for feeding skills, sensory processing development, and infant programs to support babies with their developmental milestones such as sitting, crawling, walking, and fine motor skills.
In addition to these new programs, we are pleased to announce that Toronto Children’s Therapy Center is now the first and only Occupational Therapy clinic to provide affiliate tutoring and academic services to our clients. Our affiliate, Helping Hands Tutors provides tutoring services, book clubs, homework clubs and camp programs. All of the tutoring services and related programs are developed and implemented by Ontario Certified Teachers with Special Education qualifications. Many of the Teachers also train and work as Writing Coaches with Toronto Children’s Therapy Center, whose job is to support and implement Occupational Therapy programs. This deeper understanding of learning difficulties and effective learning strategies results in a smooth transition from Occupational Therapy to academics for children.
Thank you for taking the time to read our first blog. We look forward to meeting you here again soon. We appreciate your feedback and look forward to hearing from you. We wish to write about OT topics that matter to you!