Occupational Therapy

You can book an instructor by the hour for private instruction. You can request your favourite instructor for private tuition sessions, and we will do our best to ensure that they are on hand to take your booking. These sessions can be booked with a days notice through hospital requests or GP referrals.

We offer a special discounted rate of £18 and give us a call on 020 8969 0992 to discuss your requirement or email to climbing@westway.org.

Below are some of the benefits a Paediatric Occupational Therapist would hope a child may gain from their participation in wall climbing.

• Gross motor skills- Being aware of all 4 limbs, developing strength in shoulder and pelvic girdle, development of core stability of muscles within trunk (back and abdominal muscles), organising the body to balance and move in a coordinated way as a whole to climb and come back down the wall, using both sides of the body together.

• Fine Motor Skills- Developing fine motor strength in fingers as a whole and in individual fingers for individual finger movements. Eg spreading fingers wide or using them together over a range of shapes and sized handholds, managing to untie and tie the rope for safety knots.

• Visual Perceptual Skills - Following hand eye and foot eye coordination, awareness of distance and depth perception to reach and use hand and foot holds, focussing on the direction being climbed for near and far vision, visual tracking to follow movements before and during climb as well as when watching others.

• Motor Planning - Awareness of short and long distance planning for moves, use of both sides of the body to come to the midline of the body as well as to cross the midline.

• Attention and Concentration Listening to the instructor, following aural instructions, visual memory maintaining gaze between two points- current and where they will be moving to.

• Social, Communication and Psychological Areas Turn taking, listening to the instructor, following instructions, confidence in speaking out, achievement, completing a task, watching peers, talking about own and others experiences, receiving feedback from instructors and peers, independence in carrying out the task, effects on self esteem and confidence.

For children with sensory integration needs the muscle work required will provide propriocetion which may be calming to over stimulated children. Proprioception is the sense of joint position and allows us to move a part of the body without vision. Children who are under-active may benefit from the stimulation and may help regulate their calm alert state to a more optimal state.

As the children are attending as part of a formal group or 1-1 situation, in the same way as other children, it is hoped their awareness of skill development is more focussed on fun and development as opposed to attending a session focussed on remediation or 'Therapy'. Thus, enabling the child to develop a new skill, which may be generalised or impact upon their ability and confidence in other aspects of their daily life.