OT4me

OT4me We transform lives through occupational therapy and sensory integration, you can book a free 30-minute consultation with one of our therapists.

09/09/2026

Stop asking your child what they did at school. Not because you shouldn't ask, but because the question is doing all the wrong work.

"What did you have for lunch?"

"I can't remember."

Every parent has had this conversation, usually about four steps from the school gate, and it is easy to read it as a door closing.

It usually is not.

Sometimes they genuinely do not remember. Sometimes they cannot be bothered. And very often they are, in our Clinical Director Louise's words, too full in their cup to be talking about it yet. They have spent all day managing noise, people, transitions and expectations. Being asked to summarise it on demand is one more thing to process.

The child is not the problem here. The question is.

"What did you have for lunch?" asks them to search a whole day with nothing to narrow it down. Try giving them something smaller to reach for:

Out of everything you ate at lunchtime, what was your favourite thing in your lunchbox today?

Out of everyone you played with today, what was your favourite game?

Who was your favourite person to play with today?

Same conversation. Far less work. A question with a shape to it is much easier to answer than an open one, especially when your cup is already full.

And if they still say nothing, that is allowed too. Sometimes the answer comes at bath time, or in the car three days later, when nobody is asking.

Because regulation comes before learning.

Book a free 30-minute call with an OT. No pressure to book anything afterwards. https://ot4me.co.uk/book

Two years ago, Holly came to us on a student placement. She never left.Holly is our Occupational Therapy Assistant, and ...
07/09/2026

Two years ago, Holly came to us on a student placement. She never left.

Holly is our Occupational Therapy Assistant, and she is finishing her Occupational Therapy degree at the University of Huddersfield through an apprenticeship. That means she is learning the theory and using it in the same week, with real children, in a real clinic.

Ask her what she loves and it is the creative part. Play. Everyday tasks. Making a session something a child looks forward to rather than something to be endured, while independence and confidence get built quietly underneath.

"We would be lost without her." That is Louise, and everyone here would sign it.

Thank you, Holly. For the families who leave better understood than when they arrived, and for the work you do with schools, where the strategies have to survive a real classroom on an ordinary Tuesday.

Because the best therapy rarely looks like therapy.

Book a free 30-minute call with one of our OTs at ot4me.co.uk/book

04/09/2026

Five things in this box, and every one of them is doing a job.

Matching eggs. Suction toys. A slime bath. Play-Doh. Theraputty.

They look like a toy cupboard. They are closer to a set of tools.

Each one asks the hands to do something slightly different. Twisting an egg apart works one set of muscles. Pulling a suction toy off the table works another. Theraputty comes in different strengths, so the same tub can be easy for one child and hard work for another, and you choose based on the age of the child and how much you want to make their fingers work.

That last part is the bit that matters, and it is the bit that is hard to do at home.

Knowing that a child needs their hands strengthened is one thing. Knowing which of these, at what resistance, in what order, and whether hand strength is even the actual problem, is another. Plenty of children who struggle with a pencil are not short on hand strength at all.

That is what an assessment is for. Not a label for its own sake. A clear answer about what is going on, and a plan you can hand to a school.

If autism is the question in your house right now, our autism assessment is a route on its own, with aftercare workshops afterwards so you are not handed a report and left with it.

Book a free 30-minute call with an OT. No pressure to book anything afterwards. https://ot4me.co.uk/book

02/09/2026

Back to school offer, we've reduced dyspraxia assessments to £600 for a limited time.

If your child has always found planning, sequencing or coordinating movement harder than other children their age, you are not overreacting. It is not something they will simply grow out of. Our dyspraxia assessment looks at how your child plans and carries out movement, and what that means for home, school and play.

Dyspraxia, also called developmental coordination disorder (DCD), is a lifelong difference in how the brain plans, sequences and carries out movement. It has nothing to do with intelligence or effort, and it’s common, thought to affect around 5 to 6% of children. It looks different in every child, which is part of why it can be easy to miss or put down to something else.

What do you get as part of the assessment?

Standardised tests and observations
Questionnaires, observations and standardised tests, with input from you and your child.

A clear, honest picture
Strengths, challenges and functional impact, identified at home and at school. Where dyspraxia or DCD is identified, we say so clearly. Where it isn’t, we explain what we did find instead.

A detailed report
Practical recommendations you can share with school, whichever way the assessment points.

Tailored strategies
To build participation, confidence and everyday skills, at home and in the classroom.

A feedback call
30 minutes with your child’s therapist, to talk through what it means and what comes next.

Book a free call with an OT where you can ask any questions you may have prior to the assessment 👇

🔗 https://ot4me.co.uk/book

Your child should not have to reach crisis point before support begins.From September 2026, the government plans to star...
31/08/2026

Your child should not have to reach crisis point before support begins.

From September 2026, the government plans to start rolling out a new SEND support offer in England called Experts at Hand.

The aim is to bring more specialist advice into mainstream schools, nurseries and colleges, so children's needs can be noticed earlier and support can be put in place sooner.

One important point for parents:

Children should not need a formal diagnosis to access support through Experts at Hand.

Support should be based on need. That matters, because sensory processing differences, emotional regulation, movement, handwriting, self-care and daily routines can affect a child long before a diagnosis arrives.

This does not replace individual occupational therapy where a child needs more specific assessment or intervention. But earlier, joined-up support in school could make a real difference.

As this develops locally, it is worth asking your child's setting:

- How are sensory needs being identified?
- What support is available before diagnosis?
- How will parents be involved?
- What strategies can be used consistently at home and school?
- Does my child need individual OT advice?

At OT4me, we welcome any move towards earlier support that looks at the whole child, not just the behaviour seen on the surface.

"You quickly became someone that he trusted."That is a parent talking about Jess, who marks four years with OT4me.The fu...
28/08/2026

"You quickly became someone that he trusted."

That is a parent talking about Jess, who marks four years with OT4me.

The full feedback is heartwarming.

"You are obviously a very experienced therapist, but I think it was your approach and ability to meet him where he was that made a massive difference. Our son loved coming to the sessions and loved being in the sessions. You quickly became someone that he trusted, which helped him feel safe to try all activities, even when he was not so sure if he was going to enjoy. We both felt listened to, understood and very well supported."

Four years of exactly that. Of starting where the child actually is, not where the plan says they should be. Of being the person a worried parent can reach.

Thank you, Jess, from all of us and from every family who has sat across from you.

Because trust comes before progress.

Double birthday alert at OT4me 🎉🎂We're celebrating two brilliant people behind the scenes.Lizzie Huxford is one of our C...
26/08/2026

Double birthday alert at OT4me 🎉🎂

We're celebrating two brilliant people behind the scenes.

Lizzie Huxford is one of our Clinical Directors and a Specialist Occupational Therapist, bringing a trauma-informed, sensory integration approach to children, young people and adults across Yorkshire.

Helen Wood is our Customer Service Administrator, the friendly first point of contact for families, making sure every appointment and query is looked after.

Different roles, same heart for the families we work with. Happy birthday, Lizzie and Helen! Drop a birthday message for them both in the comments 👇

24/08/2026

Chewy calms them down. Crunchy wakes them up.

Same snack. Completely different job.

If your child comes out of the school gate and falls apart before you have reached the car, you already know that feeling. They held it together all day, and holding it together is what wore them out.

Here is something that helps, and it needs no planning.

Chewing is hard work, and the jaw is a big muscle. That effort tells the brain where the body is and what it is doing. Occupational therapists call it proprioception, and it is one of the most reliably calming things you can give a nervous system.

So a chewy snack on the way home is not the same as any old snack. It gives the jaw a job, and the job itself is regulating.

Crunchy does the opposite. Crunchy is alerting. That makes it useful at morning break, or on the days they come out flat rather than frazzled. A celery stick, a carrot stick, something with a snap to it.

Chewy to come down. Crunchy to wake up.

One thing worth saying, because it matters more than the snack does. If your child eats a limited range of foods, start with something already on their safe list. The school gate on a hard day is the worst possible moment to introduce a new food.

You are not overreacting, and you are not managing this badly. You are working with a child whose day costs them more than anyone can see.

Because regulation comes before learning.

Did you know occupational therapists do not just support children?Last week one Lizzie spent the day on a factory floor ...
24/08/2026

Did you know occupational therapists do not just support children?

Last week one Lizzie spent the day on a factory floor in York, carrying out a sensory-friendly workplace audit at Pecan Deluxe Candy Company.

An environmental audit asks a question most workplaces never get asked. How is this space actually experienced by the people working in it, and does it enable them or quietly get in their way?

🟠 Comment the word 'ESP' on this post and we'll send you information about how to access this free support.

We look at the whole picture: physical and mental health, sensory processing differences, the real demands of each role, and health and safety requirements.

With the right adjustments, people can:

Stay in roles they would otherwise have left.
Concentrate through a full shift instead of going home wrung out.
Ask for what they need before it becomes sickness absence.

Good workplace support should feel clear, safe, accessible and tailored. Not overwhelming.

For York and North Yorkshire employers this costs nothing. The audits sit inside the Employer Support Programme, which we deliver with Curious Edge Coaching. Any size of business, and the only ask is a minimum of three hours of training to access the funded support.

With thanks to Jane Hogarth and the team at Pecan Deluxe for the welcome.

This project is supported by York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority, using funding from the Department for Work and Pensions - DWP' Get Britain Working Economic Inactivity Trailblazer.

Because when the environment works, people can.

21/08/2026

"He was fine on holiday."

We hear a version of that sentence in clinic most weeks. Sometimes it is "he was fine at his grandma's". Sometimes it is "she was brilliant in the first week with the new teacher".

It has been on our minds again, because a lot of families have been talking to us about "The Great ADHD Myth?" on Channel 4, and about the six weeks at the centre of it.

The programme's closing caption reported that the boy it followed returned to his medication a couple of months after filming, that his school work improved, and that he hoped to try coming off again in future.

We are not going to tell you what to make of that. His family made a decision for their son in public, and every part of that decision is theirs.

What we can offer is the occupational therapy view of the six weeks themselves.

Six weeks is a short window to learn much about any child, and those particular six weeks had a great deal happening inside them.

They were summer weeks, with no school in them. There was a film crew in the house. And every adult around him was paying closer attention than usual.

Each one of those things supports regulation.

Novelty regulates. Undivided attention regulates. A stretch of days with fewer demands in it regulates.

And each one of them fades.

Which is part of why families so often come to us in October rather than in August. The holiday goes well. The first fortnight of term goes well. Then the corridors and the changeovers and the double lesson after lunch arrive, and the difficulties everyone hoped had gone come back.

If that is your autumn, please hear this. You did not do anything wrong. The conditions changed.

Working out which conditions, in what order, and what to do about them on an ordinary Tuesday in November is a large part of what an occupational therapist is for.

It is slower than six weeks. It is also the part that lasts.

Some of you told us last week that you chose not to watch, or that you switched it off. That was a reasonable decision and we would not argue with anybody who made it.

What came through most in what you said is that families are not looking to be reassured, and are not looking for an argument either. You want practical help, and you want the weight of it taken seriously.

That is what we are here for, and that has not changed.

If your child is struggling, they are struggling. You are not overreacting.

So tell us the one thing you are most unsure about as this term starts, and we will answer what we can.

Because regulation comes before learning.

Address

5 Middlethorpe Business Park, Sim Balk Lane
York
YO232BD

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

Telephone

07850535965

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