Occupational Therapy Week 2019, 4-10 November

The Occupational Therapy Team at Seashell assists students to participate effectively in all areas of everyday life.  They work within a multi-disciplinary team and support and train staff to facilitate student involvement in all activities that are important to the students.

This week we celebrate Occupational Therapy Week 2019 with a focus on the theme: Small Change, Big Impact.  The aim of this theme is to celebrate and champion the impact of occupational therapy on the lives of service users and the communities they live in. 

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Occupational Therapy Week 2019, 4-10 November, Toby

Occupational Therapists assist students to participate effectively in all areas of everyday life.  They work within the multi-disciplinary team and support and train staff to facilitate student involvement in all activities that are important to the student, including:

Enjoyment, satisfaction and a sense of achievement in taking part in activities leads to learning and mastering new skills and developing positive self esteem.

Physical wellbeing, for example improved stamina may be achieved through taking part in an enjoyable activity such as gardening.

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World Mental Health Day: yoga can help mental health for those with complex needs

As a charity our key priority is our young people, children and staff’s wellbeing. Today marks world mental health day so we’re sharing our key yoga and breathing tips for supporting mental health for children with disabilities and communication needs.

Yoga and mindfulness techniques can be introduced to reduce the stress and anxiety associated with sensory processing and communication difficulties, therefore, promoting a better mental health and wellbeing.

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Deafblind Awareness Week: Calendar Systems

A calendar system provides a way to support DB learners to develop communication, provide emotional support and power, as well as teaching abstract time concepts and vocabulary.

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Deafblind Awareness Week: Objects of Reference

“The role of the tangible object is central for the deafblind child’s communication and language learning, supporting a multi-modal approach using speech and co-active sign. If the bib is always put on for feeding, it becomes a key part of the child’s mental representation of feeding and the feeding process. After experiencing the routine over and over, just the touch of the bib will trigger the excitement, or relief, that the feed is coming.

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Deafblind Awareness Week: Object Cues

As part of deafblind week June 24th  our MSI Outreach Services Team have put some information on supporting deafblind learners with their communication needs.  Individuals who are deafblind use touch to access their world and those who have some functional vision and hearing it suppots making sense of those interactions.  They develop their understanding of the relationship of these objects to their environment, to anticipate and then to use them to communicate.  There are many tactile communication methods to support deafblind to interact with their world.

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Deafblind Awareness Week: Hand Under Hand

Learners who are deafblind, who cannot use their hearing to compensate for their hearing loss and cannot compensate their vision loss through hearing are truly deprived off information unless they learn to use their sense of touch.

These learners need a way to compensate for the missing information that vision and hearing provide.  Barbara Miles in her article The Importance of Hands for the Person Who is Deafblind writes:

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Deafblind Awareness Week: Touch and Early Communication

The bond between a baby and their parents begins usually from birth. The care needed and touch of the baby helps to form and develop the relationship between them such as eye contact, smiling, and vocalizations. 

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It’s time to Shellebrate!

196 years ago founders of the original charity Robert Philips and William Bateman opened their school for deaf children in rented premises in Salford. Fast forward to 2019 and it has evolved to host a college, school and specialist care which helps to educate and develop 130 children and young people, who have profound learning difficulties and communication needs, through a range of innovative, exciting and explorative techniques.

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Charity Seashell adds sparkle to Handforth Railway Station

Students from the Cheadle-Hulme based charity Seashell Trust installed some rather eye-catching art work this week at Handforth Railway Station.

The charity, who cares for and educates children and young people with complex learning difficulties and communication needs, prides itself on its inclusive art department which encourages students to learn through exploration and play.

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How Yoga Benefits our Young People

Emily is one of our occupational therapists at Seashell which means that she provides practical support to help our children and young people to carry out everyday tasks or occupations with more confidence and independence. Emily has specialist training in using yoga and mindfulness for young people with autism and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

Here she shares her views on the benefits of using yoga within her role, and how she aims to develop this within her clinical practice.

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Supporting children and young people with CHARGE Syndrome

Supporting children and young people with CHARGE Syndrome
At Seashell Trust we support children and young people with some of the most complex needs in the country. Our multidisciplinary staff teams are specialised in a range of rare or low incidence conditions, including CHARGE syndrome.  Here we talk about what it means for a child to have CHARGE syndrome and we highlight the work of our dedicated therapy teams who build independence in young people with the condition and support them to lead more fulfilling lives.

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