Individualised Occupational Therapy Sessions
Numeracy
Numeracy refers to a child’s ability to understand and work with numbers in everyday life. It includes skills such as counting, recognising numbers, understanding quantity, and solving simple problems.
Grip Strength
Grip strength is an essential part of a child’s physical development and plays a key role in many everyday activities. It refers to the ability of the hands and fingers to hold, squeeze, and control objects.
Body Concept
Body concept is a child’s awareness of their own body and how it moves. It supports coordination, movement, and understanding instructions.
Laterality
Laterality refers to the preference a child develops for using one side of the body more than the other, particularly the hands, feet, eyes, and ears. It is an important part of development and forms the foundation for coordinated and efficient movement.
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Formats for Class Reports - 3 Months
Tips for teachers and parents
The Foundations of Learning
Hover over each glass tile to explore how sensory, motor, and neurological foundations support daily function, behaviour, and academic learning.
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Academic Learning
Top Level Outcome
Academic learning includes reading, writing, concentration, memory, problem-solving, and classroom participation.
Why it matters: These higher-level skills rely on the lower layers of the pyramid functioning well together. When foundational systems are under strain, academic performance often becomes harder.
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Interactive breakdown
Daily Living Skills
Functional Outcome
Daily living skills include dressing, feeding, independence, organisation, toileting, and managing everyday routines.
Why it matters: These practical skills improve when body awareness, attention, sensory regulation, and motor planning are working smoothly.
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Behavior
Functional Outcome
Behaviour reflects how a child copes with stress, sensory demands, transitions, frustration, and emotional pressure.
Why it matters: Behaviour is often a sign that a lower foundation needs support. A child may be overwhelmed rather than simply unwilling.
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Auditory Language Skills
Processing Skill
These skills help a child listen, understand speech, follow instructions, and make sense of verbal information.
Why it matters: Difficulties here can affect language development, communication, and learning in the classroom.
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Visual Spatial Perception
Processing Skill
Visual spatial perception helps with understanding where objects are in space, how they relate to one another, and how to judge direction and distance.
Why it matters: This is important for handwriting, reading, puzzles, movement, and navigating the environment.
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Attention Center Functions
Processing Skill
Attention functions include focusing, shifting attention, sustaining concentration, and filtering distraction.
Why it matters: When the nervous system is overloaded, attention often becomes inconsistent or effortful.
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Eye-hand Coordination
Motor-Perceptual Skill
Eye-hand coordination is the ability to guide hand movement using visual information accurately and efficiently.
Why it matters: It supports writing, drawing, cutting, catching, dressing, and many school-based tasks.
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Ocular Motor Control
Motor-Perceptual Skill
Ocular motor control refers to how well the eyes track, fixate, shift focus, and work together.
Why it matters: This is important for reading fluency, copying, scanning, and visual efficiency.
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Postural Adjustment
Motor-Perceptual Skill
Postural adjustment is the body’s automatic ability to respond to movement and stay balanced during action.
Why it matters: It helps a child remain stable while sitting, reaching, moving, and participating in play or learning.
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Body Scheme
Body Awareness
Body scheme is an internal map of the body and how its parts move and work together.
Why it matters: A strong body scheme supports coordination, confidence in movement, and more efficient motor learning.
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Reflex Maturation
Neurological Foundation
Reflex maturation describes the healthy integration of primitive reflexes as the nervous system develops.
Why it matters: If reflexes remain active too long, they can interfere with posture, balance, attention, coordination, and learning.
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Ability to Screen Input
Sensory Regulation
This is the ability to notice important sensory information while filtering out what is unnecessary or overwhelming.
Why it matters: Children who cannot screen input efficiently may seem distracted, overloaded, or constantly sensory-seeking.
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Postural Security
Core Foundation
Postural security is the sense of physical stability and confidence the body needs in order to feel safe in movement.
Why it matters: Without it, a child may avoid movement, tire easily, or struggle with balance and upright sitting.
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Awareness of 2 Sides of Body
Bilateral Integration
This refers to awareness and coordinated use of both sides of the body, including crossing the midline.
Why it matters: This affects writing, cutting, dressing, climbing, ball skills, and many two-handed tasks.
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Motor Planning
Praxis
Motor planning is the ability to think of, organise, and carry out a movement sequence.
Why it matters: Difficulties here can affect play, imitation, self-care, sports, and confidence in new tasks.
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Olfactory (Smell)
Sensory System
The olfactory system processes smell and contributes to safety, memory, and environmental awareness.
Why it matters: Smell can strongly influence comfort, alertness, emotional response, and feeding.
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Visual
Sensory System
The visual system gathers and interprets information through sight.
Why it matters: It supports orientation, learning, movement, social interaction, and task accuracy.
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Auditory
Sensory System
The auditory system processes sound, rhythm, tone, and spoken input.
Why it matters: It is essential for language development, listening, communication, and classroom learning.
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Gustatory (Taste)
Sensory System
The gustatory system processes taste and plays a role in feeding, food preferences, and oral sensory experience.
Why it matters: Taste sensitivity can influence eating habits, regulation around meals, and food acceptance.
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Tactile
Sensory System
The tactile system processes touch, pressure, texture, pain, and temperature.
Why it matters: It supports body awareness, safety, comfort, emotional regulation, and fine motor use.
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Vestibular
Sensory System
The vestibular system provides information about movement, gravity, head position, and balance.
Why it matters: It is foundational for posture, balance, spatial orientation, and security in movement.
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Proprioception
Sensory System
Proprioception tells the body where it is in space and how much force to use.
Why it matters: It supports coordination, grading force, body awareness, motor control, and calming regulation.
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Interactive breakdown
Central Nervous System
Neurological Base
The central nervous system receives, organises, and responds to information from the body and the environment.
Why it matters: This is the foundation under the entire pyramid. Every other skill depends on how effectively the nervous system develops and processes input.
Outcomes
Processing
Foundations
Sensory Systems
Neurological Base
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Select a pyramid level
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How Learning Is Built
A mobile-friendly overview of the key foundations that support behaviour, daily function, and academic learning.
Foundation
Sensory Systems
Integration Foundations
Processing & Coordination
Functional Outcomes
This mobile version replaces the pyramid completely so the content stays readable and interactive.
What You Need to Know
