My First Blog

Family centred Occupational Therapy for You!!!
PERTURBED ABOUT EXCRUCIATING PROCESS TO ACCESS BEST SERVICES!!!
I’m here to SERVE; GUIDE; PROTECT, SUPPORT, HELP, FEED, AND LEAD…

LET’S TAKE CONTROL BACK PARENTS, TEACHERS, SPECIAL NEEDS ASSISTANTS AND ALL STAKEHOLDERS.

1. WHO AM I?

Heartily welcome to you all, and thank you for joining us. I’m Denzil Jacobs a husband to my extremely supportive and loving wife Elaine, and father of 5 beautiful children, one of whom has complex special needs. It also turns out that I’m an Occupational therapist by profession with 20 years’ plus experience, and a passion for working in the areas of Autism; Down syndrome; sensory processing disorder; Dyspraxia; Dysgraphia; Dyslexia; ADHD; ADD; ODD; and other syndromes of all age groups. Other qualifications include Assistive Technology Assessor, Sensory integration (S.I.T), neurodevelopmental (NDT), Applied Behavioural Analysis (ABA) trained, extensive experience working in postural management and seating, as well as doing assessments and recommendation reports for housing adaptations.

As a father and a professional living and working with special needs, my main passions and purpose is to help us all overcome the plethora of theory in academia and the often malarkey of it all, and ‘JUST GIVE IT STRAIGHT.

“ARE YOU FEELING COMPLETELY OUT OF CONTROL? I CERTAINLY BEEN THERE BEFORE!!!”

Come let us work together to demystify all the confusion and questions that we may have, and collaborate to provide us all with easy to understand practical actions in our quest to helping our children and adults living with special needs reach their full potential and be fully included into our communities and society as a whole.

“ARE WE CURRENTLY FINDING OURSELVES RESEARCHING AND READING THE PLETHORA OF INFORMATION OUT THERE AND THEN FINDING OURSELVES PERTURBED ABOUT IT ALL?”

“IS FRIGHTENING QUESTIONS LIKE THESE POPPING UP…”

Does my child have a disability?
What can I do to help MY CHILD?
“…Or MAYBE YOU MOVED ON FROM THAT PHASE AND NOW ASKING QUESTIONS LIKE…”
“What the best therapy for my child?”
“Is it Sensory? Is it Behaviour?” or “Is it bit of both? or all of both?”
“What is the difference between sensory processing disorder and autism?”
“Does every child with autism have sensory processing disorder?”
“Can my child with down syndrome have autism too?”
AND SO MUCH MORE…

AND THE FEAR, ANXIETY, STRESS, ANNOYANCE, FRUSTRATION, KICKS IN BIGTIME…

I certainly experienced all the above emotions as a dad and professional…

Don’t despair let’s take care of each other here, and share, serve, support, help and lead each other to success and future progress.

So where to start? So briefly here are some tips of how to start thinking about your current circumstances and then consult a professional with your outcomes if needs be…

Making SENSE out of the situation!

Stop and think! Speak to yourself and ask yourself “Is this sensory or behaviour? How can I help my child?”

Think M.E.A.T.S (what was the function to behaviour)

M-EDICAL (Is there something medical going on? Headache; ear infection)

E-SCAPE (Is he/she trying to avoid a situation or task/activity)

A-TTENTION (Is he/she laughing at you when you look at them)

T-ANGIBLE (Is he/she looking for something to eat; a toy)

S-ENSORY (is he/she looking for a hug; stimulating by spinning; smelling?)

 

Following your above thinking process, consulting an Occupational therapist (O.T.) or behaviourist (ABA or NDBI specialist) face to face or on a platform like this, is a good place to start your collaboration with professionals? GENERALLY, IT’S FREE FOR A O.T. CONSULTATION

O.T.’s ARE GENERALLY EXPERTS AT IDENTIFYING SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS, AND CATEGORISING THEM INTO THERE APPROPRIATE AREAS, FOR EXAMPLE: IS IT SENSORY? OR IS IT BEHAVIOUR.

On this platform I aim to help and support all, by consolidating all the evidence-based information out there. Construct an action plan from assessment through to intervention. Then monitoring feedback and hopefully mentoring progress.

Resources I plan to use are live and recorded webinars (focused online training sessions in basic techniques and tips for home; school and work environments); podcast with other O.T.’s and diverse number of other professionals, for example behaviourist (ABA), clinical psychologist (around assessments & diagnosis) and informative blogs with a library of links, videos etc. For all our learning and development.

 

This Post Has 10 Comments

  1. Brenda

    Great read Denzel keep up the great work

  2. Beverly Mcloughlin

    Denzil this very informative. Thanks so much.

  3. Carmel Brown

    Just brilliant Denzil.

  4. Siobhan Powell

    Well done Denzil and good luck with the blog, Siobhan, Tony and Ethan x

  5. Joanne Carthy

    well done Denzil.Best of luck…you have changed our lives????

  6. Ann Marie Kelly

    Wonderful empowering words as usual Ann Marie

  7. suzanne.kerfoot

    Brilliant! So informative, well done, Sue, William and family ????

  8. Louise Caulfield

    Good luck with the blog denzil.

  9. Glynnis Jacobs

    Great read boet. Very proud of you.

  10. maura williams

    Great to have this blog Denzil. Must remember MEATS????

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