Children's Occupational Therapy DCD Team

What services does the Children's Occupational therapy DCD team offer?

• DCD Pathway - standardised motor skills testing, motor skills group treatment programme.
• Sensory Education session pathway - 2-3 hours education session for parents/ guardian.

DCD (Developmental Co-ordination Disorder) Pathway

Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trusts Children's OT DCD team provides standardised motor skills assessment of children in mainstream primary, for children and young people aged 5-16 years.

Children’s Occupational Therapists are experienced clinicians who work with children and their families to help develop and maximise motor skills and function for children with Developmental Coordination Disorders (DCD). We work closely with families to give them the skills and confidence to help their child’s development at home.

Occupational Therapists will use a combination of approaches to develop gross and fine motor skills and provide an intervention programme. For some children, they can access a motor skills group treatment sessions run for 9 weeks, 5 weeks for gross motor skills and 4 weeks for fine motor skills, each session lasting 45 minutes at Cherry tree House, Clatterbridge Health Park. There is an optional 30 minute week 5 individual session for fastening buttons and tying laces. Each child is given homework to be completed daily between sessions in order to consolidate skills learnt in the sessions.

The team work in Cherry Tree House, Clatterbridge Health Park.

For more information about how to access this service and how we test motor skills please click page links.

Sensory Education Session Pathway

For children and young people aged 4 – 18 years who experience difficulty regulating their sensory systems which impacts on their functional ability, we provide a 2-3 hours education session for parents/ guardian to attend to learn how to use specific exercises to help regulate their child’s nervous system. 

The session included:

• Introduction to sensory processing, sensory systems and how they work
• Sensory modulation
• Is it sensory or could it be something else?
• Sensory thresholds (“Big cup or Little Cup”)
• Sensory strategies, why they may be helpful and when to use them
• Introduction to self-regulation
• Strategies children can use to label regulation levels

For more information on how to access the service, resources to support your child at home or in the education setting as well as useful links to services we work closely with; please explore the links below.