Sandra Evans - Visiting Independent Occupational Therapist Rainbow Centre

After graduating from the Derby School of Occupational Therapy in 1981, Sandra worked for both Health and Social Services and has specialised in Paediatrics for the majority of her career. She has been based locally in the St Albans area for the past twenty years, fourteen of which she worked for West Herts. NHS team within the Child Development Centre, where she visited clients’ homes, mainstream and special schools, as well as play groups and opportunity classes. Sandra left the statutory services in 2001 to work independently and has been fully employed ever since. She works one day a week within Egerton Rothesay School as an independent therapist employed directly by the parents.

Occupational Therapy at Egerton Rothesay

The majority of Sandra's time is spent in the lower school but her approach to the students is consistent across the age ranges and focuses on providing support and direction for perceptual motor development. She works with the children in a group situation and individually either in a class or in separate area.

Much of a young child's behaviour is motor-based. Right from the early sensations of body movement a child is developing a basic platform of motor skills that is essential for the development of higher levels of learning. It is from this basic motor foundation that the system expands and allows them greater functional access to the school-based curriculum.

As Occupational Therapists, when providing perceptual motor activities, we are aiming to make positive contributions to the knowledge of the self and of the physical environment through purposeful movement experiences. Through these experiences, the pupil develops skills in the use of his/her body, in the use of objects and space as well as the ability to control the amount of effort needed to achieve an individual goal.

The major areas of concern that constitute perceptual motor development are:

• Gross-Motor Co-ordination
• Fine-Motor Co-ordination
• Balance
• Laterality
• Directionality
• Hand/Eye, Foot/Eye Co-ordination
• Body Image
• Spatial Orientation

Close links with the class-based curriculum are maintained and IEP targets are drawn up with Rainbow I and II class teachers on a regular basis.