At-School OT Screening Program

Supporting Early Intervention for Student Success

Our Occupational Therapy team offers comprehensive school screening programs designed to support student success at any stage of the school year. While screenings are typically conducted for Pre-Primary students, we can tailor the program to suit your school’s curriculum and preferred timeline, whether in Term 1, Term 2, or later in the year.

Why Conduct an OT School Screen?

Early intervention is key to ensuring children thrive academically, socially, and emotionally. Our OT School Screening program provides valuable third-party insights that can help teachers engage in meaningful conversations with parents about their child's development. These screenings act as a mini or ‘express’ OT assessment, identifying children who may benefit from further OT support or closer monitoring throughout the school year.

How and Where Are Screens Conducted?

To minimize classroom disruption, screenings are conducted onsite at the school. Our team will send 1-2 therapists, along with a dedicated assistant (‘Runner’), who will smoothly transition students to and from the classroom. This approach is highly efficient, especially for larger year groups.

Each screening takes approximately 20 minutes per child.
Schools of all sizes can participate, ranging from 15 to 60 enrolled students per screening.

Optimal Screening Age & Timing

Pre-Primary (4.5–6 years old)
We specialize in working with children aged 2.5–17 years, but our OT screens are particularly designed for Pre-Primary students, as this is a crucial time for early intervention. Schools often prefer screenings in Term 1, allowing insights to be available before the first parent-teacher meetings (Week 7, Term 1). We can also prioritize reports for specific students ahead of scheduled meetings.

Kindergarten (Second Half of the Year)
Some schools opt to conduct OT screenings for Kindergarten students in the latter half of the year. This helps engage parents early, ensuring children receive support before entering Pre-Primary. We can tailor our assessments and reporting to align with this preference.

Key Focus Areas

Our screening process assesses fundamental developmental areas that impact school readiness and success. These include:

✅ Fine Motor Skills
✅ Gross Motor Skills
✅ Visual Motor Skills
✅ Social & Emotional Development
✅ Attention & Focus
✅ Sensory Processing

Some assessments are conducted face-to-face with the child, while others involve a parent questionnaire. The combined data is used to create a concise one-page report per child, outlining:

A summary of findings
Recommendations for OT follow-up, close monitoring, or a 6-month review

Class-Wide Insights & Reporting

In addition to individual reports, we provide class-wide developmental insights, including graphs and tables to help teachers identify trends and focus areas for the cohort. We also share practical strategies that educators can implement to support their students, even without direct OT intervention.

🔹 Interested in seeing a sample report? We’d be happy to provide an example—simply email us or call the clinic!