Lucy’s story

Lucy had moved to a new school at the start of Year 3. She has ADHD and hypermobility, and her needs were being met through an EHCP.  During her short school career she had met a number of professionals: an Educational Psychologist, a Paediatrician, a Speech & Language Therapist and a Physiotherapist. She had also been seen by an Occupational Therapist but her parents had ceased that input.

Lucy was experiencing considerable challenges across many aspects of daily life both at school and at home, not least with her functional skills and ability to navigate friendships. Her parents had ongoing concerns about Lucy’s needs in the classroom, the level of support she needed to sustain access to learning, and her ability to join in play.   A fresh Occupational Therapy assessment was requested to ensure all areas of her functional strengths and difficulties are understood.

Lucy was great to work with. She showed curiosity and determination to do as well as she could during her assessment and responded well to encouragement and praise. It became apparent that the assessments Lucy was asked to complete had not been used with her by her previous Occupational Therapist.  It transpired that Lucy has significant difficulty with her motor coordination, which is compounded by her hypermobility (but not caused by it).   She demonstrates challenges with her dominance which affects her ability to work in and across the midline, as well as with motor planning and motor control. It was explained to her parents that how Lucy functions is ‘normal’ for her, although it follows that Lucy will feel frustrated or upset at times. Lucy cannot understand why many tasks are easier for other people.

Lucy’s sensory processing skills were also explored. Lucy clearly wanted to blend in with her peers but this resulted in her masking her sensory needs which made her really fatigued and caused huge challenges when she got home. These needs were fully explained, and strategies to support Lucy at school and home were recommended. By helping Lucy at school it meant that the fallout at home would be less (which has been proven to be the case).

The Occupational Therapist visits Lucy three times a year to review how she is getting on in the classroom, to give new advice to her teacher and TA, and to modify recommendations for school and home. Part of the support is to help reframe any neuro-normative expectations within the classroom and as a result, Lucy is now enjoying school and participating successfully in her school work and socially alongside her friends.