Sensory Integration Education

Lelanie Brewer, MSc OT, BSc, FHEA, SI Advanced Practitioner and the Director of Education Programmes for Sensory Integration Education, tells us about her highlights from the Children, Young People and Families (CYPF) Annual National Conference 2020. 

COVID-19 has had a significant impact in many ways on our working and professional lives. Many professional bodies and conference organisers have responded to the public impact of the pandemic by moving conferences online and in November 2020, I was fortunate to be able to attend Royal College of Occupational Therapy Specialist Section: CYPF virtual conference. The theme of the conference was “Unlocking Occupational Potential for Children, Young People and Families”. 

This was my first experience of a full virtual conference as both a presenter and attendee and the event exceeded my expectations on both accounts. The conference consisted of presentations, posters and interactive activities, including a quiz. It was a packed conference programme filled with high quality presentations and for the purposes of this write up I have summarised my highlights below. 

In 2020, the United Nations stated that: “Children are not the face of the pandemic. But they risk being among its biggest victims”. The opening presentation by Joanne Fillingham and Lorraine Mulroney focused on the significant effect COVID-19 has on children and young people through ‘indirect impacts and hidden harms’. Impacts for children and young people, and the response to this was discussed in this insightful presentation which discussed the detrimental effects of lockdown on children’s overall health, but also their mental health. 

Anne Corbett, Occupational Therapist and the manager of the Children’s Community Therapy Services for a London NHS trust delivered a thought-provoking keynote lecture which encouraged therapists to reflect on their practices and services and to consider how they are impacted by historical perspectives of disability. She also said that therapists need to support clients with what is meaningful to them and not what others think is meaningful. 

From a service user perspective Communicate2U, a social enterprise focused on improving communication between professionals and people with learning disabilities through the use of performing arts, performed a song reminding professionals to be clear in their communication. Their lyrics “we don’t know what you are saying” was a good reminder for therapists to be mindful of the jargon and abbreviations that they use in the workplace when communicating with service users. 

Another highlight was Denise Marting and Adele McQuillan’s presentation on Emotionally-Based School Avoidance (EBSA) in which they explored the application of trauma informed practice to unlock occupational performance. They focused on how relationships are key to therapy and discussed the interactive nature of sensory processing differences, stressors and feelings of anxiety in factors influencing EBSA. A tiered approach was recommended to address EBSA and stressed the importance of building connections to understand children better.

David Mars delivered a timely presentation on delivering virtual training for schools on the topic of Sensory Processing and discussed the use of staff confidence levels as an outcome measure for webinar-based training for school staff. Kim Griffin’s research about the impact of online training resources on primary school educators’ knowledge and confidence also suggests that coaching and collaboration are key in supporting students with special educational needs in the school setting.

Overall, it was a great CYPF conference and accessible to therapists who typically wouldn’t find it easy to travel to conferences. Whilst we look forward to the end of the pandemic it would be helpful for continued professional development if some of the annual conferences can continue with a virtual offering for attendees unable to be there in person.