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Hi there,

My name is

Touraan

I am Kenya born and bred. I had the most idyllic childhood growing up in Nairobi. Safaris were a regular with my family, and so my enthusiasm for adventure, travel and exploration stemmed from an early age. My interests have often revolved around people, cultures and caring for individuals, which I believe is a key catalyst for being an Occupational Therapist. My enthusiastic, bubbly personality, along with my thoughtful and caring characteristics were also a telling reason for leading me into the career I am now in.

After finishing my schooling, I completed my studies at Oxford Brookes University, where I obtained a Bachelors Degree in Occupational Therapy. Since graduating in 2013, I have built up valuable experience providing Occupational Therapy in hospitals, clinics, homes, mainstream and special educational need schools.

I have a vast range of experience of working with children and young people aged 1 to 19 who experience a wide range of difficulties, including: fine and gross motor difficulties, visual perceptual difficulties, handwriting difficulties, mild-moderate learning difficulties, sensory processing difficulties, Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD), Developmental Delay, Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADD/ADHD), Down syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, SMA, Muscular Dystrophy and other neurological conditions.

In 2020, I returned to Kenya with the ambition of starting my own Paediatric Occupational Therapy practice. This is named Totos (children) Therapy. I am hugely passionate about working with children and young people who experience any form of physical, intellectual and developmental difficulties.

From my varied experience, I have come to believe in the importance of integrating the techniques and skills of Occupational Therapy into everyday life. I aim to provide a service, which empowers parents and caregivers, as well as children, to succeed in their daily activities across home and school.

My Qualifications

I hold a BSc Hons degree in Occupational Therapy. I am registered with:

The Kenya Occupational Therapy Association (KOTA)

The Health Care Professionals Council (HCPC)

British Association of Occupational Therapy BAOT

Royal College of Occupational Therapy

I am conversant in Swahili and fluent in English

I have completed further professional development in:

Understanding Sensory Processing and Integration for Parents and Carers

Cognitive Orientation to Occupational Performance (COOP)

Occupational Performance Coaching (OPC)

Sensory Integration Module 1

Understanding Sensory Processing

Special Yoga for Special Children Teacher Training

What is a  Paediatric Occupational Therapist

A Paediatric Occupational Therapist:

  • Enables children and young people to participate in their daily “occupations” (such as getting dressed, writing, using cutlery, scissors, tools).
  • Provides specialist assessment to identify the difficulties impacting your child’s function.
  • Provides therapeutic intervention, using evidence based models, approaches and strategies to enable children and young people to be as independent as possible.
  • Works collaboratively with parents, carers and teachers to enable and empower them to support their child and help them achieve their full potential at home, school and during play.

Who can an Occupational Therapist support?

Occupational therapists can support babies, children or young adults who are experiencing challenges with their leisure, self-care, schoolwork or play due to a disability, difficulty or illness. This may include the following:

Neuro-typical children

Visual perceptual difficulties

Handwriting difficulties

Learning difficulties

Sensory processing difficulties

Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD)/Dyspraxia

Developmental Delay

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADD/ADHD)

Down's syndrome

Muscular Dystrophy

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD)

Cerebral Palsy

Other neurological conditions

How does an Occupational Therapist work?

We work with the parent/carer or teacher and child using the Person, Environment and Occupation (PEO) model in order to identify:

  • What your child needs/wants to do (occupation/task), such as: tying shoelaces
  • What can your child currently do and what they find difficult (person), such as: how they tie their shoelaces
  • Where your child does or needs to do the activity/task (environment), for example whilst sitting on a bench
  • We support parents and teachers in how to evaluate the child’s challenges and provide intervention for those that are important to them.
  • We support with diagnosis, suggestions of alternative ways to do things, providing advice to support learning new techniques or simply recommending equipment or adaptations to their environment.

How do I know if my child needs occupational therapy?

  • If your child’s performance and participation in everyday activities is being impacted by their disability or impairment, not meeting their developmental milestones then an occupational therapist can support your child and your wider family.

Individual Therapy

Parent only sessions

School Based 

Mzee Therapy

Individual Occupational Therapy Intervention

This can involve:

    • Initial consultation with parents/carers to gain a further understanding and history of the child and family;
    • Individual assessment of your child through use of standardised or non standardised assessments;
    • Home and/or school observations/liaison;
    • Full postural/seating assessments;
    • Individualised Therapy Programme (*additional on request);
    • Summary report with recommendations/strategies (*additional on request);
    • Feedback meeting with parents/carers and school;
    • Intervention/assessment can be provided both virtually (over zoom or the phone) or face-to-face with all relevant COVID-19 checks in place; and
    • Appointments anywhere between 45-60 minutes long

Parent only sessions

This will involve:

    • working with parent/carers to achieve occupational performance goals for themselves and their children;
    • working with parents/carers to collaboratively analyse and problem solve their childs and/or parent/carers performance;
    • working collaboratively with parents/carers to learn and identify strategies to achieve their identified goal/s;
    • Parent coaching sessions- 3 therapy sessions with parent’s only

School Based OT

The OT can offer:

  • strategies and ideas to support whole class participation and learning;
  • Environmental advice;
  • Recommendations for equipment;
  • Support with devising and following educational health care plans;
  • Training packages for school settings and parents/carers;
  • Collaborative work with school staff to identify needs in order to enable children to participate and succeed in the educational setting;
  • A service provision to meet the needs of the school using a tiered approach. See below for details of a tiered approach:

Universal: Whole school services, which are designed to provide training, mentoring, information and literature to parents, carers and the children’s workforce in order to ensure they know how best to support the children and young people to develop skills needed to participate. This can include staff training, parent workshops, environmental changes, resources etc. Using Handwriting as an example: Universal Interventions might include providing whole-school training to promote teachers’ understanding of the development of pencil grip. 

Targeted: Children who need support to develop skills and reach their personal and academic potential, including children with and/or without a diagnosis. Targeted interventions are often delivered in partnership with parents and/or teachers. Using the same example: provide a handwriting programme to an identified group of children targeting specific functional needs, which can then be continued by teachers and/or parents.

Specialist: Services for those children who have more persistent difficulties and who require specialist support at an individual level by an occupational therapist. Programs are tailored to the child’s interests and strengths to improve functional outcomes. Using the same example: provide an individualized intervention approach on the child’s specific handwriting needs e.g. letter formation.

Mzee (‘older people’) therapy can help older people who experience either a combination of mental health difficulties and / or physical restrictions, which prevent them from living independently.

Occupational therapists can help people lead independent and productive lives by allowing them to recover or develop skills needed to complete daily tasks.

Occupational Therapy can help older people to preform “occupations” or activities of daily living (ADLs)- which can include everything from bathing and toileting to getting dressed in the morning.

Therapy intervention can include:

  • working with the individual, their family members / carers, friends and  doctor to gain and gather information in order to provide client centred care and intervention.
  • supporting older people to continue doing the daily activities that maintain their health and wellbeing
  • assessment and recommendations on how to improve the environment. This will include equipment reviews, environmental reviews
  • assessing the risk and prevention of falls in older people.

How To Refer

How do I refer my child?

If you are concerned about your child’s participation in daily activities, and you think they would benefit from Occupational Therapy then please follow one of the below:

Parents / carers can self-refer by completing the online Occupational Therapy referral form (see link below)

Health professionals / schools teachers can refer (with parental consent) by completing the online Occupational Therapy referral form (see link below)

If you wish to discuss over the telephone before making a referral then please feel free to email or call us.

What’s next?

We will make contact with you to discuss next steps and to arrange an appointment at a mutually convenient time. Please contact Totos Therapy for quotations/prices.

Email: [email protected]

Download referral form here

Words to live by

Kind words creates confidence.

Kind thinking creates profoundness.

Kind giving creates love.