Clinical insights
What Actually Happens in a Play-Based OT Session
First session nerves are normal. Here's what a play-based OT session actually looks like, step by step, and what your child gets out of it.
Key points
- First session nerves are normal.
- Here's what a play-based OT session actually looks like, step by step, and what your child gets out of it.
Before play: goals and rapport
Sessions start with the child, not the clipboard. For a new child, the first job is rapport — a child who feels safe will show me what they can do; a child who is anxious will show me nothing useful. Early sessions are deliberately low-pressure, following the child's interests while I observe how they move, play, communicate and regulate.
Parents are welcome in the room. Your insight into what happens at home and kindy is assessment data I can't get any other way.
The middle: targeted play
Once engaged, the play becomes more deliberate. I set up activities pitched just above the child's current ability — achievable, but stretching. If the target is fine motor skills, the game requires them. If the target is regulation, the session deliberately practises moving between excited and calm states.
From the outside it looks like fun. From the inside, I'm constantly adjusting: grading difficulty, changing sensory input, watching fatigue, noting what strategies the child discovers for themselves.
The end: handover and home ideas
Every session finishes with a plain-language handover — what we worked on, what I saw, and one or two realistic things to try at home. Not a program of ten exercises nobody has time for; one or two ideas that fit your actual routine.
Progress is reviewed against the goals we set at the start, and those reviews feed directly into NDIS plan evidence when reassessment time comes around.
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