School Talk: UAE
Welcome to "School Talk: UAE," your go-to podcast for all things education in the United Arab Emirates.
Join us as we sit down with teachers, experts, and parents to explore schools across the UAE.
Each episode provides valuable insights and perspectives from those directly involved in shaping the educational experience.
Whether you're a parent, an educator, or simply curious about the state of education in the UAE, "School Talk: UAE" is your window into the dynamic world of learning in this region.
School Talk: UAE
The Truth About Occupational Therapy
What happens when a child struggles with skills that seem to come naturally to their peers? The impact goes beyond just academic performance—it strikes at the heart of their confidence, curiosity, and joy in learning.
In this revealing conversation with Adam Griffin, CEO and Medical Director of Hakkini, we explore the often misunderstood world of paediatric occupational therapy. Adam clarifies that childhood "occupations" include everything from holding a pencil to kicking a ball to fastening buttons—the building blocks of development that allow children to engage fully with their world.
Adam shares powerful analogies that help parents and teachers understand how developmental challenges feel from a child's perspective: "Imagine going to yoga class where everyone else is doing flying crows while you're shaking, sweating, and getting nowhere—then having to return day after day." This persistent experience of struggle can transform a naturally curious child into one who dreads school and learning.
The discussion tackles why families often delay seeking help, the importance of early intervention, and how neurodiversity resembles different "operating systems" rather than deficits. Adam advocates for a holistic approach that extends support beyond clinic walls into classrooms and communities, creating "stepping stones toward independence." Sometimes, simple adjustments like a morning bike ride can dramatically improve a child's school experience.
Most importantly, Adam emphasizes the collaborative nature of effective development support: "Therapy cannot be done to the child; it has to be done with the child." When parents, teachers, and therapists align their efforts, children can overcome challenges and rediscover their natural drive to learn and grow.
If you're concerned about your child's development or notice a student struggling in class, this episode offers valuable insights on taking that crucial first step toward support. Subscribe to School Talk for more conversations that help children thrive in learning environments.
something is in the way they're achieving the occupations, engaging with the occupations of childhood. They're being held back. You see your child struggle and you don't know how to help them. Then that's really scary. As a parent, you make a hundred mistakes every single day.
Speaker 2:Hi, I'm Chris Robsol and welcome to School Talk, the podcast where we have meaningful conversations about education, learning and those issues that matter most to students to parents and to teachers With over 10 years experience in international schools, I've seen firsthand the challenges, but also the opportunities in learning.
Speaker 2:Today, each week, I'll sit down with inspiring guests to share stories, insights and strategies on how we can help shape the future of education. Whether you're here to grow, to learn or to spark change, this is the place for you. So let's get started. Welcome to School Talk. Today, I'm joined by Adam, the CEO and Medical Director of Hakini. So first of all, thank you for coming on the podcast. Thank you very much. And today we're going to talk about what you do, a little bit about occupational therapy, and then go from there. So kick us off Occupational therapy. What is it to you?
Speaker 1:Imagine first what occupations are. Most people think it's their job. It's the things you need and want to do. I'm a pediatric occupational therapist. Hold a pencil, kick a football, sit and listen to the teacher wipe their bum, do their buttons all those things that are building blocks of development. Something is in the way they're achieving the occupations engaging with the occupations of childhood. They're being held back. Their learning and development is being curtailed and occupational therapists like myself can help.
Speaker 2:That must bring a lot of misconceptions to it. What are some of the common misconceptions?
Speaker 1:you get around that If you have a classroom full of 30 kids a perfect experiment. You have a massive control group. So if you see a kid who's struggling with their area, it's very obvious. So the number one referral for rookies will be hand-reading. Often that's just the tip of the iceberg, but if you look at something even as small as the kid's hand-reading, something like that, that's single occupation there. That can also have a massive impact on the child's confidence of their motivation to go to school in the first place.
Speaker 1:It's a struggle of handling for years and really affected their just interest in learning and exploration. And you had this kid who was a fireball of curiosity into dinosaurs and space and everything else and as he's dragged himself through school doing things that seem to come easily to his peers but were always a struggle to him, he just knocked him down. It's like I had this metaphor, a little thought experiment I do with parents and teachers. You went to yoga class every day and everyone else's heads to a hula lemon and doing floaking crows and flying dogs, whatever all around the room and it was so easy and you're absolutely shaking, sweating, feel awkward, feel too. You get given a two and you try something. You don't understand how to do the thing right. It's like having to go back to your class every single day.
Speaker 1:And everyone else is always getting better, and they just don't know how to improve.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because you see some kids with handwriting and you go and check their work and they cover it. They don't want to show you because, as you said, there there's that comparison to their peers. Yes, because, as you said, there there's that comparison to their peers?
Speaker 1:Yes, and sometimes if you ask that same kid, tell me about the Roman Empire, tell me about your Fortnite skin, your Rockman, right now, we'll talk all day long the top three years on. Because that curious kid, any kid, is a machine made for learning and development. Come that way out of the box. That is a little child. Brains are an amazing thing, but man, it's tough being a kid, especially small little losses on a day-to-day basis and the grind. You know, my speciality is child and adolescent mental health and it's really important area because who this kid is at the time you get to 11, 12, 13, that's the adult they're going to be. Yeah, that stuff doesn't watch out. It stays on you for a long, long time. So safeguarding that and having these positive experiences, it doesn't mean being the nerve of the world and it doesn't mean you make things easy, far from it.
Speaker 2:Talk to us a bit about there. You've got these small little indicators, let's say Are they then? Do they lead to something more Kind of autism? Sensory overload? Things like that Can do.
Speaker 1:So if you imagine any of these, so let's get into diagnosis, then so a useful thing in the diagnosis and you're going to have neurodiversity. So neurodiverse brains. They're different than the box, so it's just. The metaphor I use here is like a PC or a Mac. It's a different operating system. It experiences the software in a different way. It experiences the software in a different way. It experiences the world in a different way of what we call neurotypical people, and that's just. It's just different. It's not good or bad For assessment.
Speaker 1:The reason I would advocate for assessments is to better understand child strike difficulties, and that advises what you can do. Sometimes it's just, these areas of the brain are still a little fuzzy. We can get into detail, we can make these kind of wires intertwine and speak to each other a little bit more efficiently, and then these activities will seem and you want to show the child their own improvement. They really need to see. Okay, here's where I am. You need the young person's emotional engagement and their own goals and their swarm towards and for them to see that, that cheat, because if they're working something hard you can sit back a little bit, because then they're motivated.
Speaker 2:They really see the improvement. Explain to us the whole process. So someone would reach out to you, a school would reach out to you, you'd go in, do an initial observation, just tell us about that process. So if you go back, right, to the beginning.
Speaker 1:This is a young person whose life is difficult schools more. It's a challenge more than it really has to be and there's something going on. There's a little issue. One of the challenges is there's a delay on an access and services because it's a scary thing. I'm like, I'm a, I have two daughters, I'll have a nine, and the idea of, oh, if they're struggling with something you do as a parent, you can. It's not that you take it personally, but it is a worry. It's the same reason, I think, that a lot of guys put off going to the doctor if you have eczema pain. But yeah, it's fine, I won't worry about it. So the delay accessing services, the anxiety doesn't go away. So there's still a worry. The young person maybe has a couple of good days, maybe then they have a couple of bad days as well, and this pause for accessing services is gets moved further and further. And this is a challenge because we know the importance of early intervention. The quicker you can get that support in place, the more beneficial it is.
Speaker 1:The reasons for the delay in access and services are multitude. Use one of them is not as expensive. You think. Okay, we'd like to explore this, but do we go see a psychiatrist? Do we see a psychologist? It's this much prior, I don't know. And then you'll have very well-meaning people telling you oh, my uncle jimmy was the exact same when he grew up. My cousin was the same that he's spying by watch for nata. So it's a wait and see thing. Boys, they grow into speech a little better than girl. Boys, only boys. All this personality stuff and there's a discussion between the line, between what's personality and pathology, if it's stopping the child doing the things indeed want to do.
Speaker 1:Speak to someone like me. Yeah, one of the reasons that become a bit of a lightning rod for coaches, parents and at least, is because I do the stuff like what we're doing today. I just make myself kind of visible having conversations of dubai and social media. So once you do work like this for parents who grow up I'm here 13 years parents want to tell other parents who are anxious because you're accessible and I love it when parents reach out to me and just tell me a very simple WhatsApp message. We'll have a couple of voice notes back and forth. I guarantee if I'm not the guy, I know the guy, we'll point you in the right direction and it's just that beginning process, the way I approach schools now.
Speaker 1:The model I like and the model we have at Akini is I'm placing a therapist in the school.
Speaker 1:If you have a concern, we can ask the therapist just to pop in the classroom and formally pretend that, have a little chat with the parent, see the child in the class and then have a quick conversation with you afterwards, all free of charge, there's no hassle barrier, there's no emotional leap you have to do to access that support.
Speaker 1:So it's making it as close to you as possible. And then, after that observation, after that conversation, it could be as simple as if you said reading material or giving the teachers some free advice to make the morning routine or sleep or mealtimes or buttons anything easier, because there's so much you can do as a parent at home. But then if additional support and additional you know therapies are warranted, also, talking me through one step at a time of that process looks like so, then, and even if you never became my patient, for example, you always have my number and always there, even knowing that that there's someone you can speak to is it's so reassuring because it doesn't exist until parents make it or they find somewhere and go to buy that support yeah, I think definitely having the communication, but the right communication as well, is so important, because you could go online and you could search these things, but you don't know what kind of information you get it.
Speaker 2:We had a speech therapist on a couple of weeks ago and she was saying exactly like you, even if you just I give you some material to read, you know it's come from a credible source. You know you'll get incredible information and I can just give you a few tips that might help.
Speaker 1:100 and google is now your friend. It's really great information out there. It's very polarized and there's amazing people. There's great resources I can point anyone towards. But especially if you take something, anything in the area of neurodiversity. Take the. It's very polarized and there's amazing people. There's great resources I can point anyone towards. But especially if you take something, anything in the area of neurodiversity. Take the area of autism, for example.
Speaker 1:So next month's autism words bump and there's massively all the place opinions of causes, the treatments for years, concerning as well, because not only is this information or not really is it kind of I think it's unethical but it also delays some access to the information that would actually help. So there's an opportunity cost to bad work. The only thing worse than no therapy support is bad therapy. Yeah, so yeah, I take this responsibility really seriously because the one decision parents get to make is who to trust and who to turn to. So if parents decide a man, man, I carry the weight of that really, really heavily and I'm going to do everything I can, even the idea for a therapist committing to their own professional development. You shouldn't be the same therapist you were five years ago. You have to be getting better because you're taking the seat of someone who could be doing an amazing job, so you owe it to these parents to do an amazing job, to you or to these parents that are doing an amazing job.
Speaker 2:No support is better than bad support. You're a parent, you can't afford OT, you can't afford this. You're desperate Because, like we said at the beginning, you're desperate as a parent to do your best to your kid. So I think you do go online, don't? You Do read these things. So it's kind of urgent parents here to speak to a professional, speak to a kids class teacher, speak to somebody who can direct you in the right direction. Because, I get it, you are desperate as a parent and if financially there's that barrier, then you look for other alternatives and it's a really important one.
Speaker 1:I think, honestly, most of the benefit I've given parents is probably not in the four walls of a clinic, it's probably advice. I get people who reach that online and connect to them. Because there's myself, I do all these activities instagram and these games. You can play it all. My name is adam griffin. By the way, no one knows that, adam the ot to everyone. Nike namers have people that know me that are not direct family and adam you'd see, because over covid, my wife encouraged me to start a youtube channel and do these little motor skills activity videos we could do at home with my daughters and I really, if I look back in the books, my daughters were really, really young back then. It's great, but it became really, really popular with a lot of parents, especially therapists, who were looking for activities that folks could do at home with equipment they have around the house or just tools and utensils and stuff, and that became really important because that's there's nothing ot. I think it's greatest job ever. It's not rocket surgery, man, there's nothing. There's no like massive, complicated, hugely proprietary treatment approaches. We do have some good like fun things in our bag of tricks, but everything this young person does in their daily experience can be therapeutic. Yeah, so a good I could example of this. One of the things that I really like about my delivery model and Akini is the idea where clinicians who are really high standard of clinical skill deliver that clinical skill in compassion, collaborative way, where families feel that they're listened to in the part of the process. But the third part is the one that's most pertains to this conversation is it's this holistic approach that doesn't just want benefit in the clinic, but also the community in the classroom, and you have a big old tv in reception areas and I use these to showcase my friends in the community. These are people who do piano and art and rugby and football, horse riding and sailing and swimming and all these different things. There's no financial back and forth at all. It's just people out there doing good work. Everything these individuals do is therapeutic, as much so as anything I'm doing. So if the child goes to my friend Muhammad who's horse riding a nonverbal ASD kid, that's stunningly therapeutic for that young person. That's a really important thing for them to do and for me, connecting the family with what I'm doing, making sure the guys in the classroom feel empowered and supported and have the skills they need and then connecting with these little islands of support.
Speaker 1:If you're a family of a child who's struggling, your world gets real small, real fast. Because if you try and expand it, you go to a birthday party or you go to cinema when the child has big meltdown. Let's not do that again, that's horrible. So the temptation is to circle the wagons go home, make your universe small. Here's the kicker. Brace yourself everyone, because when you make your universe small and it's you and him against the world, right on dad, but eventually it's just him against the world, yeah. So you do need to find these supports, you need to get out there and that's scary. So when families can't work with me and I help them find these little stepping stones on the way to independence and the way to growth and the way to hope.
Speaker 2:I completely agree that kind of you need to, as difficult as it might be, but going out and doing those experiences is the key. That's from a parent perspective. A parent can do that on the weekend. A kid in school and a teacher is seeing that a kid struggling with this. What would you say initially? What is the teacher looking out for? So a kid is struggling in class? Is it their communication? We touched on it earlier. Is it their handwriting?
Speaker 1:In fact, one of the best business things I do, I guess, is do teacher trainings. So teachers, if you have a child in the class for example I have a lot of kids who have a common one I'm actually getting in the last three years is PDA. So progressive demand avoidance or a pathological drive for autonomy. Is that okay? That's an interpretive. It's like the diagnosis is the first one, the terminology, but neurodiverse, nearly like, is the second one there. So if you see here those two as a bit of a tangent there. So PDA is pathological mangoins. It's a terrifying group of words. Yeah, the word pathological at the starters.
Speaker 1:If you have a pdk in your class, for example, or a child who has big sensory needs and it seems really uh, emotionally dysregulated, then it's not the behavior that is stressful or anxiety producing, it's irresponsible, like guy, what do I do? But this is not knowing how to respond to the question this child is posing you in the classroom that day. So when I go to classrooms and teach teachers, this is how you identify these kids. This is why when you have a therapist, a very available boots on the ground in the school, if there's anything you're concerned about, a lot of time you have this kind of clusters of skills, so it's like a collage. So you, you have things. For example, a child who has adhd. A good percentage of the time they have what's called comorbidity, which is an old harold sunday work just means there's a lot of things going on. So their attention, difficulties, but the very outnumbered just definitely as well. And you get this kind of perfect storm where kid wasn't attending teacher the first time, so we kind of missed some of the directions. Then you get this executive function organization spilled up police, so it's how to see, okay, what is it that's holding that child back?
Speaker 1:As a teacher, you just really have to know, okay, there's something going on here, who can, who you're gonna call yeah, ghostbusters, in this case it's going to be vot, rsp, circus to wherever, but someone there who've been just keen to have a conversation with you. There's some like uh, questionnaires that I use and just present to teachers. We'll say, come on, we'll say what's the three issues you feel if the child is like, let's hold them back a little bit. And then, importantly, what's something to do really well, what the strength is, well, so just starting to pull on that thread and say, okay, is there anything specifically holding this child back? And if we take this away, are they going to be off to the races, for example?
Speaker 1:A common one, the most common, I would say, apart from handwriting this, teachers we instruct with sensory difficulties. Yeah, so a child who's stimming has difficulty sitting still maybe. They're almost like sensory sensitive, so they have difficulty with leg noises, get anxious quite easily in response to sensory stimulation. It's slightly counterintuitive, because the best thing you do is, before the child presents with this thing, you can see he's already dysregulated, but then you see it's like I don't wait till you're thirsty to have a drink.
Speaker 1:We kind of want to keep his sensory cup topped up, and then it becomes much, much easier for teachers. The kind of ultimate message is if there's anything that gives you pause about this young person, there is no benefit from what you've been seeing. If you have a therapist available, you can just pop in and have a conversation with you and then join the dots between you, the parent and the child, and then see how you can all collaborate towards a better future.
Speaker 2:So you just mentioned there you've got the teacher, the parent, the OT, the boots on the ground. That collaboration piece is. It's tough between a parent and a teacher. Sometimes Throw another person in the mix makes it even more difficult, and sometimes there isn't even an OT in the building.
Speaker 1:Yes, I would say on occasion, yes, sadly, this is Demonstrably. This is what often happens. In theory, it shouldn't If that relation, because if you have a really good OT, if you have an OT especially who is very adept at school-based practice or, I think, cams OT in particular, because you're not meant to add more fuel to the fire, you're meant to be the person that comes in and, kind of like a CEO role, you align all these people's uh kind of efforts, because when I go into these tactics, these team around the child beans, it's not that people aren't working hard enough often. I'll have one I did recently and there was like, uh, the teacher lsa. There was an aba, therapist, speech, ot, psychologist, parents, of course, and someone I can't remember who the other person was.
Speaker 2:See, that must be daunting for a parent though it is, From my perspective, if I went into one of the girls' club like there was a meeting. Chris, can you come in today and you walk in? My God, there's a lot of people in here. Yeah, yeah, that must throw you, yeah.
Speaker 1:Not anymore. Once upon a time perhaps, perhaps, but I, I like you can see, possibly it's why I like doing things like this. I like talking to people. I'm interested in people. What I'm most interested in I only worked this out recently what I'm very interested in is perspectives, because everyone's a hero of their own story. So if you have this therapist, they working on their goals.
Speaker 1:But the sad thing is sometimes they're out of alignment. Even when I go to school, this happens, sadly. Quite often I'll go to schools where the relationship between the school and the parents is quite acrimonious. So it's broken down somewhere along the way and it's sad because nominally you both want the same thing, you both want to help this child on the journey to learning and development. But it's that collaborative relationship has kind of fallen to bits. Most of the time we can resurrect it. Most of the time we can get people back in line. Because I again, I like a metaphor, you might have noticed. So it's like people are on the boat. Imagine a big viking ship. You have all these people on the boat and everyone's rolling super hard, but some people are rolling in opposite directions. This guy's rolling back to norway, this guy's going to ireland and everyone's sweating and working so hard and don't understand where the boat's going. Round and round, guys, we just get in alignment with these things and that's when you do need something. Well, the term and kind of clinically it's called a care coordinator, so someone who kind of understands the perspectives and can get everyone in alignment, even if you have a situation where it's broken down over time.
Speaker 1:There are times. Well, a new school is the best way forward, not always. The reason, I'd say that is it's mostly because the child perhaps has associations and habituations in that context. So sometimes behaviors or, if you, when they transition, for example, the little school, the big school a chance to make new friends. It's new opportunities. They're not carrying the baggage of the previous experience and with that. But that blank slate, the new fresh canvas, doesn't mean everything's going to be great. Grass is not always greener. The grass is greener if you get there and your farming practices are better than they were in the old grass. So you have to do new things.
Speaker 1:One of the very few things Einstein actually people think he said they actually said, because most of them are apocryphal is this idea of the definition of insanity. Is run the same experiment again, again, expecting different results. So it doesn't happen in isolation. So we have to think, okay, what can we do differently? And if something isn't working, if the kind of mental health we have, complex situations, if there's a situation where there's someone not in alignment, it's part of my job to try and educate them. It's not just, oh, I'm to try and educate them, it's not just, oh, I'm working hard, so it's not my problem. No, if you're a patient, he's your problem. So I speak a lot with therapists and teachers and parents and try and kind of build these bridges, because when everyone might if you imagine the boat analogy everyone's rowing so hard you're going to get there a lot faster if we're all rolling in the same direction.
Speaker 2:So it's not not working harder, it's working in a complementary fashion yeah, because you've mentioned their perspectives, but I think a lot of it comes down to the communication and the relationship part, the relationship part with a parent and a teacher. Everyone wants the best for that kid and there sometimes is difficulty in relationships when the parent thinks you're not doing enough or the teacher thinks the parents could be doing something slightly different. But I've said this before. We always say my wife and I was no one's a dick for a reason. A parent isn't rude to a teacher. True, because they're the sake of being rude. They just have their kids so much at heart that they're just so passionate about it. Yeah, and you just did like you said there. You just need everyone to align. You need a third voice, don't you do, chris?
Speaker 1:I love it. You said the magic word there, which is communication. So it's this misunderstanding. Oh, it's because anyone else's life experience is opaque to you you know what they went through that day.
Speaker 1:You don't know what their classroom experience is like. So you only have your, your view of their experience. So, and it's this is why I think I, my parents, thankfully the parents I work with, thankfully, the parents I work with, the kids, the families I work with, they are very strong advocates of me. It's very nice, it's like the nicest compliment I could get, sorry to interrupt here.
Speaker 2:Do you think you got better at your job when you had your own kids?
Speaker 1:One thousand percent. It also made me realize how much this stuff I used to come out with. I'm like, oh, oh god, I have this running joke again. I'm making new friends with therapists today. But if you have a therapist that don't have kids, it's kind of like, oh, just, I'll put an asterisk great therapist, don't get me wrong, I know amazing therapists that don't have kids. But especially when you advise I used to advise things like bedtime routines and things everyday practice I'm like, oh, my god man, yeah, it seems. Yeah, that's the theory. That's how it should work, no, man. And when you have your own kids I did it this morning I'm a massive hypocrite because my wife will joke with me. I have two daughters and every morning they'll leap on top of me and hit me in the face with their socks. Yeah, they want me to put their socks on. My daughters are 11 and 10 years old. They're very, very capable of putting their own socks on, but it's a nice little fun dynamic.
Speaker 2:That's the routine, yeah if you prescribe that on paper, everyone should do their own uniform. Do this because it's because of their motor skills and stuff. Like in reality it doesn't happen. Does it all with a pinch of salt?
Speaker 1:exactly, yeah but then it gains the choice. So I had a mom that I work with recently. It's a nice one too, and she wanted her little boy or I think someone wanted a wee boy might have been dad to brush his own teeth. So he was like, no, he's a big boy, no, he should brush his own teeth. But this time where mom brushed his teeth in the morning routine was a little five minutes. They had both looking in the mirror. They would listen to music. That's the mirror, they would listen to music. That's a beautiful little dynamic. Yeah, he didn't want to lose that. It's like man, there you go. Yeah, so there's always something going on. So that's fine, there's a choice. By all means, you brush his teeth as long as you want to. There's no, there's zero judgment and there's a man.
Speaker 1:There's so much judgment and guilt involved in parenting and child development and it's getting the kind of advice and getting kind of someone to listen to and talk over these things, where you feel the child, they're learning and development isn't being held back for any reason.
Speaker 1:You're making progress, even kids they work with who really, really struggle and a lot of fundamental skills are difficult for them, even if you feel like the road ahead's really long and tough. If you're making progress, if you know next week's going to be just that one 0.1 better than this week, then you feel hopeful. It's when you feel plateaued or you don't know what to do to help your child, that's terrifying. Man, again, I feel like a hypocrite when I help my own kids. I also understand emotionally how scary it is when you have your own kids, man, you have no idea. And then you realize, oh my goodness, take a bullet for this little guy in a second, and how powerful that is. And then when you see your child struggle and you don't know how to help them, then that's really scary. So then when these parents come to me and says can you help? That's a big request and I'm going to go to the ends of the earth to help these families, if I can.
Speaker 2:Have you ever had a case where a parent comes to you says, look, adam, I need help, but they're the problem, not the problem, but there's something that they could change. I'm like you know what if you change this dynamic, it had a massive impact.
Speaker 1:Yes, that's a tricky conversation. That's tricky, it's a very necessary conversation. So, um, temptingly, sometimes the therapy can be again, god, I seem very judgmental. I don't mean to, but you can get comfortable. It's too easy to just do the work, get busy in the classroom. Kid has fun. They go home, um, but sometimes there's elephants in the room. It's always elephants in the room. Every room in therapy is full of elephants. Yeah, so a good one.
Speaker 1:I'll give you an example that I have a child coming in with motor skills difficulties and they're like okay, but I can see mom's on her phone the whole time and we kept checking through the consultation and spends a reception area in the phone for the whole session. And again, I don't mean this in a judgmental way. But then they're like okay, well, we want to. I have no space in my schedule, but they want to make. Okay, you're going to do three OT sessions a week. I don't do that normally and we're going to. He has to improve his strength and his fine motor skills. But then I'll say, okay, let me, let's talk about your lifestyle, let's talk about what we do as a family, blah, blah, blah. So I have these cheap, only count steps. I want the child to wear this for three days and come back to me and then see okay, so the child comes back and they've got two, three thousand steps and that's for the three days. Yeah, like that armchair has moved more than this child has. So, and for a sensory seeking child like this lad that I want to see like 15 000 steps minimum. So if you don't have enough opportunities for natural, age appropriate play experiences, you can't therapy your way out of that, you can't buy your way out of that. You can't buy your way out of that.
Speaker 1:So then you're thinking of things. It's a little bit like many years ago I used to work on health and fitness and personal training. This is like when I was in late teens, early twenties, and it's the kind of boring lifestyle stuff that really matters. It's the everyday little things the neat movement, the neat movement, exactly there things. The neat movement, the neat movie, exactly there you go. And there's a child development aspect to that as well.
Speaker 1:So sometimes the main factor that's affecting the child's development is and it could be the family's life tales, could be the parents knowledge, it could be, but you don't want to, you don't want to frame this as a guilt thing. It's not about okay, no, you did the wrong thing. No, as a parent, you make a hundred mistakes every single day and you can't be. Actually, it's more thinking okay, here's what I think would be beneficial and this is what you can do right now. Yeah, don't worry about any guilty sort of things. I'm going to make it easy for you. Like, go, if I'm trying to get someone to go to the gym, I'm going to make going to the gym a positive experience for you. If you drag yourself and hate yourself every second you're there, you're not going to keep going. Yeah, if you can make it something kind of where you feel empowered.
Speaker 1:An example of another parent just a hundred of these is a little boy really, really struggling in class and the mom understood about, talked to her about sensory needs and all of these things, and he said, okay, we need to move more. He just got a new bike, so they're going to get up at 5.30 am. Well, well done, mom. She's carrying the boats, for sure David Goggins would be proud. She's carrying the boats, for sure david goggins would be proud. But mom would wake up super early and her and the little man would go for a ride on the bikes around the block for about 30 minutes. The kid was a different kid in school and they thought he was on medications.
Speaker 1:He thought it was okay. What was he taking? It's like no. He just got an opportunity to move and settle in and find his body in space early in the morning and it was such a lovely experience. Everyone else was still asleep and mom and the kid were smiling and cycling in the block, and it was such a lovely experience.
Speaker 2:Everyone else was still asleep and mom and the kid were smiling and cycling in the black and it was beautiful. But he gets that extra time with his mom as well.
Speaker 1:Exactly potentially wouldn't get before yeah, man, and so this is what you call child-led practice and family-centered practice. So therapy cannot be ever done to the child, it has to be done with the child, and this is a perfect example of that, where you're just building these supports and you can't be prescriptive. I wouldn't tell every family to do that. But you know, when you understand why you're doing these things, you'll find the way that works for you, your family, your context and your personality yeah, and I completely agree there.
Speaker 2:There's so many things. It's not a one-size-fits-all, is it?
Speaker 1:it's different for every single kid, every single family, every single dynamic and the sign with that is some therapists I don't think appreciate that enough that, but I was guilty of this. I used to write these like home programs for families sensory diets are called and there were 14 pages long. Oh, I changed fonts and everything and he did nothing. He went nowhere because I never thought how the family fits all these complex things I recommended into the morning routine. So so you make them really easy, one step at a time. Something very fun and simple Stuff like James Clear's habit formation stuff, bj Fogg does, another one called small habits, where you think, okay, how can I find the easiest way to put this into your daily routine and then make it a fun thing, a fun value added that actually helps as well. And then that's a great, great starting off point and you gradually build these supports that actually are enjoyable to do but will have long-term benefit too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if you try and add 14 things to our morning routine in this house, no chance whatsoever. A school doesn't have an OT on site. What would you recommend from a parent to do for a teacher to do? What's the steps moving forward with that?
Speaker 1:I'm trying to find another way of not just saying, message me, but, yes, message me so you do want. If you don't have an OT on site, definitely speak to the teacher and then reach out and even Googling OTs in Dubai and look around If it's specifically for here. If it's in Dubai, then If it's specifically for here, if it's in Dubai, then there's lots of services around. It's not just me, there's lots of great therapists. But finding the one that you connect with, so finding that emotional connection, really, really quickly.
Speaker 1:One of the things I like again about my model is if a parent messages so say, if they're looking for therapy support, and they find me, or they find Hakini, through WhatsApp or Instagram or the website, and they see, speak to us, okay, dm Hakini, through WhatsApp or Instagram or the website, and they say speak to us, okay, dm Hakini. And they'll say, okay, they'll get prompted. Is this support for you or your child? And is it OT, speech or psychology? That's the only thing. So they'll message that the next person who's going to speak to them is going to be the person who will help them solve that problem.
Speaker 1:They're not speaking to admin, they're not speaking to anyone else who would have to like feel like they're jumping through hoops. They understand more. No, they'll have a normal in like a clear, easy and open conversation with the therapist who they identified. If they're not sure who to speak to or they mention my name, it'll definitely be me you speak to and then I'll have a little chat with them, get to understand their case a little bit and then be able to kind of advise them what the next steps are. It might not be going to be, for example, there a lot of families approach me for feeding issues. A child very picky eater, a sensory aversion to feeding that's not my area of expertise now it's not my circus, not my monkeys.
Speaker 1:That was expression someone talked about last week and I love it. So that's not my area. But I do have therapists my friend, laura, laura Tremendous and really loves this area of practice, so this is her area of passion. When I'm hiring therapists, for example in the entry process, I'll ask them what part of the job they like the most, because that's what I want to promote. I like people doing the part of the job they love the most.
Speaker 1:So I'll refer parents on and just that little bit of honesty and a little bit of openness, because there's a huge distrust of service providers here, because I think it's a business. They're just out for money. It's like when you go to buy a like a tv or something in the store here and there you ask can I do this? Yep, yeah, I'm gonna do everything. Whatever you want to do, no, man, because then I can't get the information I need.
Speaker 1:And helping parents get the information they need is kind of what I'm all about. So if you're a teacher or your parent you're looking for ot support, people like myself who are very visible, don't be afraid to direct message me. I will get back to you and then help find someone to help you find the answers you need. You don't have to jump into therapy straight away, but just take the first step. Don't put it off. It might just be a conversation and some free advice, but if you do want to find, then if your child would benefit from them having someone talk you through the next steps. Before you pay for anything, know what you're paying for.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, sometimes the hardest part is that first part, is that initially reaching out. But yeah, that was the right time to plug yourself, so well done. Yeah, but I'll put all of Adam's information contact details on the show notes and tag you on the social media stuff. But yeah, I think initially the first step is sometimes the hardest hearing it, and I love what you said. There is the support for you yourself, or is it for your child? Yep, knowing you might not know who it's for initially you just need that conversation and even as a husband and wife, you're thinking, look, he's struggling again. Potentially you start blaming each other, something else they're doing All of those things going through your head. Like you said, you need a person to come in and speak to both, all of you to help those things.
Speaker 1:If it's something you care about. It's going to be something that I care about too. So that dynamic between mom and dad and making sure everyone's on the same page and answering everyone's questions. So sometimes I and making sure everyone's on the same page and answering everyone's questions. So if sometimes I'll have dads like no, like thanks, adam, but I don't think it's part of the process, like no problem, I 100 understand. I'm not trying to sell you anything, I'll just give you the information so you make an informed choice. Yeah, and I'll outline options. So it's not you have to do this, it's do this. For example, I had a family coming to see me from abu dhabi twice a week and they tried the kids in the car twice as long as he's with me. So I said this is not a good idea, guy, so you can't do this anymore. And then dad in the room was like I told you.
Speaker 1:I was like okay yes, so no but you have to if you're being pragmatic about these things. There's a cost value, there's an organizational value to it. I'll tell you what I would recommend. But then that's not the end of that conversation. It's a dialogue. Every therapeutic relationship should be a conversation. It's not just the report and then, God bless, off you go, Do your best luck. It's more like no, my WhatsApp. You probably heard it buzzing quite a bit in the background there and that will be parents who are trying to reach me with questions or concerns or something. It's very. It takes very little effort for me to point them in the right direction and it can mean a lot to that family.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think for me the biggest takeaway it seems to be a such recurring theme is the communication part, is the relationships part, is the perspectives part. Yeah, is that knowing what different situations kids are in, parents and families are in, teachers are in. A teacher could be so overwhelmed by all of this and not know what to do? Yeah, because unfortunately some schools just aren't equipped to have ots and things on on the ground. So just from any perspective it's really difficult just to reach out.
Speaker 1:And I love there's so much value. I really really enjoy doing. A lot of schools have Q&As, they have mornings for parents or some parent groups will have coffee mornings. Invite me to speak to them. I absolutely love doing these because they're really good and really connects you with the people that may not. If you imagine that there's a certain percentage of parents that will come to see me in clinic, there's hundreds of them that would benefit but never get through the doors. So anything I can do to reach as many families that would need support as possible, I'm going to be there for.
Speaker 2:Yeah, perfect. Well, yeah, hopefully today sheds some more light, some more insight onto that. Adam, adam the OT, adam Griffin yes, adam, there we go, Got it. Thank you so much for coming on School Talk, really appreciate it. Thank you, chris, really really pleasure. Yeah, and yeah, we said it loads. If the first step is just reaching out, ask a few questions, get a little bit of guidance, I think it will go a long way. But yeah again, if you find this useful or you think someone might learn from it, share it with them and we'll continue to