Therapies for children
During the time that the child stays with us, we provide various different therapies in order to try and improve quality of life.
Animal therapy
ZoĆ«ās Place offers animal therapy regularly and we often have visits from our little friends.
Animal therapy has shown to be extremely beneficial for our children and provide emotional support, comfort and relaxation for our children. They are a complete sensory experience and the children have responded positively to it. The animals which visit include dogs, ponies, tortoises and even snakes.
Animal Assisted Therapy is a unique form of therapy that utilises the unconditional relationship qualities of animals, to enrich therapeutic experiences. AAT is delivered in Human-Canine therapy teams; who work in synchrony to enhance the childās social, emotional, and cognitive functioning during the therapeutic process.
Animals are naturally a part of a childās world. When witnessed, the child-animal bond is something pure. A childās bond with animals teaches empathy and compassion ā as well as a host of other skills such as; fine motor, gross motor, sensory regulation, emotional regulation, and social skills to name a few!
Art therapy
Art therapy is a form of psychotherapy that uses art as a way to communicate. It allows the child to use art materials for self expression in a safe environment, using art instead of spoken words.
Our expressive art therapies including arts and crafts, music and movement. These therapies allow the child express themselves in a safe way by using expressive arts instead of spoken words. It helps to address individual physical, emotional, cognitive and social needs. Children are naturally creative and enjoy expression through arts. It also provides a sensory experience for them and helps with fine motor skills. Each child will experience expressive arts in a way which is adapted toward them.
Hydrotherapy
Our hydrotherapy pool helps us to promote wellbeing and healing using water therapy.
There are many benefits to the child, most importantly being that of play and fun. We want to make sure all of our babies enjoy the time they are here with us and make lots of memories. As well as that, hydrotherapy promotes relaxation, provides relief from pain and stiffness, and gives the opportunity for exercise.
Being in the warm water can help to decrease muscle tone, as well as assisting with movement of the joints which are either more difficult or painful to do normally. Not only this, but the environment helps stimulate the senses whilst calming those with sensory and learning difficulties.
Quote here from Lorainne, physio
Music therapy
Music has always been a powerful tool for expression.
Music therapy sessions at ZoĆ«ās Place enable positive creative opportunities for the children and babies to interact and engage within a safe, supportive and stimulating environment. Sessions are catered to specifically meet the needs of each child and we utilise a range of percussion instruments, voice, string instruments, improvised playing and precomposed song.
Music therapy offers a space in which children can communicate and express themselves uniquely and effectively. Wellbeing and enjoyment lie at the heart of every session and play is incorporated to aid learning and development. Music therapy enables us to celebrate all achievements whilst promoting quality of life, compassion and a sense of togetherness.
Play therapy
Play is the language of a child. It is important to provide play and stimulation for each baby during their stay with us.
Play therapy is part of the childās development and learning and can act as a vital coping mechanism for children. It provides them with confidence, self-esteem and a sense of accomplishment. It is very important that each child can have the opportunity to play and enjoy just being a child, despite their illness. At ZoĆ«ās Place we provide a range of developmentally appropriate activities which are fun and engaging for each child. Our Play Specialist will assess each child individually, to see what their abilities are. Each child will have a specialised play plan to meet their needs as an individual so that they can tailor each session to their individual needs, and can inform and guide the rest of the staff on the best activities to suit them.
We cover a wide range of play including sensory play, art, music, outdoor, soft play and imaginative play. Play is often messy at ZoĆ«ās Place which the children particularly love. The children get the opportunity to play with paint, jelly, sand and spaghetti allowing them to explore textures and express themselves. We have specialist facilities made for children living with additional health needs including a soft play, sensory room and a sensory garden.
Physiotherapy
With the varied conditions that our babies have, physiotherapy is of huge importance and is a big part of the services we provide. It reduces breathing difficulties, aids pain control, helps restore or maintain physical movement, alleviates discomfort from stiff joints spasms & muscle pains, and helps prevent development of future problems.
Each childās physio sessions will be individual and tailored to them and our Physiotherapist works with the babies in various different ways. This could be by promoting exercise, encouraging play and movement, providing relaxation techniques such as massage and hydrotherapy and much much more. The overall aim is to try to ensure that the babiesā mobility is as good as possible, to try and help them to maintain the best quality of life as possible, for as long as possible.
Rebound therapy
Rebound Therapy is used to facilitate movement, promote balance, support an increase or decrease in muscle tone, promote relaxation, sensory integration, it also improves fitness and exercise tolerance.
Rebound therapy uses trampolines to provide therapeutic exercises to people with a wide variety of disabilities and additional needs. The therapy involves using the moving bed of the trampoline to promote movement in the participant. By carrying out basic through to highly technical physiotherapy techniques on the trampoline, the therapy can provide many therapeutic and physiological benefits: Facilitate and promote movement and balance, Improve fitness, Increase or decrease muscle tone, Help relax the participant, Improve sensory integration, Improve concentration and even improve communication skills.
Please note this service is only available at our Coventry hospice.
