HOW THERAPY WORKS
What to expect, from the first call onwards
FIRST Occupational Therapy works with families, and that shapes everything from how the assessment runs to what is asked of you between sessions. This page sets it out in full, so that none of it arrives as a surprise.
THE PROCESS
Things you may have noticed
Five steps, from enquiry to therapy
STEP 1
You get in touch
Phone, email or the enquiry form. Every enquiry comes straight to James and he answers personally, usually within two business days during the school term. The first conversation is about what you are noticing, whether occupational therapy is the right fit for it, and what availability looks like. If something else would serve your child better, he will say so.
STEP 2
The intake pack
The week before the first appointment, an intake pack arrives. It carries the questionnaires and checklists for you, and where relevant your child's teacher, to complete online, along with a request for your child's writing books and their most recent school report. Doing this beforehand means none of your child's appointment time is spent on paperwork, and the assessment starts with a picture already forming.
STEP 3
Two assessment sessions
Two 60-minute sessions at the Fyshwick clinic, usually a week or two apart. What runs in each depends on your child's age and the reason you got in touch. For school-age literacy referrals, the first session looks at reading and visual-motor skills and the second at handwriting and spelling; for younger children, the first looks at fine motor, gross motor and visual-motor skills, and the second follows wherever the first pointed. Scoring happens in between, which is the reason for the gap: the second session is chosen on the basis of the first, not set in advance. If more assessment time is needed, how that works and what it costs is set out below.
STEP 4
Findings and a plan
Findings are written up and gone through with you in full. The report covers reading, handwriting and transcription, visual-motor skills, sensory processing, attention and regulation, and participation at school and at home. More to the point, it says what all of that means for the goals you, your child and the school actually care about.
STEP 5
Therapy begins
Fortnightly sessions during school term, at the clinic, at your home or your child's school, or by telehealth. Goals are set with you and with your child, and reviewed as they move.
WHAT THE ASSESSMENT COSTS
An initial assessment is billed at 3.5 hours: the two 60-minute sessions with your child, plus the scoring, interpretation and report writing that happens between and after them. At the current rate that is $700.00, or $678.97 for NDIS plan-managed participants. The intake pack and the questionnaires are included, and fees are confirmed with you in writing before anything begins.
Occasionally more assessment time is needed: a child may take a while to settle into the clinic in the first session, or the first two sessions may point to something worth looking at further. When that happens, the extra assessment takes place within your child's regular clinic or mobile sessions and is billed at the usual session rate. It can also be useful for James to visit your child's school during the assessment; a school visit is billed at the mobile session rate plus travel, and James will confirm the total cost with you before it goes ahead.
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The full schedule of fees, and how NDIS funding works, is on Questions Parents Ask →
PARENT COACHING
You are in the room, every session
FIRST Occupational Therapy delivers intervention using a parent coaching model. Parents and guardians observe and take part in each fortnightly session rather than waiting outside with a coffee.
The reasoning is simple. Your child spends an hour a fortnight with an occupational therapist and the rest of the fortnight with you. A strategy that only ever happens in the therapy room is a strategy that gets an hour a fortnight of practice. When you have watched it demonstrated, tried it yourself with your own child, and had it adjusted on the spot when it did not quite work, you can carry it into the fortnight, which is where the consolidation actually happens.
Over time the aim is that you need FIRST Occupational Therapy less rather than more. Parents and guardians are therefore asked to attend all intervention sessions, and that is worth knowing before you book, particularly where both parents work full time.
HOME PRACTICE
Twenty minutes every second day, or ten minutes a night
At the end of each session you are given a home learning folder: the activities to practise before the next appointment, with enough in it to give real practice rather than a token worksheet. Families are asked to work through it either for about 20 minutes every second day, or for 10 minutes each night. Either pattern works, and the consistency is what matters.
IF THIS IS NOT REALISTIC RIGHT NOW, SAY SO
Regular home practice is what turns a strategy demonstrated in a session into a skill your child owns, so if family circumstances mean it is not going to happen, the parent coaching model may not be the right fit. That is far better said at the start than discovered in week three. In those circumstances a direct service model, where more of the work happens in the session and less is asked of you in between, is likely to suit your family better. Raise it when you call and we will work out which one fits.
WHERE SESSIONS HAPPEN
Clinic, home, school or online
At the end of each session you are given a home learning folder: the activities to practise before the next appointment, with enough in it to give real practice rather than a token worksheet. Families are asked to work through it either for about 20 minutes every second day, or for 10 minutes each night. Either pattern works, and the consistency is what matters.
IN CLINIC
Clinic sessions
75-minute sessions
Clinic sessions are held at the FIRST Occupational Therapy clinic in Fyshwick, Canberra, fortnightly during school term. The clinic is equipped for assessment and intervention across fine motor, gross motor, sensory, and literacy goals.
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Comprehensive and review occupational therapy assessments
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Individualised intervention programs developed from assessment data
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Parent coaching in every session, with home practice resources
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Collaboration with schools, paediatricians, and other treating professionals
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$320.00 per session
Billed at 1.6 hours. NDIS plan-managed $310.38
HOME OR SCHOOL
Mobile Therapy
45-minute sessions
Mobile sessions are delivered at the child's home or school across Canberra and surrounds. Seeing a child in their environment provides valuable clinical information and makes it easier to build strategies that transfer into daily life.
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Sessions at home, school, or the early childhood setting
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Observation and intervention in the child's natural environment
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School consultation and attendance at ILP or care team meetings
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Travel charged for the time actually travelled, one direction, capped at 30 minutes
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$200.00 per session, plus travel
Billed at 1 hour. NDIS plan-managed $193.99
ONLINE
Telehealth
45-minute sessions
Telehealth sessions are delivered via Zoom to families across Australia. They suit families in regional areas, those with limited transport, and children whose needs can be met through a coaching and consultation model.
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Available to families anywhere in Australia, no travel needed
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Parent coaching, strategy review, and program monitoring
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Well suited to follow-up sessions and school consultation
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All that is needed is a quiet space and a reliable connection
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$200.00 per session
Billed at 1 hour. NDIS plan-managed $193.99
THE FORTNIGHTLY PATTERN
Sessions run fortnightly during school term, and the calendar alternates: clinic appointments in the odd weeks of term and mobile appointments at home or school in the even weeks, with telehealth fitting either. Your appointment holds the same slot each fortnight, which makes it easier to plan around school, work and the rest of the family.
SCHOOLS AND OTHER PROFESSIONALS
Therapy that reaches the classroom
With your consent, FIRST Occupational Therapy works alongside your child's teacher and learning support team, their paediatrician, and any other professionals involved. In practice that can mean a school visit, attendance at an ILP review or care team meeting, or a written summary a classroom teacher can use on Monday morning.
James worked as a classroom teacher, a specialist literacy teacher and an early learning centre leader before and alongside his clinical work, and has since delivered professional learning to more than 3,500 educators. Recommendations are written for what a teacher can realistically do with a full class in front of them, which is a different document from one written for a therapy room.
AVAILABILITY
A small caseload, and
what that means for you
FIRST Occupational Therapy is a solo practice, and the caseload is deliberately small so that every family gets the planning and preparation described on this page. Clinic appointments run in odd weeks of term and mobile appointments in even weeks; telehealth fits either. That means places are genuinely limited and there is often a wait.
Several places are expected to open at the end of Term 4 2026. Assessments can sometimes be booked sooner than ongoing therapy, so it is worth ringing to ask where things actually stand rather than assuming the answer is no.