Tamworth schools gain occupational therapist to help kids with motor skills and emotional issues

Chloe Levoi has just moved to Tamworth for the role, which is being run by Newcastle University, and will help kids across a range of schools and grades.

She is hoping the work will help students on an educational and personal level.

"The program I work for is an OT in schools program, so working with a range of age groups from kindergarten to high school," she said.

"We focus on developing fine and gross motor skills, hand writing, sensory processing, emotional regulation and other skills required for students to successfully fulfil their student roles."

Ms Levoi completed a 10-week placement in an OT role in Tamworth last year as part of her degree, and said she is aware health services can be hard to come by, especially when it's child specialist services.

"With rural regions, such as Tamworth, access to health services such as OTs and pediatricians can be a long process, people can be on waiting lists for months and sometimes even years," she said.

She said her program was designed to help students who would have otherwise fallen between the cracks, whether through doing whole-class intervention or working with kids one on one.

For the first part of the year, Ms Levoi will work mainly with kindergarten and year one students, and will shift her focus to high school after that, dealing with students from year 7 all the way through to year 12.

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She is keen to dive into the program and get to know the students, and said her passion for the field of work came as a result of several good experiences during university, as well as conversations with others who have performed similar roles.

"I attended a uni open day to look into exploring my options and began talking to a student at the time who was studying the same degree," she said.

"After having a conversation with her and talking about what she does and her role, it sounded like something I really wanted to pursue, with lots of hands on work helping others and making a difference in their lives.

"But I'd say it wasn't until about third year that I developed a full passion for my role, just from having amazing placement experiences, I had some really rewarding experiences and made me love what I did."

Ms Levoi is currently in Tamworth on a 12 month contract, but there will be plenty of people hoping her passion for the role continues to flourish, with an option to extend the contract included as part of the program.

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