Children & Families · Ten essays
The work of growing up
A childhood is made of small, repeated, unremarkable tasks. When some of them are difficult, the whole shape of a child's day changes — and so does their family's.
These ten essays follow a childhood in roughly the order it happens, from the first years through school and friendship to the move into adult life. They are written for parents, for teachers and support staff, and for anyone who has been handed a report and told their child needs occupational therapy without much explanation of what that means. There is a companion series of general essays covering the profession more broadly.
- 01 The First Thousand Days Milestones, early intervention, and the difference between a child who is behind and one taking their own route.
- 02 The Pencil and the Page Handwriting is the most common reason a child is referred to occupational therapy. It is almost never a problem with the hand.
- 03 The Table at Six O'Clock Few things strain a household like a child who will not eat. The way out is rarely through persuasion.
- 04 The Long Night Sleep is an occupation, and for some families it is the one that has collapsed. Everything else is built on it.
- 05 Buttons, Zips and Shoelaces Dressing and toileting are private, unglamorous skills — and they decide how a child feels among other children.
- 06 Thirty Children, One Room A school is a building full of demands nobody wrote down. Much of the work is finding them.
- 07 Out of the Door by Eight Some children know exactly what they are supposed to do and cannot get themselves to do it. That is a skills problem, not a character one.
- 08 The Shape a Body Keeps For a child with a significant physical disability, therapy is not a course of treatment but a relationship the length of a childhood.
- 09 The Edge of the Playground Break time is unstructured, loud and entirely unsupported — and it is where belonging is decided.
- 10 The Long Handover Children's services end and adult life begins. The gap between them is where progress is most often lost.