Occupational therapy / Ergotherapy

The PsYkids practice is part of the Center for Child Development and Support, which also offers occupational therapy (assessments, training), carried out by a qualified occupational therapist. The occupational therapist supports children who have sensory and/or motor difficulties (gross motor skills, fine motor skills).

When children consulting at PsYkids also require occupational therapy support, they are given priority for receiving a place in occupational therapy at the Center for Child Development and Support. This allows us to quickly address the child's overall needs and provide the necessary support.

Therapeutic play

Play is a privileged mode of expression for children and allows them to replay different events or experiences, in a realistic or imaginary way. They can thus give form to their fears and wishes, and more generally to anything that may have impressed, affected or hurt them. Therapeutic play is both a tool of expression, liberating buried or misunderstood emotions within the child, of discovery and self-knowledge, but also allows the child to digest their emotions and learn to better manage them.

My approach to working draws heavily on child therapists such as Virginia Axline, Donald Winnicott or Alfons Aichinger, and I have trained with the latter. I also wrote my doctoral thesis on the theme of creativity in children's play.

Other assessments

Depending on your child's situation, assessments other than those described in detail in the previous sections may also be possible, e.g., assessments of memory, psycho-affective functioning, personality, and major childhood and adolescent disorders. You will also find descriptions of the different types of assessments here.

Assessment for dyscalculia

Children may have difficulties in mathematics of cognitive origin, that is to say linked to their way of thinking and understanding, to the functioning of their brain: for example, they have difficulty developing the sense of number and quantities, difficulties in understanding what is asked, a problem of memory, concentration, etc. They may also have difficulties of emotional origin such as blockages or anxiety, for example following bad experiences related to mathematics. The two can also combine.

I help parents untangle the situation to understand where the difficulties come from, to determine if their child has dyscalculia, and to look for how best to support their child.

I can also support children in their mathematics learning by working on the weaknesses identified in the assessment. I have degrees in mathematics and psychology, hence my particular interest in linking these two fields.

Assessments of autism spectrum disorders (ASD)

The autism assessment consists of various observations of the child, both in the practice and as reported by parents and/or educators and teachers. In my practice, I use internationally recognized tests such as the ADOS-2 and the ADI-R, complementary tests such as those taught at the University of Lausanne, as well as observation of the child in less structured sessions and interactions.

Tests allow for very detailed and complementary observations. Internationally recognized tests are based on the observation of the child's concrete behaviors, and those I was taught at the University of Lausanne focus less on behaviors than on the child's perception of the world in order to determine whether their internal functioning is autistic. Using both approaches is also very useful in situations where behavior-focused tests do not provide clear results, and more generally in certain complex cases, in relation to the question of differential diagnosis, in order to assess whether the observed autistic behaviors are true autism, or resemble autism in appearance but come from another difficulty, e.g., emotional.

The autism assessment includes not only observations and tests focused on autism, but also a comprehensive assessment of the child's development, e.g., cognitive resources, personality, and emotional profile.