Our staff of therapist and support workers have been working hard at creative ways of supporting children and adults and their families from home during this time. We will be posting resources here which you may find useful. If you have a specific query or concern about your child please contact your Enable Ireland therapist or local service centre.
We will continue to post new resources and links to this page as they are developed, so please check back for updates!
You can find all our Resources for Parents by visiting our publications page and selecting Publications for Parents.
Enable Ireland Therapy Videos
Enable Ireland’s dedicated team of therapists and clinical staff have produced an extensive video library of therapy resources. Now, parents and children can keep up to date with physiotherapy exercises, speech and language activities or occupational therapy routines.
The videos are fun, short and easy to follow along with, and the content has been tailored especially for parents and caregivers. Using technology and creativity, Enable Ireland continues to provide vital services to children and families throughout Covid 19.
Check out Enable Ireland’s Therapy Videos here
Back to School Resources
Our Children's Services and Assistive Technology teams have compiled some useful resources for parents and caregivers to support their children returning to school this year. The resource includes some great websites, tips on managing anxiety and stress, some problem-solving tips and some valuable Assistive Technology resources.
- Back-to-School Resources to support Parents
- Assistive Technology Back-to-School Resources Part 1
- Assistive Technology Back-to-School Resources Part 2
Social Stories for Children
These are short, simple stories that can be used to help children understand what is happening around them. They may be particularly helpful if your child is asking lots about why they cannot visit certain places or people, if your child is due to go for a test for COVID-19 or they know someone who is going for one, or if they are sharing their worries about COVID-19. To use these stories, pick the ones that are relevant to your child. Pick a time during your daily routine when your child is calm and relaxed. Read the story with them, and read it again with them over the following days. You might like to ask them "what does the story tell us to do?" to check they have understood them. Knowing what is happening and why it is happening can help children feel more comfortable and safe. The stories include:
- My Coronavirus Story
- My Coronavirus Test Story
- PPE Story
- Social Distancing Story
- Worried About Coronavirus Story
- My New School
Speech and Language Top Tips
Our Speech and Language Therapists have put together some advice and strategies for parents to use to support children with communication needs. These cover topics such as supporting Attention and Listening, Early Communication, Language Fluency, Expressive Language, Receptive Language, Bilingual & Multilingual language development, and supporting AAC and Multimodal communication. We have language development activity sheets for expanding vocabulary and sentences. As always, if you have a specific query or concern about your child please contact your own Speech and Language therapist or local service centre.
Occupational Therapy Resources
Our Occupational Therapists have put together some advice sheets covering a variety of topics including Bathing/Showering, Getting Dressed, Brushing Teeth, Cutlery Skills, Establish Morning Routine, Nail Cutting, Meaningful Occupations , Toileting and Toilet Training, strategies to help your child learn to organise and tips to learn scissor skills.
Bike Skills
One of our physiotherapists has compiled a handy cycling resource for parents with children who are learning to ride a bicycle. There are three parts to Enable Ireland's Bike Skills covering children at various stages of the learning process:
Cycling is a great way for the whole family to spend time together in a fun way, but always remember to follow the official Covid-19 advice.
Activity Ideas for 0-5 Year Olds
Our Early Services team has created this resource document for families of children aged 0-5. It contains lots of useful tips, strategies and activity suggestions to keep pre-school children engaged, keep those all-important routines and to help the development of important skills, during these difficult times. There are some tips on managing tantrums, suggestions for fun indoor and outdoor play, techniques for supporting prewriting skills and activities to support your child’s gross motor development (like muscle strength, balance and co-ordination). Download Activity Ideas For 0-5 Year olds
Recipes for Beginners
One of our family support workers has produced some simple recipes so parents and children can try out their cooking and baking skills at home. Carmel Kilduff is a qualified chef and enjoys teaching children and young adults to master new skills in the kitchen while learning to cook. Why not give it a try with your children? You can find Carmels' recipes here:
- Pizza and Potato Wedges
- Banana Bread and Fairy Cakes
- Egg Muffins and Potato Rosti Cakes
- Berry Breakfast Muffins and Roasted Carrot Hummus
- Sweet Potato Frittata Slices
Speech Therapy Weekly Plans
This resource includes weekly plans full of speech, language and communication activities to continue developing your child’s skills at home. The activities are designed to be short, and different every day. The plans are divided into age groups and areas of need, and were designed to support the broad needs of the children that attend our services. You can find the plans here:
Wheelchair Cleaning Guidelines
This publication includes guidelines and tips on cleaning your wheelchair throughout Covid-19, as well as unique precautions that need to be taken. Our thanks goes to a company called Beneficial Designs who produced this great resource.
Stress Management and Self Care for Parents and Caregivers
This document provides information on strategies that can be helpful for parents around managing stress and maintaining self-care during Covid 19. It emphasises the importance of parents taking care of themselves so that they can take care of their families. Information is also provided regarding online resources that parents might find useful.
Contacts and Supports for Parents and Caregivers
This document provides parents and care givers with details of practical and emotional supports available during Covid 19. It gives details of support organisations for parents, social welfare and housing information as well as mental health and well-being supports.
Promoting Independence at Home
Without the external stresses of school and other commitments, now may be a good opportunity to introduce and allow time to practice your child's independence skills at home. This document includes some good guidelines and tips to promote independence.
Tips for Parenting during Covid-19
Parenting can be challenging at the best of times! While our current circumstances may bring additional stress and challenges, it also brings opportunities for connection, fun and play! This document has some good parenting advice and resources.
Managing the Challenges of Covid 19 is a document with some good advice around supporting your child’s education as well as managing the challenges of parenting throughout this pandemic. Resources include behavioural techniques, communication tips and routine schedules that can assist parents and caregivers.
Talking to Your Child about their Disability and their Needs is another resource for parents and caregivers that was compiled by our colleagues in Wicklow services.
SLT Vocabulary Home Programme
Our Speech and Language Therapists (SLT) Team in Galway have put together a Vocabulary Home Programme resource. The materials below are designed to be used in conjunction with a bespoke video tutorial published on Enable Ireland's YouTube channel. You can watch the video "Vocabulary Home Programme" here. The materials are listed below:
- SLT Vocabulary Home Programme - Session Plans
- SLT Vocabulary Home Programme - Word Map
- SLT Vocabulary Home Programme - Word Web
- SLT Vocabulary Home Programme - Headings
- SLT Vocabulary Home Programme - Objects
- SLT Vocabulary Home Programme - Video Feedback Sheet
SLT Help with the Language of Early Maths
One of our Speech and Language Therapists (SLT) in Tallaght has designed a handy booklet to assist with the language of early maths, along with some printing instructions for the booklet.
- Speech and Language Therapy - Maths Booklet
- Speech and Language Therapy - Maths Booklet Printing Instructions
Assistive Technology Related Resources
Our colleagues in the Assistive Technology (AT) department of Enable Ireland have created a number of resources with information on free webinars, back-to-school resources and other content. This will be valuable to parents, therapists and teachers etc. Have a look at the links below.