Enhanced Assessment

Our Enhanced Assessment is a more detailed Occupational Therapy assessment designed to explore how different factors may be interacting to affect your child or young person’s participation, regulation and everyday functioning.

Some children experience difficulties that appear inconsistent across environments or involve overlapping sensory, emotional, motor or executive functioning differences. In these situations, a more in-depth assessment can help develop a clearer understanding of the factors contributing to overwhelm, fatigue, participation difficulties and everyday challenges.

At Activate OT Scotland, all assessments begin with understanding how difficulties are affecting daily life, including participation at home, school, routines, relationships, independence and wellbeing.

Enhanced Assessments are formulation-led and tailored to each child’s individual profile, strengths and needs.

Depending on your child’s presentation, the assessment may explore:

• sensory processing and regulation

• emotional regulation and participation

• executive functioning and organisation

• motor coordination and motor planning

• fatigue, overwhelm and recovery

• participation across home, school and community settings

• environmental and contextual influences on functioning

Assessment methods are adapted to the child and may include structured observation, play-based assessment, activity-based tasks, questionnaires, functional analysis and standardised assessment tools where appropriate.

This assessment pathway is often appropriate when:

• difficulties overlap across more than one area

• presentations appear inconsistent or fluctuating

• school and home functioning differ significantly

• sensory and regulation differences appear interconnected

• emotional regulation difficulties are affecting participation

• a deeper understanding is needed to guide support and recommendations

Enhanced Assessments aim to move beyond identifying isolated difficulties and instead explore how different systems may be interacting to affect participation, wellbeing and everyday functioning.

Recommendations are practical, individualised and designed to support more sustainable participation across everyday environments.

Depending on the child’s needs, recommendations may include:

• sensory regulation strategies

• environmental adaptations

• school recommendations and collaboration

• executive functioning support

• emotional regulation strategies

• participation-focused supports

• recommendations for further assessment or intervention where appropriate

Some children may require more comprehensive assessment if presentations appear highly complex, layered or involve significant difficulties across multiple systems and environments.