About Chattersense

MISSION STATEMENT

All Children have a very important job to do. They must grow, learn, socialise, and play. Children do this every day by exploring the boundaries of their abilities.

Chattersense is committed to delivering a baseline service of human needs – social skills, communication skills and a sense of independence.

These are essential elements all of which are used to help children and young people participate in their immediate, local, and wider communities.

Chattersense CIC aims to help children with additional support needs to have the opportunity to develop and achieve their maximum potential.

The Director is a specialist Occupational Therapist with her post graduate qualification in Ayres Sensory Integration. We value the importance of sensory and motor play individually and in small groups.

WHAT IS OCUPATIONAL THERAPY?

Occupational therapy (OT) asks the question:

‘Why does this child have difficulties managing his/her daily activities, and what can we do to make it possible for him/her to manage things better so that it has a positive impact on their health and general well-being?’

The goal of Occupational Therapy is to assist children participate in the things they need and want to do. Our OTs provide assessments and fun therapy sessions that promote multi-disciplinary to develop the child/young persons play and functional life skills.

We offer a variety of Occupational Therapy services to children of all ages (0-24), and offer a uniquely tailored assessments and home treatment programmes for our clients, once we know your child’s strengths and challenges.

Please visit our ‘Services’ page for further detailed information regarding our services, groups and bookings.

“Chattersense is committed to delivering a baseline service of human needs”

Who are we? Lets meet the team…

Chattersense has a specialised sensory and motor gym and our services are developed and facilitated by a qualified Occupational therapist with a post graduate certificate in Ayres Sensory Integration and a Communication specialist with her Regional Makaton Training Qualification.

Sharon Craighead started Chattersense CIC when she noticed how few services were available for children and families with children with complex needs; dual diagnosed or for those without a formal diagnosis.

Sharon is a state Registered Occupational Therapist with over 19 years paediatric experience. She graduated in 1993 and has worked across many disciplines including mental health, forensics, and social services both here in the UK and in the USA.

She has recently completed her Sensory Integration Practitioner Status qualification through Ulster University. Sharon has a large family of 4; one of her children has ASN with sensory and communication challenges.

Over time she has developed her interest and specialism in working with children with sensory issues and communication difficulties and wants to be able to share her knowledge and skills with other parents/caregivers.

PGCert SI Practitioner HCPC Registration number: OT21733

Marie Craighead: Marie is our new Education Liaison worker – she has her degree in early years and will be helping us with the development of our school programs and a new education series called “7 minute of Sense”.

She is responsible for organising all our feedback and impact statements, correspondence and creating data for our funders, social impact reports and helping with multiple aspects of the company.

Beverley Smith: Beverly created and developed our Chattersense family who you may find around our socials, learning products and venue.

Meet our Board Members:

Katy is our Communication Specialist she has over 20 years work experience of additional support needs and lived experience of raising a child with additional support needs and as a mum of 5!

Logan is a young man with ASD who works as an advisor to the board. He is an amazing swimmer and competes regularly for Scotland.

Callum is an Occupational Therapist an the director of bOunceT (a non profit organisation for disabilities). He has a twin brother, a sister and a cat called Theo.

Barbara is an additional support needs teacher who has specialises in ASD and counselling. She has 2 grown up children. She enjoys a country life with her husband and 2 grown up children.