That’s why in my 20 plus years as an OT, I have been learning as much as I can in the service of children and the people who care for them. Working towards more Connected Children.
Just as important and the academic knowledge, I have been listening to people’s stories to help me make sure that I get it. I have had excellent mentoring, training and support and it’s a privilege to share my expertise and support people who care.
Caring for children can be joyous, challenging, a privilege and a drain, sometimes all at once! I help remind carers about their own skills, harnessing their expertise and trusting their wisdom, after all, the people close to the child, know them best.
I pride myself on speaking up for children when they don’t have a voice, but I help their carers find their own voice too.
I provide support that is actionable, helping you think through the ‘why’ behind the behaviour. When you look at things differently, you see things differently, then, you act differently.
Together we can turn expert theory into attuned, skilful practice, while I help you unfold what to do next.
Caring for children can be joyous, a privilege and challenging, sometimes all at once.
Graduating from the University of Queensland in 1999, Sarah has worked primarily in the private sector, establishing her practice “Connected Children” in 2015.
Sarah approaches her work through a child-focused lens. Above all, Sarah prioritises the importantance of being accountable to the children, young people their families in her care.
She ensures her work is targeted to the needs of those she works with rather than her clinical interests and preferences.
Sarah is well known within the professional community, being the therapist able to identify the most important priorities in order to get meaningful client outcomes. Sarah has extensive experience to effectively navigate the systems around children including families, schools and government agencies. Sarah is committed to speaking up about what families should expect when approaching occupational therapy work.
For her own practice, her commitment to accountability means she will always check in on goals and progress while ensuring that the individuality of “you” (her client) always holds a central focus.
Sarah has diligently engaged in ongoing professional development to ensure her practice is effective and contemporary. In doing so, she has engaged in training in:
- Attachment
- Resilience
- Sensory processing
- Sensory integration
- Sensory Attachment Intervention
- Floor time
- Play based interventions
- Family based interventions
Book a chat with Sarah to see how your centre can benefit
SARAH BRODERICK
Director, Occupational Therapist
Parent Support
I see you. Your child may act in ways you don’t understand and you want to help them but it can seem too hard.
You are working so hard to support your child, but there's always more to learn. I will send you my 5 most popular articles with strategies to help you as a parent to harness your expertise. Or check out the workshops, resources and courses available to support families.
GET THE 5 MOST POPULAR ARTICLES HERE >>
Professional Training
Supporting your educators, the children and the parents in your centre can be complex.
High quality training is essential for your team addressing behaviours and social-emotional needs of everyone involved. I have worked with centres across the country to bring more calm and understanding to the care of children while supporting teams and staff and families.
BOOK YOUR TRAINING SESSIONS HERE >>Our Values
A commitment to listen to and honour the experience of children
Children need space and pauses to organise their thoughts, and share their experience. The lens that children bring to look at their lives and what is meaningful to them is of course best represented by their own words. It can be surprising sometimes how long children can be engaged in a service, with most of what is known about them sourced from what is provided by teachers, parents, and questionnaires, with the latter really only able to provide information about the questions asked. What a child is desperate to say can be missed – unless they are given space and time. Connected Children is committed to creating spaces where children can share their hopes, wishes, and concerns as a component of their care with us.
To recognise and learn from the wisdom of parents
Parents know their child best, and are nearly always the most committed to their wellbeing. At times parents may be highly stressed, lose faith in their ability to manage a concern, or be so overwhelmed by how hard aspects of their life has become. In attempt to be “good parents” devotion to “parenting experts” and their advice can run the risk of being exhausted by the constant attempts to do what is “right” rather than what is right for them and their understanding of their child. At Connected Children we commit to attend to what parents value and have to say, respect individual differences, and aim to provide a space for all parents to stop and reflect in order to find their inner wisdom.
Knowledge is enabling, and sharing that knowledge is to share the power for change
Knowledge can be the momentum that launches change – change in functioning for children, change in approaches to caregiving for their parents, and change in approaches to practice for clinicians. At Connected Children, we are committed to sharing information, respecting how this might be heard, and overcoming the barriers that some families may have in accessing information that can enhance their quality of life and wellbeing.
Creating opportunities for joy, playfulness, kindness and gratitude through our thoughts, words and actions
Pathways to true wellbeing are very rarely a straight line, mechanistic, recipe-style approach to create change that children and families are looking for. It is therefore central to Connected Children’s values that injecting opportunities for joy, playfulness, kindness and gratitude will be enacted and supported by those we engage with. It is here that we are most able to know ourselves, experience happiness, have confidence and be creative. All of these things we believe to be essential for children, their families and clinicians who may work with them.
Notice and respect the unique qualities of every individual and family we work with
At Connected Children it is important that trends in society, theories and research, or indeed our own assumptions never blindside us to attending to the individual culture, values, life history, personality and preferences of those who connect with the work we do.
Recognise our responsibility to continually learn, appraise those learnings and make them meaningful in all the work we do
If the children, families and clinicians who work with us strive to do better, so should we. A significant part of this is to consistently engage in learning opportunities to become not only more knowledgeable, but thoughtful too, in holding all of the complexity that real lives are lived in.
Strive to deliver what’s needed rather than asking children, families and clients to fit into a narrow, pre-determined way of working together that is easier for us – not you.
It can be very easy to develop a clinical skill set, decide it is fantastic or “evidenced-based”, and expect those who work with us to be shaped to fit that approach. If something is not going to work for those who engage with us, we are committed to have a range of skill sets and capacity to be adaptable around the very individual and variable set of conditions our customers bring with their need for support.
Be Transparent and Accountable
At Connected Children, ethical and professional practice mandates transparency and accountability. We will be truthful, be responsive to feedback and do what we say we will do. We seriously take responsibility for what we say and do. We will be thoughtful about managing conflicts of interest ethically and exercise diligence in sharing knowledge and advice is based upon the best evidence, information and/or representation of experiences shared with us at the time.
Act with compassion and an open heart
However knowledgeable, technically sophisticated in our clinical practice or even committed to quality care we may be, the emphasis in our work is always about human beings. We do not take lightly what a privilege it is to be trusted, invited into personal experiences of living, and what is held dear to the people we work with. As we join the journey with children, families and professionals there are times of high stress, challenging behaviours, hardships, intense emotions and ruptures in relationships. At Connected Children we hold on to the value of approaching the breadth of situations and experiences with compassion and an open heart.
Stand up and speak up
Connected Children values the importance of speaking up when witnessing something that is important for the people we work with to hear – even those we don’t work with in fact. We take it seriously when we identify practice issues, political issues or system failures that have potential for negative outcomes for the wellbeing of children and families. Similarly, within Connected Children we hold a “stand up and speak up” value within the practice with each other when we identify what we can do better.