The Paediatric Collective

13/10/2026

💙 Mental Health Awareness Week: Belonging Matters

At The Paediatric Collective, every child and family’s well-being is truly at the heart of everything we do. 🌿✨

This year’s Mental Health Awareness Week theme is Belonging Matters—a reminder that feeling connected, accepted, and valued for who we are is essential to our mental health.

When tamariki feel a genuine sense of belonging—in their families, classrooms, and communities—their confidence grows, their nervous systems settle, and they feel safe to learn, move, and thrive.

Supporting a child’s sense of belonging and mental well-being doesn't have to be complicated. It often starts with small, intentional daily moments:

🌱 Inclusive Movement & Play: Creating accessible environments where every child feels included, capable, and celebrated for their unique strengths.
🌱 Calming the Nervous System: Simple breathing exercises, sensory-friendly spaces, and gentle pacing throughout the day to build emotional safety.
🌱 Wrapping Around the Whānau: A child’s sense of belonging starts at home. Supporting parents, carers, and siblings ensures the whole family feels connected and backed by a caring community.

This week, we celebrate the incredible strength of our families and reaffirm our commitment to walking alongside you with empathy, care, and holistic support.

Because when tamariki and whānau know they belong, everything else becomes possible. 💚

12/10/2026

A reminder of the talks this week organized by NZDSA to celebrate Down Sundrome awareness week - huge variety of topics and speakers.

WHAT’S COMING UP THIS WEEK?

We’re heading into another full week of the NZDSA Virtual Conference for Down syndrome awareness month.

From friendship, sleep and health to research, community connection, rights, recreation and self-advocacy, there is plenty still to come.

Here’s what’s happening from 12–18 October:

MONDAY 12 OCTOBER
12:00pm — Friendship Matters: Planning Opportunities for Connection, Capability and Wellbeing
7:30pm — Helping Children with Down Syndrome Sleep Better: Poor Sleep Isn’t “Just Part of It”

TUESDAY 13 OCTOBER
12:00pm — Capacity, Communication and Co-regulation
7:30pm — Manage My Health – Down Syndrome Style: Empowering Families/Whānau Every Step of the Way

WEDNESDAY 14 OCTOBER
12:00pm — From Data to Dignity 2026: New Insights and Evidence
1:00pm — Community Connection: Shifting the Inclusion Focus

THURSDAY 15 OCTOBER
12:00pm — Your Health and Disability Code of Rights
7:30pm — Friendship as a Bridge from Loneliness to Connection: Self-advocates with Down syndrome explore friendships

FRIDAY 16 OCTOBER
12:00pm — The Recreate Way – Across Aotearoa

SATURDAY 17 OCTOBER
4:00pm — Safer Walking
4:30pm — Through My Eyes: My Latest Photographic Project in Collaboration with the NZDSA

All conference sessions are free to attend.

Take a look through the programme, choose the conversations that matter to you, and join us throughout the week:

https://events.zoom.us/eo/AkhTIN177wmGGRACwn7QU3504ZCO_iiGV39k4mwYH1cXtyLCevoD~AggLXsr32QYFjq8BlYLZ5I06Dg

And remember, sessions are live and will not be recorded — so make sure you join us when they happen.
Connection starts here.

11/10/2026

Back to school for many today - hope you had a good school holiday break filled with fun with your family and friends 🧡

Most of our team have enjoyed a wonderful break from the clinic and looking forward to getting back to what we love doing this week 🙌

08/10/2026

Celebrating World Down Syndrome Month 💙💛

This October, we are shining a massive spotlight on all the incredible children, teens, and young adults with Down syndrome whom we have the privilege to support every day. Your strength, joy, determination, and unique talents inspire us constantly. Simply put: you are awesome, and today (and every day), we celebrate YOU!

To mark the occasion, the NZDSA is hosting a month of inspiring, insight-packed presentations—and we have a very special highlight coming up!

🗓 Next Tuesday Evening 13 October at 7pm.
We are thrilled to feature one of our very own, Merryn, who will be co-presenting alongside a National Working Group! Merryn brings incredible passion and expertise and you won't want to miss this session. The title of the session is 'Manage my Health - Down Syndrome Style.

NZDSA work very hard to offer a wide variety of sessions daily for the month. This year’s theme is:

TOGETHER AGAINST LONELINESS

Connection • Belonging • Participation • Human rights

✨ Everyone is welcome to attend! Whether you are a family member, ally, professional, or community member, come along, learn, and celebrate with us.

👉 Comment below or send us a message for the link to join!

07/10/2026

"Stop wiggling and sit still." 🛑

​It’s a phrase almost every child with ADHD hears daily. But when we view ADHD through a lens of strength rather than deficit, the whole picture changes.

​The Māori word for ADHD is aroreretini, which translates to "attention goes to many things." 🌟

​An ADHD mind isn't lacking attention—it's navigating a rich, dynamic awareness that responds to multiple stimuli at once. And here’s what the neurology tells us: for an ADHD brain, movement is focus.

​Children with ADHD often have lower baseline levels of arousal in the prefrontal cortex—the part of the brain responsible for executive function and sustained attention. When a child bounces their leg, shifts in their chair, or seeks "heavy work," they aren't being disruptive. They are using proprioceptive feedback (movement signals from joints and muscles) to stimulate their nervous system and keep their brain engaged. 🧠⚡

​When we force total physical stillness, we force their brain to expend all its energy on not moving, leaving almost nothing left for learning or listening.
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What is your child’s favorite way to move while they work or study? Drop their favorite fidget or heavy-work activity in the comments below! 👇
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05/10/2026

💚World Cerebral Palsy Day 6 October 2026 💚

When we think about therapy for Cerebral Palsy, it’s easy to get caught up in clinical metrics—range of motion, tone management, or gait symmetry.

But real therapy doesn't happen in isolation inside a clinic room. It happens on the playground, at the park, around the dinner table, and on the sports field. 💚

This , we’re honoring a fundamental shift in paediatric care: moving away from “fixing” impairments and moving toward maximizing Function, Fitness, and Friends.

For a child with CP, progress might look like:
✨ Finding an adapted way to ride a bike alongside siblings.
✨ Using movement strategies that build stamina without causing exhaustion.
✨ Participating fully in school activities in a way that feels comfortable and empowering.

Therapy should expand a child’s world—never shrink it to fit a clinical checklist. To every child and family navigating their own movement journey: we see you, we celebrate you, and we’re right here in your corner. 🟢

How is your family celebrating World CP Day today? Tag us in your wins—big or small—or share this post with an educator or therapist who champions function over perfection! 👇

04/10/2026

This is so insightful to learn from this young man - worth a watch 👀

01/10/2026

Sharing latest newsletter from NZ CP register team.

An interesting sounding study on CP and genomics if any our families and community are keen to participate.

30/09/2026

Did you know that 1 in 5 children and adolescents experience chronic pain?

Behind every stat is a child who often feels unseen—especially when scans or blood tests come back "normal." Supporting a child with persistent pain requires a united team effort between families, school staff, and healthcare providers.

Here is how support teams can meaningfully validate and guide a child through chronic pain:

1. Believe & Validate Their Experience
* Shift the dialogue: Say, "I believe you, and I’m sorry it hurts today" instead of questioning why or where it hurts. Pain doesn't need a visible mark to be real.

* Avoid dismissive praise: Phrases like "you look so healthy today!" can make children feel pressure to mask their distress. Focus instead on how they feel internally.

2. Focus on Function, Not Just Pain Scores
* Track what matters: Move past 1–10 pain scales during everyday activities. Ask, "What is one thing you’d love to do today?" or "How can we adapt this activity so you can join in?"

* Pace, don't pause: Encourage low-impact movement and gentle activity pacing so they remain connected to their routines without pushing into a flare-up.

3. Build a Cohesive Support System
* Set consistent language: Ensure parents, teachers, and therapists use aligned strategies so the child feels supported everywhere—from the classroom to the clinic.

* Normalize breaks: Create non-verbal signals at school or home so the child can take short rest breaks without feeling singled out or embarrassed.

Pain in childhood is complex, but believing a child is always the first step toward helping them thrive. 💛

What strategies have helped you or the young people in your life feel heard when managing long-term pain? Share your thoughts below!

Sharing a great looking resource on Chronic pain in children - love a great online freely available resource 💯

https://chronicpainaustralia.org.au/kids-in-pain/

30/09/2026

Some really useful info here as we learn more about CVI and lower visual field issues.

From a physical perspective we often pick this issue up with falls, stairs or tripping. And then this makes me think about function at school and writing and learning and the wonderful work and goals our OT colleagues support - it's complex 🧠

Lower visual field impairment can be missed in standard sight tests, but it can be relatively easy to identify using a simple visual field exercise, including for people who are seated or use wheelchairs. See our ‘Find Your Visual Field’ exercises in the link below.

There are several particularly important things about lower visual field impairment.

Firstly, whilst some areas of cerebral visual impairment (CVI, also called cortical visual impairment) can be confused with other conditions or causes, a lower visual field impairment is very difficult to explain as anything other than a lower visual field impairment. It is a brain based impairment of vision (BBIV), so it comes under the CVI umbrella and is therefore an element of CVI.

Secondly, because of the brain processes involved, in children with CVI from birth it is often associated with other BBIVs, particularly simultanagnostic vision and optic ataxia. Identifying a lower visual field impairment can therefore provide important clues about where to look for other BBIVs that may also be causing difficulties.

And thirdly, its effects can go well beyond tripping over low objects or finding stairs difficult. A person may miss information presented lower down on a page or screen. For a wheelchair user, something placed on a low tray may simply not be visible to them.

This is another reason why it is so important to understand which brain based impairments of vision a person is affected by, rather than only looking at their effects. When we understand the cause, support can be much more accurately targeted, and one identified BBIV can give us valuable clues about where to look to learn more.

Find Your Visual Field exercises: https://cviscotland.org/mem_portal.php?article=557