Contact Us

Preschool Boost: Building Little Hands

Supporting fine motor development across a busy room of preschoolers, is a real pressure for educators. Preschool Boost brings an experienced paediatric occupational therapist into your service to work with a small group of children, then equips your educators to support the wider room.


Learn for Life is an approved Preschool Boost provider. Preschool Boost is the South Australian program that funds allied-health support, such as occupational therapy, to come into your service. Our offering on the menu is the Building Little Hands group, a play-based fine motor program for preschools across metro Adelaide and the Mid North.

Enquire About Building Little Hands
therapist on the floor with a small group of preschoolers doing a hands-on fine motor activity
Young child smiling during an occupational therapy session

Which Centres Building Little Hands Suits

Building Little Hands runs as a small group of up to five children, chosen with your educators, and is followed by strategies shared with your team so the wider centre benefits too.

The program tends to suit your centre if you would like to support children who are:

  • Developing fine motor skills such as drawing, cutting, threading and using cutlery
  • Building confidence with table-top and other hands-on tasks
  • Benefiting from small-group social opportunities alongside their peers
  • Engaged and learning best through hands-on, play-based experiences
  • Growing the foundations that support school readiness in the preschool years

Because it is play-based and group-delivered, the program sits comfortably within your existing routines and complements the work your educators already do every day.

What Your Service,
Children and Families Gain

For the children in the group, the program introduces gentle, play-based support in the years when early development is taking shape, helping them build practical skills and confidence in a familiar setting with people they trust. The small-group format also creates natural social opportunities along the way.

For educators, the program is designed to work with you, not around you. Alongside the group sessions, our occupational therapist shares tailored observations and practical strategies you can embed into everyday play and routines with all the children in your care, so fine motor development can keep growing across the centre long after the sessions finish.

For families, support comes to their child rather than the other way around, with no clinic to travel to and no separate appointment to coordinate. The program aligns with the Australian Early Development Census domains of Physical health and wellbeing as its primary focus, with Social competence as a secondary one.

How the Program Works in Your Centre

Building Little Hands is delivered in person at your preschool by an experienced paediatric occupational therapist. Each group runs with up to five children, chosen with your educators, across three one-hour sessions over three weeks, so children can explore new skills at their own pace through play. Each session builds gently on the one before.

Session One: Hand and Finger Awareness

Sensory play that builds body awareness and wakes up little hands, giving children a playful, pressure-free start to the program.

Session Two: Targeted Skill Building

Cutting, threading and tool use, gently graded to suit each child, so every member of the group can take part at a level that feels achievable.

Session Three: Consolidation Through Play

Creative, open-ended play that brings the new skills together and helps children apply them in the kinds of activities they enjoy day to day.

After the program, your educators receive tailored observations and practical strategies they can use with the wider group, so the learning continues between visits and once the sessions end. The program draws on the same foundations as everyday occupational therapy for preschoolers, shaped for a small-group setting. You can explore more about the skills we support on our fine motor skills page.

Why Preschools Choose Learn for Life

Learn for Life is an Adelaide paediatric occupational therapy practice and an approved Preschool Boost provider. We are neurodiversity-affirming, strengths-based and play-based, guided by our LEARN approach: Life skills, Evidence-informed, Adapted to you, Results-focused and Nurturing. That same warmth and care shapes how we work with your children and your team.

We deliver in person across Western, Eastern, Northern and Southern Adelaide and the Mid North, travelling from our Torrensville base to your service. Our therapists bring the skills and experience of clinic-based practice into your centre, so support meets children where they already play, learn and grow. You can read more about the areas we support on our conditions we support page.

Bring Building Little Hands to Your Preschool

If you would like to explore whether Building Little Hands is a good fit for your service, we would love to hear from you. Get in touch to discuss availability and scheduling, and we can talk through what the program could look like for your children and educators.

You can send an enquiry through our contact page, email us at admin@learnforlifeot.com.au, or call (08) 8257 9185. For current pricing and availability, please contact us and we will share the details.

Enquire About Building Little Hands

Frequently Asked Questions

Preschool Boost is a South Australian program that helps preschools bring allied-health support, such as occupational therapy, into their service. An approved provider comes on site and works alongside the children and their educators, rather than families travelling to a clinic. Learn for Life is an approved Preschool Boost provider.
Building Little Hands is our offering on the Preschool Boost menu. It is a play-based fine motor program delivered in person by an experienced paediatric occupational therapist, with up to five children per group across three one-hour sessions over three weeks. The group works with a small number of children chosen with your educators, and afterwards your team receives strategies they can use to support the wider centre.
Each group is a small group of up to five children, chosen together with your educators. It can suit children who are developing fine motor skills such as drawing, cutting, threading and using cutlery, building confidence with table-top and hands-on tasks, enjoying small-group social opportunities, or learning best through play. The strategies shared with your educators afterwards can then support the wider centre.
We deliver Building Little Hands in person at your preschool across Western, Eastern, Northern and Southern Adelaide and the Mid North, travelling from our Torrensville base. Get in touch to confirm availability for your location.
Alongside the group sessions, our occupational therapist shares tailored observations and practical strategies your educators can embed into everyday play and routines across the wider centre. This is designed to support fine motor development continuing between visits and once the program ends.
Send an enquiry through our contact page, email admin@learnforlifeot.com.au, or call (08) 8257 9185. We will talk through availability, scheduling and what the program could look like for your service, and share current pricing when you get in touch.

BOOK AN APPOINTMENT

Ready to Explore Building Little Hands?

Building Little Hands brings paediatric occupational therapy into your preschool, supporting early development in the places where your children already play, learn and grow. We would be glad to talk it through with you.
Enquire About Building Little Hands