BIOGRAPHY: Kate Bailey

 

Kate Bailey is a highly qualified and specialised occupational therapist with 30 + years of experience in the field of paediatrics.

Kate graduated from UCT with a BSc degree in Occupational Therapy in 1985.  After a year of travel and working in the field of Geriatrics in Burnley General Hospital, England, Kate returned to Cape Town, South Africa where she discovered her passion for children at Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital, working in the areas of burns and learning disabilities.

Kate moved to Johannesburg and joined a Paediatric Private Practice, working with children with learning challenges. During this time she continued part-time studies at WITS University for another 6 years where she attained her qualification in Sensory Integration and an Adv. Dip. OT in Neurosciences and a MSc OT (1993).

In 1991 when her first daughter, Lara, was born, Kate opened a paediatric private practice in Fourways, together with her occupational therapy and physiotherapy colleagues. She specialised in working with pre-school and primary-school children with Sensory Integration Disorders, Learning Disabilities, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Syndromes, Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Delay.

With the birth of her second daughter, Jenna, in 1995, Kate discovered her deeper purpose in partnering parents and families in working with their babies, toddlers and young children. She added Neurodevelopmental Therapy to her repertoire of knowledge by doing the Basic Paediatric Course in NDT and the NDT Baby Treatment Course. This equipped her with knowledge and skills to work with babies, toddlers and young children at risk for developmental delay due to Prematurity, Syndromes, Sensory Regulatory Disorders, Sensory Integration Disorders, Neurological Disorders, Cerebral Palsy, Cortical Visual Impairment and Autistic Spectrum Disorders.

In 1997, Kate’s son, Ross, was born premature and spent a few weeks in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. This together with her passion for early intervention initiated her research and development of the Dvd series “Making Sense of My World” – completed in 1998. In this 4-part series, Kate demonstrates the milestones of development and provides parents with fun, easy-to-do activities to stimulate sensory and motor development in the first year of a baby’s life. This series, renamed “Stimulate Your Baby”, was revised and re-filmed together with Liz Senior from Clamber Club, and is now available in a downloadable format from www.clamberclub.com.

Kate believes in the importance of early intervention and the impact nurturing, loving relationships have on the development of the brain. With her commitment to empowering parents, Kate joined physiotherapist, Nicky Lasch in 1999 and together they developed the Moms and Babes Stimulation Programme. Moms and Babes Workshop is part of the Moms and Tots Franchise group owned by Petra Lombard. Kate and Nicky train the franchisees in the theory of sensory, motor, cognitive, play and emotional development in babies from 0 to 12 months. They also teach practical handling and stimulation of all the milestones, using fun activities that enhance caregiver-baby bonding. This two-day training programme equips the franchisees to run their own mother-baby workshops to support parents understand and enhance their babies development.

Kate expanded her knowledge by branching out to study intuitive and emotional healing techniques to complement her practice. She studied to be a Journey Practitioner with Brandon Bays (2004-2005) and a Bodytalk Practitioner, completing modules 1,2,3,4,6,7 (2006 – 2010).  

As the mother of three wonderful children, and the grandmother of two gorgeous girls, Kate believes that relationships play the most important role in the growth, development and emotional wellbeing of children. From 2010, Kate embarked on her DIR Floortime journey. DIR, developed by psychiatrists, Stanley Greenspan and Serena Wieder, is a relationship based approach for children with relating and communication challenges as well as those on the Autism Spectrum.  Kate has completed the following Profectum Academy (New Jersey, USA) online courses: Basic Professionals (2012), the Fellows (2015) and the Trainers (2018) online courses. Kate presently tutors and co-leads training internationally for Profectum Academy. She also gives DIR Introductory workshops around South Africa for Spotlight Trust, a NPO with the goal of introducing DIR to parents, teachers, facilitators and professionals working with the growing population of children with challenges relating and communicating. 

With 30 + years of experience, numerous postgraduate qualifications and a true passion for her work with children and families, Kate continually seeks to deepen her insights, knowledge and learning through sharing with other professionals by attending workshops, tutoring, lecturing and mentoring.