13/08/2026
🫶🏼☀️❤️
💛 Therapy, hope & helping our STXBP1 children shine 💛
There is no one-size-fits-all approach to supporting someone with STXBP1 — every child is wonderfully unique, with their own strengths, challenges and goals. 🌟
Different therapies can play such an important role in helping our children develop skills, increase independence, communicate, connect with the world around them and, most importantly, enjoy life. 🥰
First, the essentials:
🧠 Physiotherapy (PT)
Supports strength, balance, coordination, mobility and posture. It can help children work towards movement goals and maintain the skills they already have. Every tiny step can be a BIG achievement! 👣
🗣️ Speech & Language Therapy (SALT/SLT)
Communication is so much more than spoken words. Therapy can support speech, language, understanding, social communication and alternative communication methods such as AAC. Finding the right way for a child to say “I want that!” can be life-changing. 💬❤️
👐 Occupational Therapy (OT)
Helps with everyday skills, sensory needs, coordination and independence — from using their hands and feeding themselves to dressing, playing and participating in daily activities.
🍎 Feeding & swallowing therapy
For children with feeding or swallowing difficulties, specialist support can help families work towards safer, more enjoyable and more successful mealtimes.
Next, the fun additions:
💦 Hydrotherapy / aquatic therapy
The water can be an amazing therapy environment! 🌊 The buoyancy of water can make movement easier and provide opportunities to work on strength, balance, mobility and coordination while having FUN. For some children, being in the water can also be wonderfully calming and motivating. 🐠💙
🐴 Hippotherapy / therapeutic riding
Working with horses can provide opportunities to develop posture, balance, coordination and core strength — while also building confidence and creating a fantastic sense of achievement. 🐴✨
🎵 Music therapy
Music can be a wonderful way to encourage communication, interaction, attention and self-expression. And let’s be honest… sometimes a favourite song is the best therapy session of all! 🎶😂
🎨 Sensory & developmental therapies
These can help children explore their environment, work on attention and engagement, develop skills and find strategies that make everyday experiences more manageable.
📚 Educational & early intervention support
Individualised learning and specialist educational approaches can help children build on their strengths and discover how they learn best. 🌈
💙 And the hopeful part?
Therapy isn’t about “fixing” our children. It’s about giving them opportunities, supporting their development and helping them communicate, participate, move, learn and experience as much independence and joy as possible.
Progress doesn’t always happen in a straight line. Sometimes it’s a new movement. A new sound. A new way to communicate. A little more confidence in the water. Holding something for the first time. Taking one step further than yesterday.
Those moments can feel absolutely HUGE. 🥹💛
And when they happen, we celebrate them like they’ve just won Olympic gold! 🏆😂
For our STXBP1 community, hope isn’t about expecting every child to follow the same path. It’s about making sure every child has the right support, opportunities and encouragement to follow THEIR path. 💛
