More than just gymnastics

Novita Hubs offer a range of shared therapy sessions throughout the year, including school holiday programs that combine fun and social connection with purposeful skill development. 

The school holiday programs feature a variety of activities including cooking, music, LEGO, basketball and gymnastics, providing opportunities to build skills and confidence in new and exciting settings. 

"Our holiday program provides children with an opportunity to try a new activity and possibly gain a new interest area,” said Lana Feichter, Team Leader at Novita's Modbury North Hub. 

“We run shared therapy sessions across all ages and have different sessions tailored to different ages and abilities.” 

During the Term 2 holidays, clients at the Modbury North Hub took part in GymSports, a non-competitive gymnastics program focused on fun, fitness and movement. Participants learnt basic gymnastics skills on traditional apparatus like balance beams, trampolines, foam pits and the mat without the pressure of competing. 

“Gymnastics is fantastic to promote improvements in gross motor skills, while targeting social goals, such as reciprocal play, taking turns and communicating with peers and therapists,” Lana said. 

“It supports with other important skills such as problem solving, following instructions, expressing opinions.”  

The group therapy environment also allows children to practise other skills in a real-life setting.  

“Sometimes in the clinic, it can be hard to address things like social skills as we are not with the child's peers. I find gymnastics is great at supporting children to transfer those skills into real life,” Lana said. 

For one child, their experience with group therapy gymnastics became the start of something much bigger. After discovering a love of gymnastics through the program, they have since joined a mainstream calisthenics club, where they now participate in weekly classes and undertake occasional performances in front of crowds. 

“It is so wonderful to see that our program allowed a client to achieve amazing things,” Lana said.