Janine Tan Kia Pei
- Senior Occupational Therapist (Paediatrics)
- Bachelor of Occupational Therapy (1st Hons) (University of Queensland, Australia)
- University Medallist, Mary Rankine Wilson Prize recipient
- Diploma in Preschool Education – Teaching
- Certified in SIPT (Sensory Integration and Praxis Test)
- Signposts Trained Facilitator
- Full Registration with Allied Health Professions Council (Singapore)
- Member of Singapore Association of Occupational Therapists
Janine’s dream career was a helping profession as she wanted very much to make a difference in people’s lives. In 1998, she was awarded a scholarship by the Public Service Commission to pursue a degree in Occupational Therapy at the University of Queensland. In 2001, she graduated with a First Class Honours in Bachelor of Occupational Therapy and was awarded both the University Medal and the Mary Rankine Wilson Prize for her outstanding performance in the course of her university education. In 2002, she started her career as an Occupational Therapist (OT) at a Singapore government restructured hospital. However, Janine’s passion has always been to work with children right from the start. Her love for children and the burning desire to work with them led her to concurrently pursue an early childhood education diploma course and she obtained a Diploma in Preschool Teaching in 2003. In 2004, she joined the Child Development Unit (CDU) at the National University Hospital in Singapore as its pioneer full-time OT, where she worked clinically with countless children and their families. In addition, she spearheaded the department in the development of numerous therapy initiatives and programs over the years, together with her fellow colleagues. She became the Head of the CDU Occupational Therapy team in 2009 and remained so till her exit in 2013. Subsequently, she joined a private paediatric therapy centre where she continued her clinical work with children and also worked as a freelancer to provide home-based occupational therapy services to children and their families.
Janine has more than a decade of experience working as an OT with children across different ages with various developmental, learning and behavioural conditions. She has extensive experience with providing individual therapy and consultation to children and their families and has also run many children group therapy programs with other professionals such as social skills groups, motor training groups, handwriting programs and school readiness programs. Over the years, she had also conducted numerous talks and workshops for both parents and professionals, either internally or to the public, and had contributed her professional expertise in several Singapore public publications such as Young Parents and Motherhood magazines. In 2011 to 2012, she served on the consultancy team in collaboration with KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital and National Council of Social Service for the Early Intervention Program for Infants and Children (EIPIC) Consultancy Project which aimed to improve the standards of government-aided EIPIC centres across Singapore.
Janine has attended numerous professional training courses over the course of her career and is trained in many intervention approaches such as DIR/Floortime, Sensory Integration, Alert Program, TEACCH, PECS, Social Thinking and Collaborative Problem Solving. She is certified in the Sensory Integration and Praxis Test (SIPT) and is also a certified Signposts facilitator. She has full registration with the Allied Health Professions Council (AHPC) and is a current member of the Singapore Association of Occupational Therapists (SAOT).
Being well-trained in so many intervention approaches, Janine embraces the use of an eclectic approach in her management of children based on the individual needs of the child and the family. She is creative in ways to make therapy fun and engaging for the children whom she works with so that they will reap the utmost benefit from the therapy sessions. She strongly encourages family collaboration and participation as part of her intervention with children as she believes that this is a critical piece to enhancing their development and progress. She values that all children, regardless of abilities, have the right to quality of life and should be helped to maximize their full potential.
Janine is a mother to two lovely children, a boy and a girl. As a mother herself, she understands the joys and challenges that come with parenthood and this enables her to be empathetic with parents and connect with them easily. During her spare time, she enjoys going on outings and playing board and card games with her children and family.