History

Tumbling Together™ was first developed in Brockville over 15 years ago by Occupational Therapist, Cecile Loiselle, and Speech and Language Pathologist, Jean Chamberlain, who recognized that a more effective tool was required to provide therapy to preschoolers with complex special needs. At the early stages of the program it quickly become evident that there was a need for in-depth parent support, so Darlene Owen, Community Counsellor of Children's Mental Health of Leeds-Grenville, joined the team. The model they developed is a community-based program that incorporates movement and situational learning as well as interprofessional collaboration to provide family-centered and individualized supports to children with complex special needs.

The team then began developing programs for toddlers and preschooler in order to prepare the children for the intensive therapy program offered by Tumbling Together™. The sucess of the Brockville Tumbling Together™ Continuum of Programs became known to Penny Pitcher, of Lanark Community Programs, who put together a team to offer Tumbling Together™ in Smiths Falls, over 10 years ago. With the two teams, running 6 Tumbling Together™ series per year, the number of therapists and students wanting to learn how to do Tumbling Together™ was growing.

As more and more requests for training were received by the teams, funding was sought from the Ontario Sports and Recreation Communities Fund to continue to offer these programs locally. These grants also supported developing and delivering a program to build capacity and ensure program continuation as the program designers began to retire. It is with the past and continued support of these grants and local organizations that the Tumbling Together™ Programs organiztion is able to provide training and support to therapists implementing the programs on the continuum.