What to Expect at Your First OT Appointment – NDIS Participant Guide

Reading time: 9 minutes  |  Updated: April 2026  |  Written by: TEAH Allied Health Team

Your first OT appointment is coming up and you are not quite sure what to expect. Will it be like a doctor’s appointment — sit down, answer questions, leave with a piece of paper? Will the OT ask you to do things you find difficult? Will it take a long time? Do you need to prepare anything?

These are reasonable things to wonder, and not knowing the answers can make the appointment feel more daunting than it needs to be. This guide walks you through exactly what happens at a first NDIS OT appointment — what the OT will ask, what they will observe, what you should bring, and what comes next. Whether your appointment is an assessment, a therapy intake session, or something in between, knowing what to expect makes the whole process less stressful and more productive.

Two Types of First Appointment — Assessment vs Therapy Intake

Before anything else, it helps to understand which type of first appointment you are having — because they look quite different and serve different purposes.

Many first appointments involve elements of both — particularly when the OT needs to understand your background before deciding how to structure the assessment. If you are unsure which type of appointment you are having, call the provider before the day and ask.

What to Bring to Your First OT Appointment

You do not need to bring a lot — but what you do bring makes a meaningful difference to the quality of the appointment. Here is what to gather in the days before:

You do not need to arrive with a perfectly organised folder of documents. If you only have some of these things, bring what you have. The OT can request additional information from your GP or specialists after the appointment if needed.

What Happens at an OT Assessment Appointment

If your first appointment is an OT assessment — a Functional Capacity Assessment, home modification assessment, or similar — here is what to expect from start to finish.

The OT will introduce themselves and explain the process

Your OT will begin by introducing themselves, explaining what the assessment involves, approximately how long it will take, and how the resulting report will be used. If anything is unclear, this is a good moment to ask. A well-organised OT will have already reviewed any existing documentation you or your support coordinator have sent in advance.

An in-depth interview about your background and daily life

The bulk of a first assessment appointment — typically 60–90 minutes for a comprehensive FCA — is a structured conversation. The OT will ask about your disability history, your living situation, your current support arrangements, and the specific challenges you experience in daily life. This section may feel like a medical history appointment, but it is more personal than that — the OT is building a picture of your actual daily life, not just your diagnosis.

Standardised assessment tools

For many assessment types, the OT will use one or more standardised questionnaires — either administered verbally (the OT reads the questions, you answer) or completed in writing. These tools produce objective, scored data that forms the clinical foundation of the report. Common tools include questionnaires about your daily functioning, your independence across specific tasks, and for paediatric assessments, motor or sensory measurement activities.

Direct observation of task performance

Your OT may ask you to demonstrate how you perform certain tasks — walking between rooms, getting up from a chair, making a cup of tea, managing buttons or zips, writing, using a device. This observation is not a test of whether you can do something — it is an opportunity for the OT to see how you actually perform tasks, including any strategies you use, any compensations you have developed, and where the real difficulties lie.

For home modification and mobility-related assessments, the OT will also physically inspect relevant areas of the home — measuring doorways, assessing step heights, evaluating the bathroom layout, and noting where access barriers exist.

The OT will ask about your goals

Near the end of the assessment, the OT will typically ask about your goals — what you want to be able to do, what matters most to you, and what would make the biggest difference to your daily life. These goals inform the recommendations in the report and connect the clinical findings to your NDIS plan goals.

How long does an assessment appointment take?

If you find extended appointments difficult — due to fatigue, anxiety, or cognitive demands — let the OT know in advance. Good OTs will structure the appointment to accommodate your needs, take regular breaks, or schedule across multiple shorter visits where needed.

What Happens at an OT Therapy Intake

If your first appointment is a therapy intake — the beginning of an ongoing therapy relationship rather than a stand-alone assessment — it will feel less structured than an assessment and more like a conversation.

The OT will want to understand:

• What has brought you to OT at this particular time
• What your NDIS goals are and what you are hoping OT will help you achieve
• What your daily life currently looks like and what you find most challenging
• What previous OT or allied health support you have had and what worked or did not work
• Any practical considerations about session timing, location, and communication preferences

By the end of the intake, the OT should be able to explain what they propose to do in therapy, in what order, and why. They may also explain how they will measure progress and how frequently they expect to review goals. If you leave a therapy intake without a clear sense of what the OT is going to do with you and why, ask for more clarity — you are entitled to understand your own therapy plan.

The Questions Your OT Will Ask — and Why

Understanding why certain questions are asked helps you give the most useful answers. Here are the most common OT assessment questions and the clinical purpose behind them:

Tasks You Might Be Asked to Perform

Depending on the assessment type and your presenting needs, the OT may ask you to demonstrate certain tasks during the appointment. This is normal and is not an attempt to catch you out or test you — it is how the OT gathers direct observational data to supplement what you have told them.

Common observed tasks include:

• Walking between rooms, navigating stairs, or moving through your home with or without a mobility aid
• Sitting down and getting up from a chair or toilet
• Making a cup of tea or a simple meal
• Pouring from a kettle or lifting a container
• Managing buttons, zips, or other fastenings
• Writing or using a keyboard
• Picking up small objects from a table or floor
• Using your phone, tablet, or communication device
• For paediatric assessments: completing age-appropriate tasks such as threading, cutting, drawing, or play activities

The OT is not judging your performance — they are observing how you actually function. They will note which parts of a task you complete independently, where you use compensatory strategies, and where you need assistance. Perform each task as you normally would, not in a way you think will impress them.

The Most Important Thing — Describe Your Typical Day, Not Your Best Day

This deserves its own section because it is the single factor that most commonly leads to NDIS plans that are inadequate for the participant’s real needs.

The clinical assessment environment can subtly encourage people to present their best selves — the questions seem formal, there is an unfamiliar professional in the room, and it can feel like being evaluated. The natural tendency is to demonstrate competence rather than difficulty.

Resist this tendency. The OT is on your side. Their job is to accurately document your real functional capacity — including on difficult days, during fatigue episodes, when pain is at its worst, or when anxiety is high. If they only see or hear about your best-day capacity, the report will not reflect what support you actually need, and the NDIA will fund what the report documents — not what you actually need.

Here are specific ways to describe your typical day honestly:

• If you are having a good day when the OT visits, say so explicitly: “Today is actually a better day than usual for me.”
• Describe what a bad or typical day looks like rather than (or in addition to) what you managed to do today
• Mention how long tasks actually take you, including rest periods — not just whether you can complete them
• Name the things you have stopped doing or avoid doing because they are too hard
• Be specific about fatigue: “By 2pm I usually can’t do anything else for the rest of the day” is more useful than “I get tired”
• Describe pain levels and how they fluctuate — what a low-pain day looks like and what a high-pain day means for your functioning

Bringing a Support Person

You are entitled to bring a support person to any OT appointment. This might be a family member, carer, close friend, support coordinator, or advocate. For many participants, having a support person present is genuinely valuable — particularly if:

• You find self-reporting difficult — describing your own difficulties can be emotionally challenging, and having someone who knows you well fill in gaps is clinically valuable
• Your condition means your functioning varies significantly day to day and a support person can provide context about typical days that the OT appointment may not capture
• You have cognitive difficulties or anxiety that make it hard to recall and describe your daily life during an unfamiliar appointment
• You are supporting a family member through their OT assessment — a parent at a child’s assessment, for example, is often the primary information source
• You simply find medical appointments easier with someone alongside you

If you are bringing a support person, let the OT know in advance — not because it requires special permission, but so the OT can plan the appointment appropriately and make everyone feel welcome.

One practical note: while support people can add valuable context and fill in gaps, the assessment should primarily reflect the participant’s own experience. A support person who answers every question on the participant’s behalf — not allowing them to respond — can inadvertently limit the assessment’s accuracy. The best support person adds context and fills gaps, rather than speaking for the participant throughout.

What Happens After the Appointment

The appointment itself is only part of the process. Here is what to expect after your first OT visit:

After an assessment appointment

After a therapy intake

Following a therapy intake, you should receive a service agreement outlining the proposed therapy program, goals, session frequency, fees, and the provider’s cancellation policy. Review this carefully before signing. Your next appointment will typically be your first regular therapy session, working toward the goals agreed at intake.

If you have questions after the appointment

You should feel comfortable contacting your OT between appointments if you have questions about the process, the report, or what comes next. A provider who is difficult to reach between appointments — or who does not respond to reasonable questions in a timely way — is not structured to support you well over an ongoing relationship.

Frequently Asked Questions

Summary

Your first OT appointment is a conversation about your life — your daily challenges, your goals, and what support would make the biggest difference. It is not a test, it is not a confrontation, and it is not something to perform well in. The more openly and honestly you describe your actual daily experience — including your difficult days, your fatigue, the things you have stopped doing, and the help you rely on — the more accurately the resulting report or therapy plan will reflect your real needs.

Bring what documents you have, think about your typical day in advance, and consider who you would like alongside you. The rest the OT will guide you through.

TEAH’s intake team will explain exactly what your first appointment with us involves, in your specific situation, before you commit. Call us on 1300 203 059 or submit a referral online — we make the process as clear and straightforward as possible from the first conversation.