Date: Tuesday 17 March 2026

Time: 12.00pm - 1.00pm AEDT

Access: Via the Inner Circle Resource Hub

Airway and oral function play a powerful role in sleep quality, yet many OTs are unaware of the early signs that a child’s sleep may be disrupted by breathing or structural issues.

When sleep is compromised, children can present with sensory concerns, emotional dysregulation and attention difficulties, leading therapists to chase surface-level behaviours rather than the root cause. Understanding airway health helps you recognise these patterns and support families with greater clarity.

This OT Masterclass invites Inner Circle members to explore how airway and oral function influence development, regulation and day to day participation. You’ll learn how to screen for airway concerns, interpret red flags and understand why sleep should be a foundational consideration in clinical reasoning.

We will cover the connections between breathing, tongue posture, oral muscles and sleep architecture, and how these elements shape behaviour, learning and wellbeing. You’ll gain guidance on referral pathways, collaborative practice and practical steps to support families when airway issues are suspected.

By knowing what to look for and how to respond, you’ll feel more confident identifying airway-related concerns and guiding children toward supports that create meaningful change, with a live Q&A to consolidate your learning.

What will you learn?

This session provides practical tools to help OTs identify airway and oral function concerns that impact sleep, behaviour and development. You will learn:

• How airway and oral function influence sleep, regulation and participation
• How to recognise screening signs and clinical red flags
• How breathing patterns, tongue posture and oral muscles affect wellbeing
• What to discuss with families and how to guide next steps
• How to map clear referral pathways and collaborate with relevant providers
• Practical steps for integrating airway-informed reasoning into OT practice

Why attend?

Join us to strengthen your clinical reasoning and walk away with skills that improve your ability to identify underlying contributors to children’s challenges.

Gain confidence, support families with clarity and build a practice that recognises sleep and airway health as essential foundations for childhood development.

Claire Duque is an Occupational Therapist and Myofunctional Therapist who specialises in identifying and treating airway and oral function concerns that impact sleep, behaviour and development in children.

After years of navigating her own child’s complex symptoms, Claire discovered the pivotal role of sleep-disordered breathing and airway structure in shaping regulation, immunity and sensory processing. This lived experience ignited her passion for early identification and intervention, leading her to transition from adult OT practice into dedicated work in paediatric airway, breathing and myofunctional therapy.

Claire now works at Airway Sleep Therapy supporting children with comprehensive assessment, oral muscle training, breathing retraining, tongue posture correction and preparation for orthodontic and surgical interventions. She collaborates closely with dentists, orthodontists, ENTs and allied health providers to ensure each child receives holistic, airway-centred care.

With a strong belief that sleep and breathing are the foundations of childhood health, Claire is committed to raising awareness among clinicians and families about the early signs of airway dysfunction. She delivers education that helps OTs recognise red flags, understand behavioural presentations linked to poor sleep and guide families toward supports that create meaningful change.

Through her clinical work and teaching, Claire empowers OTs to view regulation, attention and sensory challenges through an airway-informed lens, improving outcomes for children whose underlying needs often go unnoticed.