Early Learning Intervention

This is an action that is taken through services to provide support to babies and young children with developmental delays and disabilities and their families.

The services required for your family may include occupational, speech and physical therapy, or other types of services that support the families mental and emotional state.

Early intervention is extremely important when it comes to assisting children with ASD.

These services can help your child develop skills in play, communication, social relationships and functional behaviours at a pivotal time in their growth. Specialists who work with your child can truly make a difference in your child’s independence and ability to adapt to their environment and improve their readiness to participate in child care, kindergarten and school.

The support available for families of children with ASD, disability or developmental delay in early intervention is wide and assists babies from birth right up until school entry. It doesn’t matter when you make a call for assistance, as long as you make it before they go to school. It will help them enormously in these early years so the transitions through each year are much smoother than they might otherwise be.

Early Intervention can offer assistance with:

• advice on your child’s developmental needs

• information and planning

• multidisciplinary therapies across early developmental milestones

• referrals to other specialist services

• coordination of services for those with high needs such as meals and transport

• support with transitioning to a kindergarten program and school

• counselling and linking families with other families and support groups.

• Accumulating thorough and well documented assessments for diagnosis

BUSHkids based in Hervey Bay is a not-for-profit regional organisation that is the first place to go to when figuring out this path.

Upon making an appointment, which unfortunately usually has a waitlist, they will make an initial assessment to evaluate whether your family qualifies for Early Intervention support. This criteria is essentially an overview of your childs situation as well as your financial standing, current support systems in place as well as your mental state among other things., As they are mostly funded by the government, they’ll forward your application on and you then hopefully you'll be greenlit for some NDIS funding so you can immediately get some support services in place.

You can find more info about BUSHkids HERE

More general information can be found HERE