This project is funded by the NSW Department of Family and Community Services: Ageing, Disability & Home Care (ADHC).
What is SDN Language Links?
Language Links is an early childhood intervention program that is home-based. The Language Links team comes to your home to help you to help your child with the concerns you have about their language development. They will help you and your child communicate with each other and help you and your child grow up in an environment at home that is rich with language. The program helps children and families while children are still very young, before small problems get bigger.
Who’s on the SDN Language Links team?
There are two members of the Language Links team:
- A speech pathologist – trained to work out any problems children may have communicating, and how they can be helped to improve.
- A family resource worker – trained to help families be strong, feel safe and secure at home and have healthy relationships with each other.
Can my family join Language Links?
There are some things about you and some things about your child that can help you work out whether or not you can join Language links.
Things about you
There are a lot of families who want help for their child who is having trouble communicating. But Language Links isn’t for every family. To join Language Links you need to be able to answer yes to both these questions:
- You need to live in one of these Local Government Areas: Parramatta, Holroyd, Auburn or Blacktown.
- You experience any of the below:
- have a disability yourself
- have needed some help from Brighter Futures or Community Services to be the best parent you can be
- have post natal or other type of depression or a mental illness
- are under 25 years of age
- are a person of Aboriginal descent
- are a person of Torres Strait Islander descent
- are a person with refugee status
- do not speak English as your first language.
Things about your child
We know that a child’s language skills start developing from a very early age, and that problems can start early. That’s why Language Links is for children from birth to three years of age who have a disability, or who don’t seem to be developing like most other children their age. Language Links is also for children whose families are worried about the way their child is learning to talk and communicate – even if they haven’t been diagnosed as having something wrong.
How does Language Links work?
Children learn and develop their language skills through interacting with people and the world around them. A young child’s relationship with his/her parent or caregiver is one of the most important relationships they will have.
The Language Links team is committed to helping you and your child communicate with each other.
We want to help you build on the relationship that you already have with your child, because we know your child will be able to feel more confident about language and communicating by learning from you.
What will happen if my family joins Language Links?
The Language Links team will come to visit you at home. They’ll talk with you to work out how your child communicates and how you communicate with them. The team will show you things you can do to help your child build on the language skills they already have. Language Links uses a lot of play. That’s because we know that play helps children to learn, and is a great way to encourage communication.
During the program the team will show you how you can use everyday situations to help your child’s language skills to develop. The Language Links team can also help you with some other approaches to take when responding to your child’s communication, so you can develop an even stronger relationship with them.
Each family’s experience of Language Links is based on their child’s own interests, and tailored to the family’s needs. With your help the team will map out a plan for your child’s participation in the program, and schedule visits at times that are most convenient for you.
How long is the program?
Your family will be in Language Links for 12 weeks at the most. During that time you’ll get between 15 and 30 hours of support. By the time the program ends you’ll have been given information and strategies that you can use to help your child’s language skills continue to develop into the future.
What will happen when I contact Language Links?
You’ll need to be referred to Language Links by someone who has been helping you – eg your doctor, your caseworker or another helper like that. If you ask them to, they can phone us and give us your contact information. Then we’ll phone you to talk to you about Language Links.
If you have questions you can phone us. You may need to leave a message. We’ll call you back when we’re not working with children and families.
If you and your child are eligible to join Language Links we’ll make a time to meet you, to talk some more about what you would like and what we can offer you. You’ll have a chance to tell us about the things your child can do and areas where they might need some help, so we can start to put together a plan.
It’s the role of the Language Links team to decide whether or not you and your child are eligible to join the program, and to decide who’ll get places first. The team members meet together in an intake meeting to decide this.
Priority is given to children under two years of age, children with the most severe disability and where families are facing complex challenges. You’ll be told about this decision. If your child is not eligible we’ll help you to find another service if one is available.
If your child is eligible we will introduce you to the Language Links team. You’ll be told about the program’s starting and finishing dates.
If we offer you a place and you’d like to start with Language Links, we’ll fill in the formal paperwork. Your key worker will work with you to develop an Individual Family Service Plan (IFSP) and help you get started.
Can Language Links meet the needs of my child and my family?
Language Links will:
- Respect your cultural and religious beliefs.
- Work with you to develop a program plan tailored to the individual needs of your child.
- Consult regularly with you regarding your child’s needs.
- Provide an interpreter if you would like one.
You will be able to:
- Be involved in assessing your child’s development and their current strengths and needs.
- Be involved in deciding what your child’s program should include.
- Discuss referrals to other agencies, if you wish.
- Discuss your child’s progress, and ongoing changes to your child’s program.
We believe that your family has the right to make decisions regarding your child. So we will:
- Help you to make informed choices.
- Discuss any recommendations for referral to another agency with you.
- Help you to make this referral if you would like us to.
We believe that the most important people in your child’s life are the members of their family. So we will:
- Always consider your child as part of your family unit.
- Take into account your family’s culture, beliefs and current abilities when developing your child’s individual plan and when making recommendations for future intervention.
