About Early Childhood Intervention and our services
Early intervention is specialised support provided for young children who have a disability or learning support need and their families. We have a team of Speech Pathologists, Occupational practitioners, Behaviour Support practitioners and Early Intervention practitioners.
We provide Occupational Therapy, Speech therapy, Early Intervention therapy and Behaviour Support therapy.
We offer sessions in our therapy-integrated services along with telehealth appointments. We only offer community visits for Behaviour Support therapy only.
We currently support children aged from 0 to 16 years of age. Early Intervention Therapy is only given up until the child turns 9 years of age.
Rooty Hill and Macquarie Park, for families enrolled at an SDN centre and families in the community who are welcome to come in for therapy.
Our speech pathologists focus on helping your child find the best way to communicate to meet their needs.
This could include signs, symbols, gestures and other forms of assisted communication. They can also help your child if they have trouble swallowing food and drink.
SDN’s speech pathologists work with your child and include you as part of the team. They actively pass their knowledge, skills and expertise on to you, so therapy can take place every day. This can also reduce the need for so many face to face sessions and provides your family with better value from your NDIS package.
Speech Pathologists can also conduct various assessments to determine whether a child requires support with:
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Language skills, including understanding instructions, using words or varied vocabulary and sentence structures to express themselves
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Reading and writing, including reading comprehension
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Speech sound production and stuttering
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Social and play skills
SDN’s team of occupational therapists specialise in working with children and can help your child improve their ability to do the everyday things that they want or need to do.
Our occupational therapists can help your child to:
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improve their ability to look after themselves – for example, eat, dress, or complete personal hygiene tasks
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Engage in meaningful play activities
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take part in tasks at school or preschool
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enjoy leisure activities, like swimming, or sport.
SDN’s occupational therapists work with your child and include you as part of the team. They actively pass their knowledge, skills and expertise on to you, so therapy can take place every day. This can also reduce the need for so many face to face sessions and provides your family with better value from your NDIS package.
Our Positive Behaviour Support Practitioners aim to understand the causes of your child's behaviours of concern and then provide a collaborative support plan. This support plan contains strategies based on evidence, that can fully address your child and family's needs.
Our Behaviour Support Practitioners will work collaboratively with you, your child and family, and other services so that we can support your goals and priorities. This support takes place at home, school or at an early education and care centre as well as in the community. The aim of SDN’s Behaviour Support Service is for everyone to feel welcomed, supported and understood so that we can work towards behaviour change that is meaningful for your child and your family.
While working with you, your behaviour support clinician will conduct a Functional Behaviour Assessment (which involves information gathering, observations and data collection) and develop a Positive Behaviour Support Plan. This includes positive practices and goals that will help the child or young person to learn new skills that will reduce and replace the behaviours of concern, and strategies for responding to behaviours of concern if they do occur. They will then support implementation of the plan through training and capacity building and a period of regular support.
The period of support may look different to other therapies. In a Behaviour Support service, we don’t schedule sessions in the way that other therapy practitioners might. We may work more regularly with a family over a period of time. We will monitor outcomes to see if the plan is supporting a reduction of behaviours of concern and an increase in the skills and behaviours that have been identified as replacements for the behaviours of concern. Progress in these areas will help to guide the duration of service.
As behaviours of concern can occur in multiple settings, it will be necessary for the Behaviour Support Practitioner to travel out to see the child or young person in these settings, which may result in travel being charged up to 30 minutes (as per the NDIS price guide) in addition to the planned session time.
Where it has been identified that a restricted practice is being considered or implemented in the support of a child or young person, SDN’s Behaviour Support Practitioners adhere to the requirements of the NDIS Quality and Safeguarding Commission and the NSW DCJ Restricted Practice Policy and Procedure.
When working with a child or young person, we may make recommendations for the involvement of other services or professionals that could be of support in addressing behavioural concerns.
Your early intervention practitioner is part of a collaborative team of professionals working to support you and your child.
Your early intervention practitioner will:
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Set goals with you and develop an individual family service plan
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Coordinate the different services that are supporting your child and family, making sure that everyone is working toward the same goal
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Provide therapeutic strategies to build the skills of key people who are in your child’s life
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Gather information for you about services/activities available to your child and family and connecting you with them
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Help build your child’s skills by using their own skills and knowledge, and using the skills of other professionals such as Occupational Therapists and Speech Pathologists when needed
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Pass the knowledge of the team onto you and your family so you can continue to teach your child the things they want to learn
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Respect your families’ priorities and value that you know your child better than anyone else
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Support you so that you know the rights of your child and family and can advocate for them.
Therapy sessions - what to expect
At SDN, our onboarding process takes approximately 2-3 weeks before your child's first therapy session. During this time, scheduled appointments are made with our Family Engagement team and practitioners to gather more information.
At SDN we have a priority of access policy. For more information call our SDN Family Engagement Team on 1300 831 445 or view the full Priority of Access to SDN Services policy here.
Our waitlist is dependent on our current capacity, therefore we are unable to give specific timeframes.
Yes. SDN can provide assessments for Speech and Occupational Therapy and Behaviour support. We do not provide diagnostic assessments.
Our practitioners will work with your child towards their goals, use play to engage your child's interests, listen to your child and use their interests and skills to help to reach their goals and milestones.
We will also build capacity of the child's family and/or educators within the therapy session. We will Involve you and your family in your child’s therapy through:
Understanding what you want most for your child and working with you and them to set goal, teaching you practical ways to provide therapy with your child in your everyday life and connecting you with other resources and services.
A therapy session is a total of 60 minutes. Therapy is for 45 minutes, and the last 15 minutes is used by the practitioner to write a session summary of what you have worked on together which you will receive approximately 48 hours after the session has finished.
SDN currently offers weekly or fortnightly sessions based on availability.
Yes. As part of our commitment to safety and best practice, our practitioners do not provide services without a guardian or educator present. This allows us to build the capacity of the key people in the child's life as well as ensures your child's safety and wellbeing.
Home or school visits are only offered for Behaviour Support therapy.
Fees, cancellation and termination
Our fees are in line with the NDIS price guide.
Speech therapy, occupational therapy and early childhood intervention are $193.99 per hour. Specialised behaviour support is $252.99 per hour.
Appointments
We bill for all Early Childhood Intervention appointments (face to face or telehealth) in our early learning centres, preschools, centre (with parent), school visits, home visits, including travel time for any staff who must travel to provide the service.
Other meetings and correspondence
We will bill when we need to meet with, talk to or write to others about the capacity building of your child. This could include time spent meeting with other members of your child’s support team and teachers, writing to or for the family, sharing case notes or reports with external professionals, talking with those involved in an Individual Family Service Plan (IFSP).
Reports, research and resources
We will charge for other capacity building work we do for your child outside of appointments, such as preparing the IFSP, writing reports and doing research. We may charge for producing resources, but we will get your approval first.
Travel
We also charge for travel to and from an appointment. As per the NDIS price guide, travel is billed for a maximum of 30 mins.
No. SDN does not currently offer Medicare or health insurance.
No. SDN does not currently offer to use your child's mental healthcare plan.
Yes. SDN is a registered provider with NDIS and you are able to use your child's NDIS plans to cover the costs of therapy.
We charge for cancellations or missed appointments in line with the NDIS price guide.
The NDIA sometimes updates this guide. We currently charge 100% of the planned Service fee against the Participant’s Plan if you or the Client miss or cancel a therapy appointment without notifying us 48 hours (business days) prior to the appointment.
Bookings for group sessions cannot be cancelled and must be paid for regardless of whether you attend.
To terminate therapy with SDN and end a service agreement, please contact our Family Engagement Team on 1300 831 445. You must provide the 28 days’ notice in writing. The service Agreement can be ended straight away with approval from our management team.
