Early Childhood Intervention

What is Early Childhood Intervention?

Early Childhood Intervention is for kids who have a developmental delay. A developmental delay is when a child takes a bit longer to reach milestones such as moving, learning, talking, or playing with others.

It may or may not be related to a disability. Some disabilities such as autism, hearing loss, Down syndrome, and cerebral palsy,  could more likely lead a child to experience a developmental delay, but the cause isn’t always known.

ECI may help to improve a child’s development through a range of tailored supports. With these services, kids may benefit substantially and be able to go to school with little or no extra support.

Early Childhood Intervention at Aruma

At Aruma, our Early Childhood Early Intervention services are for children aged 0 – 9 years.

You will have one main point of contact called a Key Worker. We work in partnership with your family to get to know your child and what they need. We want you to know that you’re not in this alone and we know there isn’t one recipe for each child.

What Early Childhood Intervention services does Aruma provide?

Depending on what you need, you may have a team of early intervention professionals including Special Education Teachers, Physiotherapists, Occupational Therapists, and Speech Pathologists.

This team will work together to deliver the services, which is called a Transdisciplinary Approach.

What is a Key Worker?

To coordinate your services and to manage your Transdisciplinary team, each family will have one will have one point of contact – your Key Worker.

While the Key Worker will be the primary contact, the whole team remains involved, and the Key Worker will report back to them regularly.

Find out more about the Key Worker model.

What does a Key Worker do?

Your Key Worker will aim to:

• Work with and manage your Early Childhood Intervention team
• Make a plan with you including goals and strategies
• Help you teach your child to learn and build skills in everyday routines
• Visit your child at childcare, kindergarten or school
• Help childcare, kindergarten or school build your child’s skills
• Make sure you have information, resources and support
• Support you when you need it
• Refer you to other organisations such as swimming and sports etc

What will my child learn?

Well, this comes down to what they might need! But there are a whole range of skills they may be able to learn.

A Speech Pathologist may help a child communicate, eat and swallow. While a Special Education Teacher may help to support language and social skills, and skills your child needs to start school successfully.

While Occupational Therapists, or OTs, may  help kids do everyday activities such as grasping and releasing toys, hand-eye coordination, using cutlery, getting dressed, and dealing with strong emotions. They can also look at what equipment a child might need such as a wheelchair or other aids.

Can you help my child start childcare, preschool or school?

We know starting something new can be stressful for families, and it’s important you have the right support.

We can help families to plan for the change, visit the school before they start, and help throughout that transition period.

Are parents and families able to be involved?

Yes! We love when families want to be involved and feel comfortable talking to us about their child’s support.

We encourage you to speak to our staff about any questions you have either during or after our sessions.

Can Aruma provide support to my family?

We can help your family understand your child’s disability or delay, how this might affect how they learn, and any supports they might need.

We can also connect you with other families, support networks, and even other services.

Please note: We bill in line with the NDIS Price Guide, which generally increases annually.