Speech Pathology
The Speech Pathologists at Early Bird Therapy can assist you with anything related to developing your child's communication and feeding skills. This may include:
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Training parents in strategies to teach their child during everyday activities
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Encouraging your child to say their first words
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Working on the skills required to begin using sentences
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Building your child's understanding of language
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Implementing alternative and augmentative communication systems (AAC) such as pictures, sign language, and electronic devices
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Building your child's ability to communicate socially
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Developing your child's ability to play with others
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Assisting with your child's chewing, swallowing, and drinking skills
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Developing your child's use of the correct speech sounds
We can tailor your Speech Pathology service to meet your family's individual needs, offering clinic-based appointments, home visits, visits to your child's educational setting, and therapy groups.
Occupational Therapy
Occupational Therapists can assist with anything that a person does as a daily occupation. For children that means playing, learning, and self-care. An OT can help with:
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play skills
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fine motor skills
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feeding
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equipment (e.g. specialised seating)
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sensory regulation
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problem solving skills
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visual motor integration
We can tailor your Occupational Therapy service to meet your family's individual needs, offering clinic-based appointments, home visits, visits to your child's educational setting, and therapy groups.
Early Childhood Education
Our Early Childhood Educator provides key worker services and early childhood and specialist education for children aged 0-6. This service covers a range of areas aimed at building your child's skills and working with your family as a whole to support you through the early intervention years.
Areas that our Early Childhood Educator may assist you with include:
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Building your skills as a parent to be your child’s most important teacher
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Supporting your child’s inclusion in educational settings
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Support for the transition to preschool and school
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Skills for starting school
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Daily routines and self care skills
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Understanding your child’s behaviour and promoting positive behaviour
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Building positive family relationships
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Understanding autism; strategies and routines to support your child with autism
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Developing social and emotional skills
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Key worker support including advocacy, advice, linkages to other services, co-ordination of your child’s support team, and emotional support
Our Early Childhood Educator provides a mobile service to your home or other settings that your child normally spends time in, rather than in a clinical setting.
Positive Behaviour Support
Positive Behaviour Support is an evidence-based approach that works to teach children functional skills and reduce behaviours of concern. Our Behaviour Support Practitioners appreciate the complex nature of behaviour and provide intervention based on the premise of increasing independence, quality of life and connections with other people. Our Positive Behaviour Support Practitioners use only neurodiversity affirming approaches.
Our Positive Behaviour Support service includes:
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Helping families and teachers to better understand causes of behaviour
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Empowering children to communicate their needs in a variety of ways
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Providing children with strategies to express or regulate their emotions
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Implementing environmental adaptations to support the child
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Functional Behaviour Analysis
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Assessing and building functional skills
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Increasing inclusion in school and other community activities
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Support including advocacy, recommendations and linkages to other services.
Small Groups
We offer a variety of small therapy groups that support children to practice their skills in a social context. Some of our groups run during the school holidays as an intensive program, and some groups run regularly throughout the school term. Check our Groups page for information about our current group offerings.
Physiotherapy
A physiotherapist at Early Bird Therapy can assist you with anything related to developing your child's gross motor skills. This may include:
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difficulty with rolling, sitting, crawling, walking, running and jumping
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pigeon toes, bow legs, in-rolling ankles, knock knees
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difficulties with coordination and balance
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injuries
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poor posture or frequent muscular pain
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low muscle tone/strength/endurance
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poor or under-developed core/trunk stability
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less than ideal body/joint mechanics or alignment
Therapy Assistant
Our Therapy Assistant service allows children to access therapy more frequently for a more intensive service. Our Therapy Assistants are not qualified therapists, but work under the close supervision and direction of our fully/qualified therapists. We are only able to provide Therapy Assistant services to children who currently see a fully qualified/registered therapist employed by Early Bird Therapy.
This service may be appropriate for children who:
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are accessing an intensive Positive Behaviour Support program
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need more exposure to using alternative and augmentative communication methods (AAC)
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are working on developing their use of speech sounds
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require additional 1:1 therapy to develop their motor skills
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would benefit from more assistance participating and interacting with their peers in their educational setting
Our Therapy Assistant service is available at the Early Bird Therapy clinic, and as a mobile service to homes and educational settings.
Clinical Supervision for Qualified Therapists
It is important for all therapists to access clinical supervision to guide and develop their practice. This allows therapists to examine the way they work with their clients and ensure they are following best practice guidelines.
Early Bird Therapy offers 1:1 and group clinical supervision sessions for therapists in all stages of their career.
Parent Training Courses
Parent training is one of the best ways that you can help your child's development as it gives you the skills to help them learn throughout their everyday routine. Group parent training also allows you to connect with other parents who have similar experiences to you.
Early Bird Therapy currently offers a variety of courses including "It Takes Two to Talk", "More than Words", and the Early Bird Therapy course "While You're Waiting". We also periodically run one-off parent training sessions and parent support groups. Please check our News and Events section for more details.
Training for Educators
Educators make such a difference in the lives of young children. Early Bird Therapy aims to support educators in their role by providing bespoke training focused on their needs. We offer:
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Individual visits to educational settings
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Group staff training
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Strategies and information related to the specialised needs of a single child
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General education designed to be of benefit to the entire group of children