Early Links Inclusion Support Service and the National Disability Insurance Scheme

Early Links Inclusion Support Service is excited by the arrival of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). The NDIS is a new way of providing individualised support for children with a disability, developmental delay or who are at risk of developmental delay. The NDIS provides families greater choice and control about the supports that are provided for their child in a way that suits their family.

Early Links is an approved provider of both services and supports for NDIS participants. We offer a wide range of individualised supports for your child, all delivered in a personalised way. You can choose Early Links to provide some or all of your funded supports in your home, in our therapy rooms or within your child’s early childhood or school setting. The supports that Early Links has been approved to provide are listed below. To avoid confusion Early Links has used the wording from NDIS website to describe each of the supports available.

Early Intervention Supports for Early Childhood

Transdisciplinary early childhood interventions

A Transdisciplinary team is a coordinated and integrated program where multiple professionals share responsibility in evaluating, planning and implementing supports to improve capacity of a child with disability or developmental delay and their family.

This support provides each family with 1 main contact person called the Key Worker. Your Key Worker is part of team of Allied Health professionals and specialist Early Childhood Intervention teachers working together to support you and your child. Your Key Worker brings the team’s combined expertise, knowledge and resources to support your child and family. Together, you and your Key Worker will decide which members of the team to involve in each phase of your child’s development program. Your Early Links Key Worker is also able to support you in coordinating other external supports and in accessing the local community.

The Transdisciplinary Early Childhood Intervention plan provides for flexibility in how and when supports are provided to your child. The key worker will help to coordinate an individual plan that keeps pace with your childs development and fits in with your family’s priorities.

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Participation in community, social and civic activities

Assisting children to participate actively in community, social and civic activities. This includes supporting children during these activities, and developing their ability to be included in these activities.

Assistance to access community, social, and recreational activities

Provision of support to enable a child to independently engage in community, social and recreational activities during the week.

Transition to Education Settings

This support cluster incorporates assistance to enable a participant to attend and participate in school or educational programs. It also enables a participant to transition to/from education and meet their self-care needs while participating in education.

Transition to school and other education programs – program design, planning and implementation

Specialised assistance in planning and transitioning to school and other education, beyond the standard transition required for a person of a similar age.

Development of daily living and life skills

Development of daily living and life skills focuses on training and development activities undertaken by the child or their carer to increase their ability to live as autonomously as possible. Training can be provided either individually or through group activities and can include skills in daily life activities, communication and social skills, problem solving and managing funding of supports.

Parenting Training relating to a disability

Training provided to parents of children with disabilities to assist them in their parenting role or training for parents with a disability to assist them in parenting their children.

Specialised assessment of skills, abilities and needs

This cluster is the provision of specialised assessment where the child may have complex or unclear needs or requires long term and/or intensive supports.

Specialist assessment by a Speech Pathologist, Occupational Therapist, Physiotherapist and Psychologist

Specialised assessment of needs by a Speech Pathologist, Occupational Therapist, Physiotherapist and Psychologist

Therapeutic Supports

Therapeutic supports are provided to assist the child to apply their functional skills to improve participation and independence in daily, practical activities in areas such as:

Language and communication
Personal care
Mobility and movement
Interpersonal interactions
Community living

Therapeutic supports funded by NDIS are not directed toward improving a participant’s health.

Therapeutic supports are delivered by allied health professionals including Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy, Speech and Language Pathology, Music Therapist with post graduate qualifications, and Psychology or by a therapy assistant under the supervision of the therapist.

Occupational Therapy

Provision of individual Occupational Therapy to assist with daily activities. Focus on activities of daily life to support changes in functioning and wellbeing. May include recommendations to address environmental barriers, sensory difficulties and safety.

Speech Pathology.

Optimise ability to understand information and communicate thoughts and needs. Assistance to ensure safe and effective mealtime support for children with difficulty feeding/swallowing, development of skills of communication partners to support participation.

Physiotherapy

Delivery of Physiotherapy support to develop or relearn postural and movement skills and functional movement patterns, seating and mobility support, positioning and movement in daily activities; &/or exercise and advice on physical activity.

Psychology

Support for psychological, emotional or behavioural disorder including cognitive therapy and development of life skills. Includes understanding the person’s behaviour and the design of person specific strategies to assist a person to achieve their goals.

Behaviour Support

Behaviour support includes a plan developed that aims to limit the likelihood of behaviours of concern developing and /or increasing. This plan provides assistance to a child, their family and support persons to identify behaviours of concern, including behaviour that causes harm to the child or others. The plan also designs specific positive behaviour support strategies.

Behaviour Support Management Plan

Planned strategies to limit behaviours of concern developing or increasing. Assistance to the child and support persons to identify behaviours such as harm to themselves/others and to design specific positive behaviour strategies for the support person.

Family Group Therapy

Group based interventions to assist in psychosocial or relational issues, required due the person’s disability.

Intensive behavioural intervention support

Highly specialised intensive support interventions to address significantly harmful or persistent behaviours of concern. Development of behaviour support plans that temporarily use restrictive practices, with intention to minimise use of these practices.

Training in behaviour management strategies

Training for carers and others in behaviour management strategies required due the persons disability.