What to look for in a therapy provider for your child

Searching for a NDIS therapy provider for a child with developmental delay or disability can be overwhelming for parents, with the choice and control that the NDIS brings. The NDIS empowers you to select the best service provider to help your child achieve their goals.

So, here are some things you may want to look for in a therapy provider for your child.

1. Therapists who really understand your child and family’s needs

   You’ll get the best results from therapists and support staff who listen to, and understand your, child’s and family’s needs, and then work in partnership with you and your child to identify priorities, monitor their progress and work towards their goals.

   Children learn best in their everyday settings, such as home, childcare or kindergarten, doing everyday things and activities that they are interested in and enjoy.

   Yooralla’s Specialist Children’s Supports take a family-centred approach to supporting children. This means a team of specialists from different therapy disciplines (as required) will listen to, and work together with your family to understand your needs and deliver quality, individually tailored services to support your child to achieve their NDIS goals. At every stage, your family is an important member of the team, and they will be involved in all aspects of the program and decision-making. Yooralla also offers family support. We deliver therapy services to children in their own environments such as at home, kindergarten or school, as well as from Yooralla services.

2. A service provider and therapists who understand the NDIS

   If the NDIS is new to you, it may seem somewhat daunting. It can help to have a service provider who knows the NDIS well and can support your child to transition, as well as one who will understand your child’s NDIS goals and deliver quality early intervention supports that will help them to achieve them.

   Yooralla knows the NDIS – we have been supporting participants from the beginning of the NDIS. It also means we understand the NDIA process of Service Agreements, service bookings and reporting - importantly we want your child to make the most of the NDIS.

3. Registered NDIS service provider

   A NDIS registered service provider must comply with a number of laws, guidelines, policies and service standards that non-registered providers do not have to comply with.

   With NDIS registered service providers, there is an expectation that the provider and their staff will have appropriate safeguards in place, and will deliver high quality supports. For example, all staff working with children at a registered NDIS service provider will have obtained a Working with Children screen and police clearance. However, there is no guarantee this will be the case with a non-registered NDIS provider.

   Yooralla is a registered NDIS provider. Find out more about Yooralla’s commitment to customer wellbeing and safeguards.

4. An evidence-based approach

   Evidence-based therapy is when a person only undergoes therapy that is proven to work, or is based on scientific evidence. Choosing evidence-based, best practice therapy will help ensure your child is getting the best support for their development.

   If your child has developmental delay or disability, Yooralla’s Specialist Children’s Supports can support them with our quality, evidence-based therapies. Our team consists of physiotherapists, speech pathologists, occupational therapists, psychologists, nurses and teachers.

5. Extensive experience with disability and children
   
   It is worth considering looking for a provider who is well-established children’s therapy and is a disability specialist. The value in finding this combined expertise is that the therapists will understand the needs of children at each age combined with the needs of the disability.
   
   Yooralla has a specialist team of therapists supporting children from 0-18 years of age with development delay or disability, making this our complete focus and area of expertise. We’ve been supporting children with disability for 100 years in 2018 – we are one of Victoria’s oldest and largest disability services providers.
   
   Yooralla provides early intervention children’s supports, recognising the importance of early intervention in building a child’s functional capacity, through to supporting school-aged children and those transitioning from school. Yooralla has a team of specialists and is a one-stop-shop for assessments, including fine motor, play, sensory regulation, gross motor, speech and language, autism, pragmatic and articulation assessments; and equipment prescriptions and application.

Find out more about Yooralla’s supports for children
If you would like to talk with Yooralla about our therapy services for children, or any other one of our wide ranges of services, please get in touch.