School Aged Therapy

The program commences with a comprehensive assessment to address the needs of each child/adolescent. It brings together the combined clinical expertise of our trans-disciplinary team into a single Intervention Plan developed with the family and integrating NDIS goals.

Priority areas are developed to support maximum participation and inclusion across the environments in which the child/adolescent participates and may include:

• Transition 
• School readiness: Organisation, Participation & Independence
• Emotional regulation 
• Social Skills
• Sensory Processing
• Expressive Language
• Receptive Language
• Literacy
• Self-care skills
• Gross and fine motor skills
• Protective Behaviours and Safety

Direct therapy is delivered by a range of allied health professionals, including: Speech Pathologists, Occupational Therapists and Psychologists. 

Therapy is delivered at home, school or in our specialist centres and includes parent/carer involvement.

Therapists provide school visits to maximise school participation and inclusion. Therapists provide direct therapy, classroom observations and consultation. 

Support includes:

• Integration of therapy goals into Individual Education Plans
• Environmental assessment and recommendations
• Transition planning
• Teacher training
• Resource development.

Our therapists can work with the adolescent to plan career pathways to support successful transition from high school to university/TAFE, employment, alternatives to employment and community or recreational activities.

Therapists plan, design and implement individualised behaviour support plans where this is required in addition to the Individual Plan. This includes monitoring and ongoing review of the behaviour support plan in consultation with the family and other community/school supports.

Small groups are run by therapists together with therapy assistants and include: social skills groups, selfcare groups, fitness groups, anxiety management groups. Children/Adolescents are  matched to groups according to their goal areas and individual needs. Groups are afterschool or during holidays and typically consist of 8 x 1.5 hour sessions.

Find out about our highly popular small-group therapy programs, designed to develop identified skills in a welcoming and encouraging way.

Social Skills Therapy Groups

Therapists provide parents with information and materials relating to ASD throughout the year. Specialist visual resources are prepared and implemented across home/school and community environments to assist the individual’s independence, communication and social participation.

A wide range of group training workshops are delivered by therapists for parents. Training workshops are developed to support generalisation of goal areas across the environments in which the child/adolescent participates. Direct training, webinars/online training is available to suit the individual needs of each family. A number of parent workshops are provided throughout the year at no cost to families. 

Find all details and registration information here: 

Parent Training Calendar

Additional Intensive Family workshops can also be accessed using your funding. 

Your child’s school can express their interest in specialist training for supporting students with Autism in the classroom. Please see the training section on our website. 

In addition to our Therapy Packages, we have a number of short term, specialist therapy services outlined below:

• Specialist Communication Assessment
  It may be identified that an individual will require further specialist assessment intervention for a communication device. This is completed by our specialised Speech Pathology team.
• Positive Behaviour Support Program
  We have a team of dedicated and experienced therapists that work to encourage lasting, positive behaviour change and improve quality of life of the person with Autism and their family by increasing the capacity of the person, their environment and support systems. Our Positive Behaviour Support Program is tailored to meet the needs of the client and funded hours. This may involve the following:
  • A Positive Behaviour Support Key Therapist will undertake a comprehensive assessment process with the client, family and other stakeholder (as required) to better understand the ‘why’ of the behaviour
  • The Key Therapist will develop a Positive Behaviour Support plan in collaboration with the family and other stakeholders • The Key Therapist therapist will support the implementation of the Positive Behaviour Support plan with the client, family and other stakeholders. This may include modelling, direct teaching and resources development and implementation 
  • Ongoing monitoring and review of the Positive Behaviour Support plan and strategies 
  • Support families to reflect and problem solve to maintain positive change 
  • Identify potential supports and resources for future needs
  • Our PBS program accepts referrals of all ages. It is a comprehensive program that can be tailored to the individual needs of the client and family. For all enquiries, please contact our intake team: therapyservices@autism.org.au or (08) 9489 8900 or click here to download a flyer.