Early Learning and Therapy
Early Learning and Therapy at VMCH offers specialist early childhood intervention therapy and allied health services for babies and children with a disability or development delays. We have therapists based in Kew, Melbourne and Wangaratta in Regional Victoria.
For starters, here’s an introduction of some of the terms you might not be familiar with and how we can help.
What is a developmental delay?
This is when a child is not achieving new skills within the expected age range milestones.
What is a disability?
This is a physical, sensory, intellectual, communication or range of behavioural traits which affect development.
Key Workers do home visits to help build your child’s daily living skills. They give you the information, resources and support that you need to help your child learn, develop and reach their goals.
Key Workers can also visit in a chosen community location or at Primary School, child care, preschool, kindergarten and before or after school care.
Music Therapy is a research-based allied health practice used to actively support children, teenagers and adults to improve their health and wellbeing including speech and communication, body movement and coordination, memory, and attention.
Our Registered Music Therapists (RMT) based in Kew, Melbourne are committed to tailoring music therapy sessions around your child’s needs and goals. Music therapy sessions are developed in consultation with you and parents are carers are encouraged to attend sessions with your child to learn strategies to use at home.
Sessions include:
Occupational therapists aim to enhance your child’s ability to participate in everyday tasks. They consider physical, sensory and thinking skills for independent living.
They can also help your child with:
Occupational therapy can improve access to various educational settings, local community and family life.
When it comes to communication, like expressing thoughts, ideas and feelings, it’s the job of the speech pathologist to help. They also help with any feeding difficulties such as delayed texture progressions.
More broadly, speech pathologists can also help your child with:
Speech pathologists also assist children with specific diagnoses, such as Autism Spectrum Disorder, Global Development Delay, Intellectual Disability, Down syndrome or Cerebral Palsy.
While outcomes vary depending on each child, speech pathology can also help improve speech so your child can be understood by others, develop problem-solving and social skills, improve feeding safety, and skills for school transition.
Physiotherapists help with your child’s movement. They aim to develop movement skills to achieve an overall improvement in mobility. They work with your child and assist with things like excessive flexibility, poor coordination and delayed motor skills.
More broadly, physiotherapists can also help your child with:
While outcomes vary depending on each child, physiotherapy can also help increase strength and endurance, manage muscle tightness, joint stiffness, contracture and deformity.
Our registered psychologists work with you and your child to address challenging behaviours sometimes associated with developmental delays. Our focus is development of your child’s communications, social interactions and language skills.
We’ll work with you and your child to put in place behaviour supports to help your child participate in family and community life.
Join us for our supported group programs especially for young children ages 4 to 12 years. Our inclusive school holiday programs are great to add to your child’s holiday routines, and are designed to improve social skills, improve hand-eye coordination, language skills, plus are a whole lot of fun.
Find out more about our July 2024 School Holidays at our centre in 400 High Street, Kew, Lego connections and Rhythm and Music programs.
We have a team of qualified early childhood educators who work with your child and their teachers at preschool, kindergarten or primary school to support their transition into preschool or school.
Through this partnership we work with the educators and staff at your preschool or school to support them to understand your child’s needs and abilities.
As a registered NDIS provider, we ensure that our services meet the NDIS Practice Standards and Code of Conduct, offering you piece of mind and quality supports.