Current groups – Term 1, 2022
Children's Group Therapy Programs
Our children’s group therapy programs can vastly enhance a child’s social integration, development of age-applicable skills and capacities, educational participation and engagement. Designed and led by our NDIS-registered children’s occupational therapists, speech pathologists, psychologists and physiotherapists, our range of children’s groups target specific areas of development and need – from handwriting skills to hand-eye coordination. Our current groups include LEGO Club, Handwriting Club, Let’s Get Physical and Ready, Steady, Soar! As well as developing skills and functional capacities, these specially-designed group activities foster participants’ competence and confidence in peer engagement and belief in their own potential. (We call our group therapy participants ‘Young Soarers’.)
Handwriting Club
Group overview: Handwriting Club is a fortnightly, 6-week program designed to focus on the skills required for pre-writing and writing. It is aimed at pre-school and primary school-aged children who can communicate verbally. It is an opportunity for them to come together and work in a supported, small group environment to improve upon their overall writing skills. Various activities are incorporated into the group to work towards improved strength, clarity and application. Participants are assigned to the relevant group based on a pre-group assessment.
Age group: Pre-school and primary school
Facilitators: Occupational therapist / physiotherapist
Group dates: Term 1 commencing 1 March fortnightly, enrolments term by term.
Price/Costs*: $1,299 for 6 weeks plus 1-2 additional sessions for pre-screening assessment and post-session followup at OT rate
*Pricing is in line with NDIS price guidelines and subject to change.
Key benefits / outcomes:
Pre-writing skills targeted:
- Strengthening skills
- Grip position
- Pressure on the paper
- Letter formation
- Letter recognition
Writing skills targeted:
- Writing between the lines
- Where to start with writing
- Letter formation
LEGO Club
Group overview: Run weekly over 8 to 12 weeks, LEGO Club is exactly what it sounds like: a place to build with LEGO. What sets it apart from other clubs is that, while playing, children learn important and valuable skills including verbal and non-verbal communication, teamwork, collaboration, problem solving, sharing, turn taking and expressing feelings in a healthy way. In other words, they develop social and communication skills and emotional regulation – all while having fun.
Age group: 6 to 14 years
Facilitators: Speech pathologist / occupational therapist / psychologist
Group dates: Term 1 commenced. Enquire for Term 2 enrolment
Price/Costs*: $1,660 for 8 weeks plus 1-2 additional sessions for pre-screening assessment and post-session follow-up at the relevant practitioner rate (e.g. speech pathologist, occupational therapist, psychologist)
*Pricing is in line with NDIS price guidelines and subject to change.
Key benefits/outcomes:
- Improved communication
- Increased engagement
- Socialising with others
Skill targeted:
- Verbal and non-verbal communication
- Teamwork/collaboration
- Problem solving
- Sharing/turn taking
- Emotional regulation
Let’s Get Physical
Group overview: Let’s Get Physical is an 8-week program designed to target gross motor skills, coordination and balance in children aged 5 to 7 with neurological conditions and developmental delays who can communicate verbally. It is an opportunity for children to come together to improve in these areas in a small group setting with a trained professional. The activities are designed with little people in mind and in a fun, welcoming and open environment.
Age group: 5 to 7 years
Facilitators: Physiotherapists, occupational therapists and allied health assistants
Group dates: Term 1 commencing 16 March weekly. Enquire for Term 2 enrolment
Price/Costs*: $1,590 for 8 weeks plus 2 additional sessions for pre-screening assessment and post-session follow-up at the physio rate
*Pricing is in line with NDIS price guidelines and subject to change.
Key benefits / outcomes:
- Gross motor skills
- Social and play skills
- Improve confidence
- Increase physical activity
- School and PE readiness
Skills targeted:
- Throw and catch skills
- Balance and coordination
- Jumping, hopping and skipping
- Proprioception and visuospatial awareness
- Achieving age-appropriate skills
Ready, Steady, Soar!
Group overview: Ready, Steady, Soar! Is an 8-week program designed to target gross motor skills, coordination and high-level balance skills in children aged 8 to 10 years with neurological conditions who can communicate verbally. It is an opportunity for children to come together to improve in these areas in a small group setting with a trained professional. The activities are designed with little people in mind and in a fun, welcoming and open environment. Eligibility is determined by a pre-group assessment with a physiotherapist.
Age group: 8 to 10 years
Facilitators: Physiotherapists
Group dates: Term 2
Price/costs*: $1,590 for 8 weeks plus 1 additional session for pre-screening assessment and 1 additional session for post-group evaluation at the physiotherapy rate.
*Pricing is in line with NDIS price guidelines and subject to change.
Key benefits / outcomes:
- Gross Motor Skills
- Social skills and interaction
- Play skills
- Improve confidence
- Increase physical activity
Skill targeted:
- Throw and catch skills
- Jumping, hopping, skipping
- High-level balance
- Hand-eye and eye-foot coordination
- Proprioception and visuospatial awareness
More Than Words Hanen Group
Group overview: Run over 12 weeks and comprising 8 group sessions and 4 home visits, the More Than Words Hanen Group program equips parents and carers of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and social communication difficulties with practical tools to help their children to successfully communicate, engage in satisfying interactions and connect with the world around them. This unique program has been developed by expert speech and language pathologists at the Hanen Centre.
Facilitators: Speech and language pathologists with specialised training from the Hanen Centre.
What you’ll learn:
- Powerful, practical strategies to help your child to communicate during everyday routines and activities
- How your child communicates right now and steps to take
- How your child learns best and how to take advantage of these preferences
- What motivates your child to communicate
- How to turn everyday activities into opportunities for learning to communicate
- How to help your child to understand what you say
- How to develop your child’s play skills
- How to help your child to make friends
Key benefits/outcomes for your child:
- Improved communication and interaction during everyday routines and activities
- A greater sense of connectedness and social inclusion/friendships
- Improved behaviour due to reduced frustration with communication difficulties
- More harmonious interactions within the home/family environment
- Enhanced play skills
Price/costs*: Parents’/carers’ group cost including 8 group sessions and 4 home visits $4,180. A pre-screening assessment with your child (clinic-based or home-based) is billed in addition at the speech pathologist NDIS rate.
*Pricing is in line with NDIS price guidelines and subject to change.
Group dates: Enquire for enrolment and commencement dates
How costs are calculated
Group therapy pricing is in line with NDIS pricing guidelines. Program elements that determine each group’s cost includes:
- Running the group
- Group planning
- Pre and post-group session follow-up
- Post-session individual evaluation
- Resources required for group
- Handouts and information presented for each group
- Group development and training
- Group establishment (participants)
- Travel (Hanen group only)
Key benefits of children’s group therapy
Physical skills and function
Groups targeting physical skills and function improve proficiencies such as body balance and coordination, hand-eye coordination and gross and fine motor skills, in turn increasing capacities for completing daily activities, from shoelace tying to eating. Participants also gain social and communication skills.
Social and communication
All children’s groups promote interaction with similar-aged peers and adults, improve proficiency and confidence in social and communication skills, increase awareness of appropriate-context-specific social behaviour and promote cooperation and turn taking.
Behaviour and emotion regulation
Participation in small, structured group activities can significantly improve behaviour and emotion regulation and self-soothing both by fostering empathy, perspective-taking and cooperation with others and providing opportunities to practise frustration tolerance through turn taking and delayed rewards.
Adults’ Group Therapy Programs (coming soon)
Suitable for clients and participants aged from 21 to 95, adults’ group therapy programs can greatly enhance the benefits of individual occupational therapy and related integrated therapy programs by cultivating a broad range of life and social skills, reducing social isolation, and promoting greater life satisfaction. Designed and led by NDIS-registered practitioners, group therapy activities may include life skills such as self-care and home tasks such as cooking, social skills training and community activities, vocational training such as preparation for voluntary or paid work, leisure activities such as arts and crafts and wellness activities such as mindfulness and breathing techniques. Physical activity-based groups such as group hydrotherapy may also be used to promote maintenance and improvement of participants’ functional abilities.