NDIS capacity building funding – options?
Children who are aged under 7 years access the NDIS through the ECEI pathway.
For most of these children they will get ‘capacity-building’ support under the ‘improved daily living’ category.
This funding is designed to support your child to build their skills, independence and community participation, in relation to their NDIS goals.
When children are young there are limited options to how you can use your capacity-building funding. Most families will use it for therapy.
When families think therapy we typically think of taking our child to – physiotherapy for gross motor challenges, OT for fine motor challenges, Speech Pathology for language/communication/feeding, Psychology for anxiety, etc
Tip – Parents can meet with their child’s therapist, without the child! It’s a great opportunity to update therapists on current challenges, discuss strategies, and plan ahead. It is also a way for you to learn how you can help your child in the every day, such as parent training in running the Zones of Regulation program at home.
Other therapy could include Music Therapy, Hydrotherapy, Equine Therapy….
How do you use the CB funding to see therapists? Most commonly, children do individual sessions (one on one), but group sessions are a good option too (and cheaper!) There are great programs that your child can do as part of a group, like Lego Group, or Cool Little Kids.
Tip – does your child have a similar goal to another child you know? How about organising some group therapy sessions? Groups are particularly great if the goal is around social skills! You could even organise for your therapist to run a social skills group for your child with their peer group, or at the park.
Therapy assistants, who works under instruction from your therapist, are also a great resource, and can help funds go a little further than always paying therapists. Therapy assistants can help children practice skills, especially when repetition is important. Therapy assistants can also create resources, like visual schedules, social stories and reward charts, or do research on your behalf.
Therapists can also help develop your skills as a parent. This is one of the most powerful things a therapist can do for your family; build your capacity so you can put plans and strategies into action at home. This could be done by teaching you how to create visual schedules or social stories….and leads nicely into our next topic…
Parent training. This is great because, as a parent, you can build skills and learn strategies to help your child at home. Think about how much opportunity families have to practice activities at home, especially when children are very young.
We have claimed webinars, online conferences and workshops. Webinars on topics life emotional regulation, ….who else is doing the Allison Davies Brain = Behaviour online program?
Online conference…
Parent training – Hanen It Takes Two to Talk, Talkability…AUSLAN/key word sign, 123 Magic, Emotion Coaching, Circle of Security, Now & Next…for families
Group sessions – what group sessions do you currently do with your child and claim for? – Lego group, Cool Little Kids, social skills, music therapy…etc…issues around social skills would be good in peer sessions