What is early intervention?

Early intervention is specialised support for children and teenagers.

Your child might benefit from early intervention if they have disability or ADHD, are autistic or have other additional needs.

Early intervention should happen as soon as possible after your child’s needs are identified. It might include therapies, supports, education and so on.

You’ll also hear the terms early childhood intervention and early childhood early intervention. These refer to therapies and supports for children and their families in the early years from birth until children start school.

Early intervention is the best way to support development and wellbeing for children who have additional needs. It can help children and teenagers develop the skills they need to take part in everyday activities. Sometimes children who get early intervention need less or no support as they get older.

How does early intervention work?

To start with, early intervention is usually universal. This means it’s therapies or supports that anyone can get – for example, support and advice from child and family health nurses, paediatricians or GPs.

Then as your child’s specific needs are identified or your child’s condition is diagnosed, early intervention can focus on your child’s and family’s specific needs.

Early intervention often focuses on 4 key areas of children’s development:

• Physical development – this is children’s bodies and brains.
• Cognitive development – this is children’s thinking and learning.
• Behavioural development – this is children’s behaviour and how it’s affected by physical and cognitive development.
• Social and emotional development – this is children’s ability to form relationships and manage emotions.

The therapies used as part of early intervention address these developmental areas in different ways. For example:

• Occupational therapy can help with fine motor skills, play, self-help skills like dressing and toileting, and independence.
• Physiotherapy can help with strength, balance, coordination and gross motor skills like sitting, crawling and walking.
• Speech therapy can help with speech, language, communication and skills like chewing, sucking and swallowing.
• Psychological therapy can help with forming relationships, managing emotions, and developing behavioural, social and other skills.

Children often benefit from a combination of therapies – this is called a multidisciplinary approach. And children often need different therapies or therapy combinations at different stages of their development.

Some families look into complementary and alternative medicine like acupuncture or homeopathy. If you’re interested in alternative therapies, careful research can help you work out whether the therapy is backed by scientific evidence and worth your time and money.

Our guide to therapies for autistic children offers reliable information about a wide range of therapies. You can get an overview of a therapy, the research behind it, and the approximate time and costs involved.

What to do if you think your child might need early intervention

If you’re concerned about your child’s development, it’s a good idea to speak to your child’s GP, paediatrician or child and family health nurse. Or one of these health professionals might raise the issue with you.

You and your health professional can discuss your concerns about your child’s development. The health professional can help you work out whether your child might benefit from early intervention. They can also refer you to other professionals who can help with identifying your child’s needs and getting a diagnosis, if that’s relevant.

The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) might be able to help. The NDIS helps children get quick access to early development support through mainstream and community services. It also helps eligible children get NDIS-funded supports. You can contact the NDIS on 1800 800 110 and read more about how to get NDIS support for children.

Why a diagnosis is important for early intervention

A diagnosis will help you choose the best early intervention for your child.

If your child’s condition showed up at birth or soon after, you might already have a diagnosis. But if you don’t have a diagnosis and you’re concerned about your child, it’s good to act quickly and talk to your GP or paediatrician.

Your doctor might do a formal assessment of your child. The assessment should give you an understanding of your child’s current skills, as well as delays in your child’s skills and development.

The assessment should include a support plan designed to work on the delays in your child’s development. The paediatrician might say your child needs a particular type of early intervention and give you a referral for early intervention services.

If you don’t have a diagnosis or experts are having trouble reaching a diagnosis, that’s OK. The paediatrician might say that your child is slow in reaching developmental milestones, like speech or mobility, because of developmental delay. You and the paediatrician can use this information to work out which early interventions will best target your child’s delays.

Once your child has finished a course of early intervention, you might need to go back to your paediatrician for a review. Depending on your child’s progress, the paediatrician might recommend that your child has more of the same type of early intervention or something new.