Disability services for children and teenagers: what the terms mean

Here’s a guide to some of the terms you’ll come across if your child has disability, is autistic or has other additional needs.

Supports

These are things that can help your child do daily activities, take part in their community and reach goals in life. Supports might include therapies that promote your child’s development, like physiotherapy, occupational therapy or speech therapy.

Your child can get supports and therapies in many ways and in different environments. For example, your child might be able to get support at home, child care or kindergarten, in a specialist setting or via telehealth.

Therapies and supports for young children are sometimes called early intervention or early childhood intervention.

Services or service providers

These are the people and organisations that offer therapies and supports. They might provide one therapy or several types, as well as other services and supports for your child and family, like respite services, social and recreational programs, or peer support programs.

Services might be specialist disability services. This includes services that provide specialised support for people with specific conditions like autism, cerebral palsy, hearing loss and low vision and blindness.

Services might also be mainstream services that all families can use, like child and family health services, kindergartens, community health centres, regional parenting services, child care services, playgroups and occasional care.

Services fall into the following categories:

• Local, state and Australian government services and programs – these are usually provided free of charge.
• Not-for-profit services and programs – these are mostly funded by government and are free, low cost or partly subsidised.
• Private services and programs – you have to pay for these in full unless your child is eligible for financial support.

Disability professionals

The people who work in disability services are generally professionals with qualifications and experience in areas like social work, case management, disability support, community development, psychology, education, speech pathology, audiology, physiotherapy and occupational therapy. They should also be experts in child development.

What disability services do

Disability services use different approaches, but almost all disability services and programs fall into one or more of the following categories.

You might find you’re using services and programs from more than one of these categories. This is because children often benefit from a multidisciplinary team of professionals working together.

Behavioural

These services focus on teaching your child new behaviour and skills by using specialised, structured techniques. In this group, you might come across counsellors, psychologists, occupational therapists and developmental educators. A team of therapists might work with your child.

Developmental

These services tailor their teaching to your child’s developmental stage. They can help your child learn things like cognitive and daily living skills. They can also help your child learn to form positive, meaningful relationships with other people, focusing on teaching social and communication skills. Psychologists and developmental educators are examples of this group.

Educational

These services focus on skills development and learning in a playroom, classroom or similar learning environment. Examples are early childhood educators, special education teachers, education support staff and educational psychologists.

Family-centred

These services include family counsellors and organisations that focus on the family as a whole. They also include developmental educators or other early childhood specialists, who can work with you, your child and your family.

Medical

These services focus on treating the medical aspects of your child’s condition and managing any medicines your child uses. Examples are your GP and paediatrician or medical specialists like cardiologists, neurologists or orthopaedic surgeons.

Respite services

Respite services give you a break from caring for your child. Respite can include the time your child spends with support workers or the time they spend in social or recreational programs or activities. It can be for a few hours or for longer periods. Your child can be cared for in your home or elsewhere.

Therapy-based

These services offer specific therapies that target your child’s particular needs. For example, if your child has difficulty with speech or communication, you might see a speech pathologist. Other professionals you might come across include physiotherapists, occupational therapists and developmental educators.

Other therapies

You might also come across:

• complementary and alternative medicine, which includes therapies like acupuncture, homeopathy or massage therapy
• other therapies like music therapy and art therapy.

If your child is autistic, our guide to therapies for autistic children offers reliable information about a wide range of therapies. Each guide gives an overview of a therapy, the research behind it and the approximate time and costs involved.

Finding disability services

The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is a good place to start.

Your GP or child and family health nurse or another health professional might be able to put you in touch with an NDIS representative. Or you can phone the NDIS on 1800 800 110. The NDIS will give you the details of NDIS representatives in your area, or they might organise for one to contact you.

You can read more about how to get NDIS support for children.

Other good places to find out about services are:

• your GP or another health professional
• your local council
• early intervention service providers
• state government disability services or autism associations
• disability-specific organisations and websites
• MyTime groups – organised groups for parents, grandparents and carers of children and teenagers with disability or chronic illness
• other parents.