Building Better Futures for Children with Disabilities

Our Service to You:

Intake Appointment

We start with an initial 30-minute online meeting dedicated to getting to know you, talking through our services and ensuring all the necessary paperwork has been completed.

This meeting is not charged and does not require your child to attend.

To prepare, it is helpful to have a copy of your NDIS plan and goals, and to think about what you want to achieve, and how this fits in with your family routine and availability.

You will then be allocated a Speech Therapist, Occupational Therapist, Teacher, Physiotherapist or Psychologist—depending on your child’s needs and availability.

Meet your Key Worker (Lead Therapist)

In the first meeting with your key worker, we will support you to develop goals for our work together. This is an opportunity to get to know each other and start to build our working relationship with you and your child.

At Noah’s Ark we know that children learn best while taking part in everyday activities and connecting with the important people in their lives. To support this learning, it’s important for us to hear about:

• Your child and family’s day
• The activities your child participates in
• Strengths and interests
• What’s going well
• Areas that are challenging
• Where you and your child would like some help

This goal-setting approach puts your child and family's unique needs and aspirations first. We'll work together to identify what's most important to you, whether it's supporting communication, independence, or simply having more fun together as a family. The focus is on enhancing overall well-being, participation in activities your child and family enjoys, and creating a positive and fulfilling atmosphere for everyone.

The time required for this session will vary based on the approach decided upon by you and your key worker, but is typically 1.5-2 hours. This will be confirmed with you before the visit.

Regular Visits

Each visit, your therapist will:

• Start by checking in on what happened since the last visit and confirm the goal you want to work on for the day—family priorities can change and we want to focus on what is most important to you.
• Provide therapy and support.
• Ask you to practice with your child. Discuss your routine and opportunities you might have to practice with your child throughout your everyday routine.
• Provide you with information and / or referrals.
• Check in at the end of the session for feedback and make sure everyone is clear on the strategies to try between visits.

Our strategies are meant to be part of your everyday life so there are many opportunities for you and your child to practice without it becoming an additional task.

Sometimes it will look like play and may be difficult to understand how it connects to the goal you want to achieve. If this happens, ask the therapist or educator to explain their recommendations and how it links to your goal.

Out and About Visits

The goals you have identified might mean spending time working with you and your child in different environments.

It is most effective to work on goals in the activities and environments where children are using their skills. This may include activities like going to the playground, the local shops, or attending childcare, preschool or school, etc. We work in these “natural” environments with the people that can continue to support your child when we are not there.

Payment

At Noah’s Ark we charge the NDIS rate for:

• Individual visits including home, community, Early childhood and school
• Resources, reports, telephone calls, review of video footage etc (this will be discussed with you and an estimated allowance provided for in your service agreement)
• Travel
• Consultations with additional therapists on the team

Read more about Fees, Funding & NDIS