AVERAGE MONTH
OF A PRIMARY
SCHOOL
STUDENT
(WITH A DISABILITY)
Therapy based interventions underpin the disability support framework.
NDIS therapy funding provides much needed support to many.
Despite this significant access issues still exist.
Speech therapy, for those that need it, is ideally delivered by a therapist 5 days a week.
Obviously this isn’t doable so weekly therapy is the best we can hope for. Even then the
progress doesn’t happen during the therapy session, that’s all about the effort that’s put
into the homework.
For those with learning challenges repetition is crucial to learning new concepts,
retaining information and forming new habits.
The effort to support a daily homework regime, sometimes twice a day, is onerous.
Some private therapists train and provide therapy assistants however there is huge
demand and simply not enough resources to deliver a service anywhere near
5 days a week.
Funding constraints mean the 1-on-1 support we can offer is very limited even if a
student's government PSD funding is significant. Our school policy is to pool PSD funding
to provide group based therapy supports.
Some parents think that because their child’s school employs a speech therapist they’re
getting the support they need delivered in a very convenient location. Unfortunately
therapist contact time is so limited it's definitely not sufficient to diagnose, make
recommendations or address specific or complex needs especially those that require
voice output devices and other augmentative assistance. Sadly not all parents are aware
of this and don't engage with a speech therapist of their own.
Many teachers of special needs students, including those at specialist schools,
don’t provide and even openly discourage homework despite
repeated direct requests by families.
Homework for students with additional needs is complex. Often teachers don’t have the time to
customise homework for every student so they use general mainstream content that can be
overwhelming and confusing because concepts aren’t sufficiently deconstructed.
Homework should be an opportunity for revision; not new learning.
Parents
Unskilled, overwhelmed and time poor
Students
Discouraged when they can’t complete their homework independently
Older students prefer not having parental assistance
Teachers
Discouraged when students don’t return their homework
SUPPORT WORKERS
THERAPY
ASSISTANT
Communication
especially
for complex
needs
Fine motor
skills & spatial
awareness
Early literacy
alphabet &
sight words
Early
handwriting
Early
numeracy &
money
Gross motor
strategies to
optimise fine
motor output