Federal Government help for Children with ASD

What a busy, busy time we have had since last October. We were registered as panel providers under the Helping Children with Autism package, a Federal government initiative, and since then we have been exceptionally busy, assessing, planning and providing programs for children identified through this program. What a joy it has been to meet so many hard working, caring and determined parents, who make our home programs a reality!

We are in the throes of planning for a branch office in Darwin, so from the 27th – 30th April, we will be in Darwin for the first of many regular professional visits. As you can imagine, it is taking up a lot of time and energy to make this a reality, but boy, are we excited! We are also after new staff for our Darwin branch in particular, so if you know of a good speech pathologist and occupational therapist, in particular, please get them to give us a ring.

But thank you to those parents who have found 5energies and continue to show us what a dedicated team of people can do, when we all work together. It makes our job so much easier, but it is so gratifying to see the children progressing so well. Life wasn’t meant to be easy (if you believe Paul Keating?), but sometimes life can get very hard – so it is nice that we can work together so effectively to help these children.

Helping Children with Autism

After a fairly extensive process, as of Tuesday, 27th October, 5energies is now officially a panel / service provider under the auspices of the Helping Children with Autism Package. This package is run through Autism Australia, with federal funding from the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA). Those of you who read this blog regularly will know that we are a ‘one stop’ shop, one which offers Speech Pathology, Occupational Therapy, Educational Psychology and education services under the one roof. As this package of funding is after an integrated and multi-disciplinary approach for children with autism, it seems we fit the bill!!

So very proudly we announce our new status as Panel provider for services relating to autism, but also advise that we will be continuing our quality services for any child with a learning delay or developmental challenge. It has already been a big week, with those who have heard whispers on the wind getting in fast for appointments, and screenings and program development taking place this week.

It goes without question that if anyone wishes any information on our services to children and their families, please just ring and chat to Julie in the front office.

Website Woes!

Oh dear… Sometimes the best laid plans of mice and men actually do unravel and come astray. We were under the impression that our Order form for the newly launched literacy package, and our contact form were in working order – but nope, sorry, not to be. Thank you to the couple of people who contacted us about it, and we ‘think’ it is now OK.

On another note, we are very sad at 5energies to be leaving our favourite web guru Leah, at workingsolo.com… Fortunately for Leah she is going to be enjoying a lot more of life over the next few weeks, months and years, and is looking forward to many wonderful ambulatory strolls through her neighbhourhood and elsewhere, but we are so going to miss having her quiet support in the background of our web presence. Leah, thank you for your wonderful ability to translate our murky ideas into reality, and for helping us immensely as a growing business.

On that note, the website will be migrating to a new hosting service over the next week, so if for any reason, you experience difficulties, please return in an hour or so.

Being the best advocate you can be…

Through the week, a young couple came in wtih their son Peter, aged 6. Peter has not long been at school, but already is showing some classic signs of wanting to be anywhere else, rather than at the start of an exciting academic journey!! He fidgeted from the start, eye contact was limited, his speech was delayed and he used limited vocabulary. The teachers at his school suggested that his parents seek some guiddance as to what was happening with young Peter. As Peter is their first child, Leslie and Simon (his parents) were feeling very powerless to assist Peter.

Long story short, the screening showed up some significant developmental delays, and a solid programme with the Occupational Therapist is required to assist Peter. However, the main concern to me was how powerless Leslie and Simon felt.  So, some advice to parents of school-aged children:

• Remember that you are your child’s best advocate. You have known this little soul the longest, and you know his or her quirks, behaviours and uniqueness. You are the best advocate your child can have – but be reasonable, objective and calm when in meetings about your child.
• Remember the teachers, schools, general practitioners, speech pathologists, occupational therapists, social workers, psychologists and everyone else you may encounter while looking for some answers, are there to help. They depend on you, however, to offer extensive descriptions, to articulate the problems well, and to explain what you are doing at home to help.
• Trust your gut instinct! if you think your child is in trouble, seek help, even if you have to seek second, third and fourth opinions. While well-meaning souls might tell you that your child will ‘grow out of ‘ immature behaviours, or maturationally, next year things might improve, trust your instincts. Do you WANT to wait a year to see what might happen? Yes, things might improve – but they might also get a whole lot worse too.
• Have fun with your child. They are with us for such a short time, and parenthood is not for the  faint of heart. Our children offer us such a unique opportunity to love another little person unequivocably so enjoy the experience, as it won’t come again.

Contact us at 5energies if we can help you in any way.

Excited Parents

You will have to forgive us going on and on about the recent Consult and Collaborate Conference. There was just so much there for parents as well as teachers, and it was good that Speech Pathologists and Guidance officers were also there. We had one very excited parent come rushing up, as she and her son had been wandering down below and saw the conference – and she wanted to see what was there. Very excitedly she had wandered around to all the exhibitors, collecting valuable information for her son and family.

I guess the moral of the story is that if your child has learning delays, keep an eye on conferences for teachers as very often there is valuable information for parents as well. Many of the key speakers have private practices, so there would have been much valuable information for parents as well.

Consult and Collaborate Joint Conference 2009

What an exciting time we are having!  We are in preparation for the Consult and Collaborate Joint Conference 2009 at the Brisbane Conference Centre on the 18th and 19th September and we are almost leaping and squealing with excitement! It is our honour to be satchel sponsors – but what we are exceptionally excited about is the launch of our In the Garden Literacy Package!

Filled with innovative and exciting resources for teachers, this package is not just the culmination of hard work, but an absolute celebration of the value of dedicated and committed professionals collaborating to create a resource of best practice across so many domains. We will be thanking the wonderful people who have collaborated with us – from Sarah Amies (Author and illustrator), Anne-Maree Garcia (Multi-media guru), Patrick Mitchell (narrator and story-teller),  Tina Kriedemann (The Purple Jam Studio / Brisbane), Angie Sublime (Sublime Music Studio/ Brisbane) and Iris Wesling (St. Eugene Catholic College, Burpengary),  these people have given blood, sweat and tears to make this launch on Friday a spectacular success.

The Literacy Package consists of 7 in the Garden student texts, a Big Book, some visual processing Mystery Sheets, a CD of music suitable for assembly items (and tapping into another sensory learning pathway), a DVD of supported reading modes, and a teacher resource book, jam-packed with black-line masters, strategies and activities suitable for develping higher-order thinking. What can I say? We are justifiably proud of it, and hope many of you are able to join us at the launch.

Hopefully we will also see many of you at the conference – we are just so excited about being there and renewing friendships with those who attended the last conference – and meeting new conference participants.

What an exciting time!

What a busy, and exciting time we have been having.

Over the next few days I will be posting some photos of the recording session that Alex and I were involved in on Friday, at good friend Angie’s studio. Tina, another good friend,  (from The Purple Jam Music Studio – link below) was also there – Tina and Angie have written the music and provided the technical support as we develop a package of goodies to go with our ‘in the Garden’ texts which were published last year. This is an exciting time – the package will be launched in mid-September, so keep watching this space! 

The new learning calendar is up as well, with more training going ahead in July, for teachers, teaching assistants and childcare workers. So take a look if you are interested.

www.thepurplejam.musicteaching.info 

Election in Queensland

Election results in Queensland are in, and no doubt there will be some sore heads somewhere, considering the successes and failures of the election process. Regardless of who won or lost, at 5energies, we are hoping that someone in government begins to look locally, asks us for our research supporting children with learning delays, and begins to focus on local efforts to assist these children.

I have been told that the Federal Government is bringing in the Canadian Social Development Index, which gives a good amount of information on each Prep child. However, it still does not assess the underlying factors that impinge upon a child’s ability to learn. THESE are important to us at 5energies and we have the success rate to prove it at the learning consultancy. At the risk of sounding like strong activists, we are sincerely hoping that those within the education department and within government, begin to talk to us about our training programmes for teachers, and how we can genuinely help children with learning delays. We are in four schools now and the results from those schools have been stunning… and all because of the commitment of teachers, their understanding of the factors underpinning learning and their willingness to include more apppropriate strategies in their daily teaching.

In the meantime, congratulations to those members of Parliament who have won the election, and we hope you take your responsibilities to your constituents very seriously, including those children who are experiencing developmental delays and need assistance now. These are the voters of the future…

5e will SHINE in 2009!

Nothing like a good motto to get the blood stirring, is there?

After some indepth discussions recently about the directions of 5energies for the next year, Alexandra and I have chosen as our motto – ‘5e will SHINE in 2009!!’. A friend of mine speaks often about her selection of a key word for the year, and how her creative energies focus on making that word a reality – so our key word is ’shine’.

We have been working hard for the past three years to make our vision a reality, but to be honest, we have probably only twinkled at times, as getting a business up and running is not for the faint of heart. There has been so little time to share our message broadly, but that will change this year. Yup, we don’t just want to twinkle and provide a faint light to our door for those children with learning challenges – we want to shine! We want to convince the world that our message of early identification and assistance to these children is not only worthwhile in the short and long term, but essential for our future as a country. How marvellous to think that a future Prime Minister might be attending 5energies right now! Or the future CEOs of our leading companies? Or leading academics in areas of expertise we cannot even visualise right now…

So – this year? Yup, we aim to SHINE in 2009!!  If you have a key word, we would be interested in hearing how you plan your 2009.

Happy New Year!

Another year is coming to an end, and where would 5energies be without all the quiet determination of the parents who bring their children through the door. We know that some of you have looked long and hard to find the right assistance for your child, and we so enjoy meeting you and working with your children.

Thank you to those parents who have worked tirelessly with their children through the year – and thank you for the many compliments to 5energies. The partnership is a strong one, but we are just so pleased to see so many children succeeding, thanks to your insight and work through the year. We are looking forward to an exciting year ahead, with even more teachers and schools coming online, so between us all, hopefully we are making a difference to many children’s lives. And lastly, thank you to the parents who have shared their child’s successes with other parents who might be in the same boat of looking for appropriate assistance – we appreciate the trust you put in us, and thank you for helping other parents.

Happy New Year! See you in a couple of weeks when sessions resume at 5energies!

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