I'm hoping to get some guidance from those with experience navigating funding for children with ASD and ADHD. We recently received a diagnosis for my 8-year-old, and I’ve been finding it a bit tricky to understand how to make the most of our available funding, which is around $19k. My child is currently receiving regular occupational therapy, speech therapy, and psychological support, and I’ve enrolled in some online parenting courses. However, I’m aware that if we don’t use the funding properly, it could be reduced for the following year.
Are there any reliable resources, tips, or personal experiences you could share to help us make the most of this? What are some effective ways you’ve used similar funding to support your child’s development and well-being? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Just as a suggestion for the future, if your child struggles with certain behaviors, a behavior therapist might be a good addition to your team. They focus on things like managing meltdowns or working on communication strategies. It’s a good way to help both your child and you in the long run.
If you haven’t already, you might want to reach out to your occupational therapist for some advice. They should be able to guide you on how to make the most of your funding, especially since they work with your child regularly. Have you had a chance to discuss this with them yet?
A few things that helped me with my child’s funding were focusing on therapies like OT and speech therapy, which are crucial for development. If you’re dealing with challenging behaviors, a behavior therapist might be helpful. It’s an area I didn’t know much about until later, but it’s really beneficial for kids with behaviors like self-harm or aggression. Have you considered a behavior support plan?
I noticed that you signed up to our platform over a year ago now and this is your first post. Its great to see you getting involved.
Everyone’s pitched in with great feedback here, but I’d have to agree with Emily that speaking to your OT or possibly your support coordinator about other options could be valuable.
Another option is simply scheduling more of the same supports that you’re already getting. If a particular support is effective, then maybe more of it could be even better.
On the other side of the coin, if you exhaust all avenues and still struggle to get though the funding, its okay to concede that maybe you got more funding than you actually need.
I’ll definitely reach out to my OT and support coordinator to see what other options might be available.
I hadn’t really considered that I might have too much funding, but it makes sense. If I don’t need all of it, maybe it’ll be easier to adjust things going forward. Thank you Jake!
The Improved Daily Living funding is typically allocated for therapy services. You can use it for things like speech therapy, OT or even psychology. You can also apply it towards assessments, such as a functional capacity assessment, which can be used to build your case for future funding. It’s a helpful tool to get the right support long term.
I’m in a similar situation with a 9 year old. I’ve been focusing on OT and speech therapy, but I’m still not sure about the behavior support plan. My son can have some challenging behaviors, especially when he’s frustrated or overstimulated. I wasn’t sure if a behavior therapist would be the right fit for him. How do you go about finding one? And how do you know if a behavior support plan is the right step?
Hi @HarborHarmony, as you already have OT and Speech Pathology support, perhaps the first step is to discuss with your therapy team about behaviour support and if so, usually, there would be ones they work well with or can recommend.
Depending on goals, apart from OT and Speech Pathology, Capacity Building also covers Music/ Dance/ Art/ Play Therapy - all of which work on similar goals but different approaches.
