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About ODEEP

What is ODEEP?

Orange and District Early Education program Inc is an NDIS registered early childhood intervention service providing supports for children aged 0-12 years with disabilities and developmental delays in the Orange, Cabonne and Blayney shires. ODEEP’s specialised team of educators and allied health practitioners partner with families and communities to achieve the best outcomes for children with a disability or developmental delay through a range of individual or group education and therapy services. Our therapy areas include Speech Pathology, Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy, Dietitian and Early Childhood Teachers.

 

Early Childhood Intervention aims to help families:

 

  • Understand their child's strengths, interests and needs

  • Recognise the skills they have, and gain new skills to help their child

  • Gain the confidence to work with professionals on equal terms

  • Gain the knowledge to make the best decisions for their child

  • Meet with other families of children with disabilities and or developmental delays

 

A Team Approach

 

ODEEP is fortunate to have a team of Allied Health professionals consisting of Speech Pathologists, Physiotherapists, Occupational Therapists, Dietitians and Early Childhood Teachers who have many years of experience working with young children and their families. Rather than working with children in isolation, staff members work in collaboration with each other, families and other professionals to enhance optimum learning opportunities for the whole child.

 

ODEEP’s team of educators and allied health staff work using a transdisciplinary model. This means that each family relates to one of the ODEEP staff as their key worker who is responsible for collaborating with the family and the rest of the team to provide services. Staff members make a commitment to teach, learn and work together across disciplinary boundaries to implement coordinated services. For example, a family may be seeing a Speech Pathologist who is also including the intervention strategies suggested by the Occupational Therapist for developing fine motor skills and the problem solving strategies suggested by a Teacher during her speech and language sessions. The following are brief descriptions of each discipline's particular expertise as a guide to help in understanding the role staff may play in the child's development and in overall service provision.

 

Speech Pathologists

Our Speech Pathologists works with children and their families to identify and enhance their communication skills. Your child might see a speech pathologist if they are having difficulty:

  • understanding what people say

  • saying what they want to say

  • being understood by others

  • speaking like other children their age

  • using social communication skills e.g. eye contact, gestures

  • with feeding and swallowing.

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Early Childhood Educators

Our Early Childhood Teachers have a detailed knowledge of child development and learning. Since learning begins at birth in all these areas, Teachers are able to be involved in developing sequential programs through play to enhance a child's natural learning progression from birth. This involves assessing a child's needs across all areas of learning, identifying how this child learns best, then developing individual programs based on play.

In early intervention Early Childhood Teachers may work with small groups of children, with individual children or at other early childhood services such as preschool to implement these programs.

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Occupational Therapists

An Occupational Therapist aims to restore, enhance or adapt the child's abilities and functioning within the family, at school, with everyday activities and play.

They possess detailed knowledge of child development and are able to carry out assessments in the areas of cognitive development, self care skills, play, movement, sensory-processing and hand skills.

You may speak to the Occupational Therapist if your child is having difficulties with self care activities such as dressing, bathing, toileting, eating, sensory - motor skills and play skills such as drawing, cutting, catching balls and doing puzzles.

Physiotherapists

A Physiotherapist possesses detailed knowledge of child development and are skilled in assessing and treating movement and posture problems.

Your child may see a Physiotherapist because:

  • they are slow to achieve major movement milestones such as rolling, sitting, crawling and walking

  • they feel too 'stiff' or too 'floppy' or dislikes being moved or your child strongly favours one side of the body

  • they appears clumsy, or has trouble with ball skills, coordination and balance

  • they show poor posture when sitting or standing.

A Physiotherapist can carry out movement and posture assessments, and subsequently devise a program for a child's individual needs including purposeful play with toys, balls, climbing and balance activities. We can teach parents/carers how to encourage normal movement in everyday situations, as well as being able to advise them on suitable equipment, footwear and toys for their child.

Dietitians

A Dietitian works to improve overall health and well being by translating the science of nutrition and feeding into practical everyday advice about eating.

A Dietitian can help your child with the following:

  • growth concerns (i.e. under or overweight)

  • allergies and sensitivities

  • nutrient deficiencies

  • fussy eating and feeding difficulties

  • gastrointestinal disorders such as coeliac disease, IBS, IBD or other digestive problems.

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