EPIC Assist (EPIC) was proud to provide funding to Shaping Outcomes for their Let’s Play Group, which helps vulnerable families and their children with disability in the Tweed community.

With assistance from EPIC, children and families attend the playgroup at no cost and when they feel confident, have direct access to the services they need to meet their child’s needs. In the interim, the playgroup will offer these parents/carers much-needed skilled assistance and guidance on how they can best support their child.

Recently, Let’s Play has been successful at engaging with the children and families through their Tweed Heads location, with a Speech Pathologist and Occupational Therapist from Community Health in attendance at the June sessions.

The playgroups follow a familiar routine each time. Families are engaged via morning tea whilst the children enjoy songs, stories and play, finishing with the parachute and goodbye song.  Activities and discussions the families engaged in with the attending staff included:

• Questions about the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS);
• Interacting and observing a child who had received an Autism Spectrum Disorder diagnosis;
• Shared information about the local, quality early childhood services that welcome the inclusion of families with children with disabilities;
• The role of visual aid supports, with children with social communication delays and demonstrated how to use the visuals during everyday routines to support the child’s understanding and independence to complete tasks successfully.

Click here for further information on the work Shaping Outcomes does in the Tweed community for children with disability and/or developmental delays and their families.