Who we Support

“Autism is a neurological developmental difference that impacts the way an Autistic person sees, experiences, understands and responds to the world.  Every person’s lived experience of autism is different.” – South Australian Autism Strategy

This diagnosis is used to explain developmental delays in children who are under five years of age in multiple areas such as motor, speech and language, cognition, social functioning, and activities of daily living. GDD is generally a temporary diagnosis for children who are unable to undergo standardised evaluation.

Children with challenges interpreting everyday sensory information, such as touch, sound and movement can be described as having sensory processing difficulties. These children may feel overwhelmed, may seek out or avoid certain sensory experiences. Sensory Processing Disorder is not a recognised disorder in Australia as it is not listed on the DSM-5. It is recognised as a part of the Autism diagnostic criteria.

ADHD stands for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. Children with ADHD have differences in their brain development and brain activity that affect attention, the ability to sit still, organisation, and self-control. This can impact the child at school, home and in relationships as well as their overall sense of wellbeing.

Chromosome abnormalities are when a child is missing one of the chromosomes from a pair or when a chromosome’s structure is altered. Some common chromosomal disorders include Down syndrome (Trisomy 21), FragileX syndrome, Klinefelter syndrome and triple-X syndrome. Each syndrome has its own development profile and individual differences are evident among children such as difficulties in muscle tone, learning, attention, emotional regulation and social skills.

The childhood years, from the prenatal period to late adolescence, are the “building block” years that help set the stage for adult relationships, behaviours, health, and social outcomes. Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are potentially traumatic events that occur in childhood. These can induce experiencing or witnessing violence, abuse, or neglect as well as growing up in a family with mental health or substance use problems or instability due to parental separation or significant medical needs of a family member. These can undermine the child’s sense of safety, stability, and bonding leading to toxic stress. Toxic stress during childhood can harm the nervous, endocrine, and immune systems altering the physical structure of DNA. Changes to the brain from toxic stress can impact attention, impulsive behaviour, decision-making, learning, emotion, and future response to stress.

Some fears and worries are typical in children yet when these are persistent or extreme, they can impact the child across social, emotional, cognitive, and physical development. The child may have trouble sleeping, experience fatigue, headaches, or stomach-aches.
Likewise, feeling sad or hopeless is a part of everyone’s life at some stage yet when these feelings are persistent or extreme such that the child becomes uninterested in things that they used to enjoy it can impact their overall wellbeing and engagement in their world. The child may act unmotivated leading to incorrect labelling of what the child’s behaviour is really trying to tell us. Many children will not talk about their emotions and instead internalise them. The child’s behaviour is therefore a cue to the adults asking for help.

Dysgraphia known as language of the hand, is a specific learning disability that affects how easily children acquire written language and how well they use written language to express their thoughts. Characteristics of dysgraphia include a tight, awkward pencil grip and body position, tiring quickly while writing, avoiding writing or drawing, trouble forming letter shapes, trouble keeping track of thoughts already written down and a large gap between written ideas and understanding demonstrated through speech.

Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) also known as dyspraxia is a motor skill disorder which impacts a child’s ability to perform either, or both, fine and gross motor skills. Fine motor skills include handwriting, tying shoelaces and buttoning. Gross motor skills include climbing, riding a bike and ball skills. Children may have a mix of these skills compared to peers. This can impact the child within the home, school and community environments and has an influence on their overall sense of self and wellbeing.