Children with Additional Needs
With the right support, children with additional needs and their parents live happy, fulfilling lives
Choosing a service can be hard for all parents, but it can be even more overwhelming for parents who have children with additional needs.
If your child has additional needs, our service will provide you with support to enhance your child’s learning, skills, experience, and development, working collaboratively with you to support your child’s specific needs.
The spectrum of additional needs can vary, there are challenges facing many parents caring for their children who are either born with special needs or develop such needs early in life.
How your child interacts with you, their siblings and their peers can be challenging for any parent at times. You may feel isolated and overwhelmed. Without the proper supports and services, parents can experience confusion, frustration and even isolation.
CCFSS is here to help support you and your child. Children with additional needs, and their parents, can thrive once they have access to the tools needed to manage and support their child’s needs. We encourage you to contact CCFSS for strategies and support you with skills and resources to address your child’s additional needs.
Who Can Access the Children with Additional Needs Program?
Children with Additional Needs
To access our program, you must be:
- A Central Coast resident
- Have a dependant child aged 0 - 8 years with diagnosed disability
What do we do?
Our children with additional needs program is free and is designed to support parents caring for children with additional needs.
Based on the initial assessment interview, a family support worker assists you in developing attainable goals and supports you and your child to achieve these goals.
Our range of assistance options include:
- Parenting and relationship skills designed to assist parents with additional needs children
- Informing you about your child’s condition, including specific referral services for that condition
- Providing information about services
- Assisting with access to services with recommended or direct referrals
- Outline your options under the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS)
Children with Additional Needs Program – Child and Family Services
Children with Additional Needs
To access the program you must be:
- A Central Coast resident
- Have a dependant child aged 0 – 8 years with diagnosed disability
NDIS application assistance
https://ccpc.com.au/
Free Active Kids Vouchers
https://www.service.nsw.gov.au/transaction/apply-active-kids-voucher
Free Creative Kids Voucher
https://www.service.nsw.gov.au/transaction/apply-creative-kids-voucher
Latest Newsletters
Events
We have a number of courses that are designed to help parents.
Click here to view latest events
Click here to view course work programs
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We also encourage parents of children with additional needs to participate in our coursework programs.
Further information
Our Family Support Program for families with children with additional needs or current concerns aims to strengthen family relationships and increase the safety and wellbeing of children and young people
To be eligible for our services you need to be a Central Coast resident and a member of a family with a dependent child or young person aged 0-12 years who has a diagnosed disability or have developmental delays and are undergoing assessments for a diagnosis. This is a free service.
Families are offered an initial assessment appointment, where family support workers assist family members to identify their strengths and needs in relation to presenting family issues.
We assist families to develop goals. Once goals are determined we negotiate a support case plan with the family, outlining how we can assist families to achieve their goals. We can also assist you with home visits to provide advice, information and referral or support.
In our case work support, we create plans that guides our work together and provides a focus for our work with families. Examples include: counselling, enhancing parenting practices and relationship skills, providing information about services and assisting you to access these services by advocating and direct referrals.
We also provide personalised and structured parenting programs in your home or our office, which focus specifically on supporting parents with children with additional needs to further develop their parenting knowledge and understanding of managing children’s behaviour to equip parents with the skills and confidence they need to be self-sufficient and to be able to manage family issues as they arise.
We assist families with advice and referral. A family worker is available by telephone to discuss services and programs available in the community. Parents with children with additional needs are encouraged to call the office to speak with our experienced staff.
Our family case workers can meet with parents and family members at our office in Kariong, in your home or at other agreed locations within the community.
We also provide a range of group work programs specifically for parents with children with additional needs across the Central Coast region. This includes: Peer support groups, workshops, and parenting education programs.
See our course work program here for further information about our general group work and target events, workshops and information sessions.
If you would like to stay in touch with what’s happening in our children with additional needs program, join our mailing list (under newsletter tab).
