I just love being a part of this
wonderful organisation. I have
welcomed the many changes that
have take place during the past 12
months and look forward to more
exciting progressions yet to come.
IN OUR COMMUNITY
Given that Bundaberg is a well-
established regional city servicing
a much wider area, we are lucky to
have many early intervention pro-
viders and educational and health
facilities. The start of 2012 saw
the opening of the autism-specific
AEIOU centre here.
We also have a number of private
occupational therapists and speech
pathologists, panel providers of
the Helping Children with Autism
funding package. The community
has several agencies providing
parental and family support, the
Triple P program offered through a
number of service providers.
We have attended many profession-
al networking meetings this year.
In September, our team attended
the bi-annual Early Intervention
Forum. This meeting provides a
valuable opportunity to meet with
other early intervention service
providers in Bundaberg.
The forum is well attended by
representatives from Queensland
Health, Disability Services Qld,
Education Queensland and
Catholic Education representatives,
private therapists and various early
childhood service providers. The
team has visited kindergartens and
local schools, providing group and
individual programs and meeting
with education staff.
Our team has continued to host
‘
meet and greets’ with service
providers in Bundaberg. In July
we met with a representative
from Centacare, and in August
we hosted a visit from the Child
Development Service (Queensland
Health). Both visits were fantastic
opportunities to share our roles in
the field of early intervention, and
to engage in productive discussion
as to how we can best support each
of our services.
Strong links continue between
BUSHkids and the Child Health
Nurses at Community Family
Health. Claire and Laura regularly
present talks on speech and
language development and motor
and play development to families
at the various parenting groups
offered through Child Health.
BUNDABERG
A BUNDABERGWISH LIST ITEM
As ever there is a myriad of toys, resources and programs that would support the valuable work that we do
with children. While we continue to work away at obtaining resources on our wishlist, we also wanted to
highlight one of our larger needs: iPads.
There’s no doubt that the ‘tablet revolution’ has commenced, with many of our children and families already
owning and using iPads.
A number of other health and educational professionals within our community are also using iPads in their
work, with our colleagues very enthusiastic about the usefulness of these tools.
As technology progresses, we feel we need to keep up to date with technology to provide the best therapy
that we can.
The educational and ‘therapy’ market appears to be well-established in terms of app availability, and we envis-
age that there could be hundreds of apps that would support our work as therapists.
(
We of course can’t forget that the iPad would be an amazing motivator for all young generation ‘i’-ers!)
As a result of Bundaberg BUSHkids
being selected as the beneficiary
of the inaugural Mumma’s Nest
Boutique Markets, we have found
that there has become a greater
awareness of our service among
the community.
IN OUR OFFICE
As mentioned before, the centre
has had a bit of a ‘facelift’ with
new paint in the OT office and
large group room. We are loving
our new height-adjustable tables
in the group therapy room, and
are eagerly awaiting the addition
of children’s chairs in a number of
different sizes to accommodate all
of our clients!
Whilst our team is enjoying our
outside play area, we feel further
landscaping surrounding the
concrete slab is becoming essential.
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