Submission to Thriving Kids Initiative
My name is Richard Bruggemann. I was, from 1982 until 2006, the CEO of the Intellectual Disability Services Council (IDSC) of South Australia. One of our key areas of service provision was support for young children with a developmental delay. The first important step in these services was not to make an assessment of intellectual disability or autism before the age of six and many children, with support, were able to develop normally and never needed disability services.
Our service philosophy recognised that the wellbeing, growth and development of very young children with an intellectual disability (or the risk of an intellectual disability) occurs best within a loving, supportive and empowered family and where the child is able to experience all the developmental opportunities available to all children and is given additional supports within the home and those settings.
This saw the parent, and usually the mother, as the locus of the child’s development, supporting attachment which is fundamental to all of the child’s future relationships and the building block for emotional wellbeing.
In this model, the most appropriate therapist, appointed to support the family, would not only do “therapy” things to the child, but would teach the mother how these might be incorporated into play and other activities, hence keeping the mother as the locus of support, as indeed they are for the huge majority of our precious children.
Furthermore, we were greatly concerned with “labelling” to the extent that our early childhood services did not use IDSC letterhead but rather had such letterhead as “Eastern Childhood Services,” “Thriving Kids” is a positive, non-labelling name for the proposed initiative.
Some key issues guided all practice:
That all children are valued That the attachment between the newborn child and parents and, in particular, the mother is a special and enduring relation that will be a blueprint for all other relationships That the primacy of the family is valued and supported That families are supported in ways of their choosing That children with disabilities should be included in the full range of activities and services available to all children. That their inclusion is enhanced by additional individualized and child-centred supports in those settings if needed.
There are some strategies that could greatly assist these principles being put into effect including:
The development of a family visiting programme where the key message would be that, irrespective of the level of disability, the child could lead a successful life ie a life where he/she can be happy and achieve to the best of his/her ability. The chance of that happening will be enhanced if parents can dream of possible futures and be supported in making those dreams come true and understand the additional support the child might need to maximize his/her potential. Such a programme could be developed and conducted by experienced parents of older children with disabilities and ideally would be the first information the family would have – a positive but pragmatic message delivered in the maternity
hospital or as soon as the possibility of disability is recognized. Effort be put in at a both the systemic and personal levels to maximize the attachment between the child and parents. The organizations within jurisdictions which have a responsibility for early childhood services should have the carriage of providing all early intervention services. Every venue of service delivery for young children, every group for young children and every programme for young children should be truly inclusive of all children including those with disabilities. Parents who are socially disadvantaged or who themselves have a disability may require additional support to undertake the parenting role. In the implementation of the Thriving Kids, there should be a constant review of feedback and the development of appropriate responses. For example, two families of adults with autism have contacted me concerned that “autism will no longer by funded by the NDIS.” I have told them that I would expect that people, including older children whose autism was causing functional deficits would be eligible for NDIS support after their involvement in the Thriving Kids programme. The key issue is that many, with those early supports, will not need ongoing NDIS support. One of the drivers of the current problem is being able to get a funding package.
I would be happy to provide other thoughts on how this will be promoted. The current message is that a cohort are being abandoned and that needs to be addressed if this positive development is to succeed.