FAQ
About Us
Where are your testimonials?
Clients and families at My Therapy House often share positive feedback about our services, the support we provide, and the progress their children make. We are truly humbled and honored by their kind words.
Due to Speech Pathology Australia’s strict guidelines on publishing testimonials, we are unable to share these on our website. However, we deeply value all feedback as it helps us improve our services, better meet the needs of our clients and families, and understand what is working well and why.
We welcome your feedback through our anonymous online feedback form, the suggestion box at My Therapy House, in person, or via email to hello@mytherapyhouse.com.au. Your insights are always appreciated!
What is your team approach?
We follow an evidence-based, collaborative approach that recognises children do most of their learning through everyday life with their family. We work together with families, sharing ideas so children are supported not just in the therapy room, but at home, school, and in their community.
To support clear communication and trust, families have a key worker from our team who works alongside them, building strong relationships and helping to keep everyone connected.
What standards do you work to?
My Therapy House is a registered NDIS provider.
We are audited every 18 months against the NDIS Practice Standards and every 3 years against Australian Service Excellence Standards.
We also follow the guidelines laid out and periodically reviewed by:
What is a developmental relationship-based approach to intervention?
“We now understand that the lines of early development are interrelated. Rather than assessing language skills, motor skills, and social-emotional skills separately, we should look at how well these abilities are integrated, how they work together as a whole.” — Greenspan, Stanley I, and Serena Wieder
At My Therapy House, we embrace an integrated, developmental approach to therapy. We recognise that early development is interconnected across language, motor, and social-emotional domains. Rather than assessing these skills in isolation, we focus on how they work together as a whole.
We are an ICDL and Profectum verified DIRFloortime® provider, offering individualised therapeutic programs tailored to each client and family. Our programs integrate a child’s natural interests, developmental level, and therapeutic goals, supporting:
- Sensory-motor, auditory, and visual-spatial skills
- Social-emotional growth and relationship-building
- Comprehension, communication, and learning
The DIRFloortime® Approach
Developed over 20 years ago by Dr. Stanley Greenspan, M.D., and Dr. Serena Wieder, Ph.D., DIRFloortime® is a Developmental, Individualised, Relationship-Based model that fosters growth through meaningful interactions.
- Developmental: Children progress through a sequence of social-emotional milestones, building the ability to remain calm, engaged, communicative, problem-solving, and ready to learn.
- Individual Differences: Every child perceives, processes, and responds to their environment in a unique way, shaping their actions, thoughts, and interactions.
- Relationships: Strong connections with family, peers, and caregivers lay the foundation for self-esteem, confidence, development, and lifelong learning.
Building healthy relationships and social interactions is at the heart of everything we do at My Therapy House:
- Our Speech Pathologists help you understand and support your child’s communication profile and how this impacts their emotional wellbeing, comprehension, relationships, intentions, interactions, ideas, and participation in social and academic experiences.
- Our Occupational Therapists support your child’s sensory-motor and processing profile and how these impact their ability to interact, learn, play, develop and make friends.
- Our Early Childhood Educator helps you understand your child’s learning style and individual profile and supports your child’s learning through movement, music, stories, drama, and play in their home and educational settings.
The My Therapy House Team works with you to help you understand your family patterns, attachment style, and behavioural and emotional profile, and how these impact your child’s ability to feel safe and secure in their relationships and world.
Children develop communication, play, and relationships through various stages of social-emotional growth. This journey begins with sharing attention with another person and progresses to understanding their own emotions, recognising the emotions of others, and appreciating that people may think differently.
Despite these differences, children learn that they can still connect, relate, and engage with others through reciprocal, respectful, and caring interactions and relationships.
For more detailed information, please go to Profectum or The Interdisciplinary Council on Development and Learning.
What does it mean to be neuroaffirming?
“There is a place in the world for everyone.” – My Therapy House Vision
We recognise that everyone engages with the world around them in different ways. We embrace, celebrate, and support these differences, helping children and families discover their strengths to achieve their goals. This means we:
- Use strengths-based language and do our best to avoid jargon and highly technical terms.
- Listen to children and families when they tell us what they need.
- Respect and accommodate different sensory needs.
- Understand that safe spaces make the best learning environments.
- Take time to build safe and supportive relationships.
- Help children recognise their own emotions and those of the people around them to build communication skills.
Best Practice
Why are health and well-being important for a child's development?
“Health is not simply the absence of sickness.” – Hannah Green
Your child’s health and their well-being form the foundation for their development. Essential routines such as healthy eating, quality sleep, consistent waking patterns, and regular toileting will help your child feel regulated, secure, and ready to learn and grow.
Our visiting medical health practitioner collaborates with our therapeutic team to support the well-being of your child and your family, ensuring the best possible environment for healthy development and learning.
Why are emotional regulation important?
“Calm mind brings inner strength and self-confidence, so that’s very important for good health.” – Dalai Lama
Emotional regulation is the foundation for development. Children learn best when they feel calm and alert. When they experience stress, over-excitement, anger, or anxiety, they may become dysregulated, triggering a fight, flight, or freeze response. This reaction can cause their brains and bodies to shut down to learning and development.
Children may struggle with regulation due to:
- Overstimulation (too much sensory input)
- Difficulty understanding their environment
- Challenges in expressing themselves
At My Therapy House, we help children achieve a “just right” emotional state—one that is balanced, engaged, and ready to learn. We:
- Support children and parents in understanding and managing behaviours
- Create a safe, calm, fun, and stimulating environment tailored to each child’s unique needs
- Educate families and caregivers on how to support their child’s nervous system, optimizing development and learning
By fostering emotional well-being, we help children thrive in their relationships, play, and education.
Why is social communication important?
“We are like islands in the sea, separate on the surface but connected in the deep.” – William James
Social communication is the foundation for interaction, problem-solving, conversation, meaningful relationships, and play.
At My Therapy House, we use the latest approaches and best practices to help children understand social situations and develop effective communication with the people who matter most to them.
We support children in:
- Becoming aware of their own social cues and communication attempts
- Learning to read and interpret others’ social cues and intentions
- Understanding that communication is a two-way interaction, where both the child and the listener must work together to create meaning
Our team provides supported therapeutic opportunities for children and parents to practice communication in real-life situations. This includes:
- Exploring different ways of interacting with each other
- Experiencing communication breakdowns and learning how to repair them
- Strengthening the foundations of communication and language development
We tailor our approach to each child’s unique needs, helping them build a strong foundation for communication and language development. This involves learning how to create, organise, carry out, and adjust their ideas and supporting them in finding ways to express their thoughts and intentions effectively.
Why is comprehension important?
“To effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others” – Tony Robbins
Comprehension is the foundation of communication and plays a crucial role in a child’s development. Understanding both nonverbal cues, such as facial expressions, gestures, and tone, and spoken language requires the ability to recognise, process, and interpret information as meaningful. Children often find it easier to understand language within familiar routines and with people they know well.
At My Therapy House, we help you understand your child’s language abilities, including what they comprehend, what they struggle with, and which communication methods work best for them. Your child’s comprehension can be influenced by factors such as body awareness, sensory challenges, visual and auditory processing, and understanding their surroundings. We work closely with you to support your child’s language development, emphasizing the essential role comprehension plays in communication and play.
Why is play important?
“Children need freedom and time to play. Play is not a luxury. Play is a necessity.” – Redfield Jamison
Play is the work of a child. Children learn so much about themselves and other people through play. They learn how things work, understand about routines and distinguish right from wrong. They practise ways of communicating and behaving. At My Therapy House, we use play as the primary means of working with children and their families. We support different stages of play development, including exploratory, sensory-motor, pretend, symbolic, role and peer play. We help parents learn about the importance of play and play development and provide a safe and nurturing environment for the whole family to practise and develop play skills.
Why is sensory-motor processing important?
“The body heals with play, the mind heals with laughter, and the spirit heals with joy.” – Proverb
Children learn by actively engaging with their world. They discover themselves, others, objects, and their surroundings through movement and exploration. At My Therapy House, we believe that children need to move, explore, and experience their environment to understand emotions, generate ideas, and improve communication through meaningful interactions. Our environment is specifically designed to support the development of both gross and fine motor skills, as well as social, emotional, communication, and play skills. We create spaces that encourage children to use their bodies and learn about themselves and others in fun and playful ways.
Why are activities of daily living important?
“The path of development is a journey of discovery that is clear only in retrospect, and it’s rarely a straight line.” – Eileen Kennedy-Moore
The My Therapy House team uses play and parenting support to help children develop healthy routines around toileting, bathing, eating, sleeping, and dressing. We guide parents on the readiness skills needed for these developmental areas. Additionally, we support children and families through the transition into adolescence and puberty.
Why is friendship facilitation important?
“The language of Friendship is not thoughts but meanings.” – Henry David Thoreau
Friendships contribute to a child’s sense of self and their quality of life.
We provide supported opportunities for children to play together and interact in a natural setting, teaching them to recognise and respond to social interactions, and to initiate them. This helps children develop social skills such as communication, empathy, and conflict resolution.
Our homelike environment encourages spontaneous play and interactions between siblings and peers. We also work with the people who support children in other settings, such as early learning centres, kindergartens and schools, to help develop and strengthen peer relationships. We support children in understanding the intentions, ideas, and feelings of others, as well as in clearly communicating their own.
Why are peer groups important?
“Don’t walk behind me; I may not lead. Don’t walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.” – Albert Camus
Children are often expected to join larger groups without knowing how to regulate themselves, recognise social cues, or communicate their intentions and feelings, leaving them overwhelmed and confused.
My Therapy House offers peer dyads (two children with two therapists) to support children in building social skills. In these sessions, each therapist works with an individual child to help them understand what their peers are doing, communicating, thinking, and feeling. We also help children express their own ideas, intentions, and feelings more clearly to others.
Why are sibling support sessions important?
“I sustain myself with the love of my family.” – Maya Angelou
Children often cannot read their siblings’ intentions and may feel overwhelmed, fearful or jealous of the attention generated by the sibling with special needs. We offer individual or dyad sessions for siblings to help them express their feelings, understand who their brother or sister is, and learn how to interact successfully with them.
How do we work with parents?
“If we continually try to force a child to do what he is afraid to do, he will become more timid and will use his brains and energy, not to explore the unknown, but to find ways to avoid the pressures we put on him. If, however, we are careful not to push a child beyond the limit of his courage, he is almost sure to get braver.” – John Holt
The My Therapy House team offers family support, information, and education. We collaborate closely with parents and families to help them understand their child’s individual differences and how these impact their social-emotional, communication, play, sensory-motor, learning development, and behaviour. We assist parents in navigating the challenges of parenting a child with special needs, helping them understand available services, funding options, and support systems. Additionally, we guide families in understanding their child’s behaviours, relationships, attachment styles, and how to best support their child’s development.
We provide online self-paced learning for parents and educators on a diverse range of subjects through our Teachable School.
We also offer guidance on accessing funding options, including the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and Medicare.
What does my child's behaviour mean?
All behaviour means something to your child at that moment in time. This is especially true of behaviour that might be harmful or inappropriate.
We teach children the tools they can use to communicate what they are thinking and feeling, and what they need to feel safe in the moment.