Dad and child walking to school

Practical Strategies and Expert Advice

Hear from experienced parents and therapists as they share real-life examples and practical strategies to help you advocate confidently and collaborate effectively with educators—ensuring your child thrives in primary school. This series is brought to you by Belongside Families (formerly known as Kindred) in partnership with the Early Childhood Intervention Best Practice Network (ECIBPN), a collective of not-for-profit organisations supporting children with disability through evidence-based early intervention services and early childhood education across NSW, VIC and ACT.

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Session 1: Best Practice Therapy in School

Learn what best-practice therapy looks like in a school setting and how therapists can collaborate with teachers to support your child’s participation and development. Hear from a therapist and a parent about practical strategies that make therapy meaningful at school.

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Session 2: Understanding IEPs in Primary School

An Individual Education Plan (IEP) helps ensure your child gets the support they need at school. Learn what should be included, how to tailor it to your child’s needs, and ways to advocate for its effectiveness, as a therapist and parent guide you through the process.

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Session 3: Building Collaborative Partnerships

Building a strong partnership between your family and your child’s school is essential for advocating for their needs. Gain insights from a therapist and a parent on fostering positive relationships with teachers and staff to create a supportive learning environment.

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Session 4: What to Do if It’s Not Working

Learn how to approach difficult conversations with your child's school, discuss potential challenges that may arise, and know when and who to turn to for help. A therapist and a parent will guide you through managing setbacks and finding the right support.

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Join our new interactive workshops to gain knowledge and tools to support your child’s learning, development and participation at ECEC or Primary School. We’ll cover your role, building partnerships, collaborating as a team and advocating effectively to support your child to thrive.

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To connect, celebrate and learn with parents and carers on their own beautiful journeys. Ours is a safe space where you can come to ask advice and share experiences on anything from your child's diagnosis to navigating the NDIS.

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It's time to clear up a few things about daycare and preschool when it comes to children with disability, delays, and autism. ⁠
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There are a lot of myths out there. Things like: ⁠
🤔 Children need to be toilet trained before they start ⁠
🤔 Educators can’t support your child without a diagnosis ⁠
🤔 Therapy is more important than early learning ⁠
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Kristy from Belongside Families is sorting the fact from fiction, so you can feel more confident about navigating your child’s early learning experience. ⁠
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And if you want to know more about how you can partner with educators at daycare or preschool, and advocate for your child in simple everyday ways join our free interactive workshop. ⁠
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Supporting Your Child in Early Learning ⁠
📅 Mon, 23 June, 7:30pm (AEST / NSW Time) ⁠
🔗 Register via Linkin.bio
Here's Bree from Belongsife Families, captured in her natural habitat: laptop open, getting ready to jump online to facilitate, important files on hand, and her son Dax providing some very thorough "quality control" of her filing system. 😅⁠
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This is the behind-the-scenes reality of the work we do. Every single person on the Belongside Families team is walking this path alongside the families we support - raising children with disability, navigating the same systems, celebrating every small win and managing the juggle. This lived experience is exactly why our free programs are built around what families actually need.⁠
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Behind every workshop, every peer group, every resource, and every bit of support we offer, there are real families just like yours walking the journey too.
Guilt. It's so easy to beat ourselves up about what we didn’t know back in the early days of our journey. What we wished we’d learned sooner, how we would have parented our children differently or made different choices ... ⁠
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While we can't go back in time. What we can do is this:⁠
🧡 Let go of the guilt — we’re all doing the best we can with what we know.⁠
🧡 Keep learning — about our children, and how best to support them.⁠
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At Belongside Families, our free webinars and workshops are here to help you do just that. To feel more confident. More informed. And more supported, wherever you are on your journey.⁠
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Find out more via Linkin.bio⁠
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Sometimes connection happens when you slow down.⁠
No pressure, just presence (oh, and the patience to wait 😆).⁠
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That’s @breepennie ‘s from @belongsidefamilies Son Dax putting her through her paces with the high 20s ✋✋✋✋✋⁠
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#BelongsideFamilies #ByFamiliesForFamilies #PeerLed #ParentingDisability #SpecialNeedsParenting #FindingJoyInTheJourney #KidsWithDisabilities #TeamBelongsideFamilies
✨ Meet Melo: Peer Facilitator at Belongside Families ✨ ⁠
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After decades of studying consumer behaviour and team performance, for the last ten years, Melo has been delivering parenting programs on Secure Attachment, Emotion Coaching and Family Leadership in Australia and abroad. ⁠
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👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Melo lives in Sydney with his wife, 15-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter. It is daughter Victoria, who has a significant intellectual disability, ADHD and physical challenges, that is the reason Melo now works in the disability sector in an effort to ‘pay it forward’ after receiving valuable support in his own parenting journey. ⁠
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👔 Melo currently sits on the Reference Group for Children, Families and Young People Advising the IAC to the NDIS, and also the Integrity Working Group as well as the Participant Reference Group to the NDIS, and is part of the Carers Advisory Group on Intellectual Disability for Clinical Innovation to NSW Health. ⁠
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☕ Outside of work, Melo enjoys watching his son play soccer, and getting out into the community with his daughter to a farmers’ market, a shopping centre, or a café. ⁠
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‍😊 Melo is particularly interested in supporting fathers of children with disability to be better partners, parents and people. ⁠
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Everyone on our team is raising a child with disability, delay, or autism. That lived experience is at the heart of everything we do — and it’s what makes Belongside Families different. ⁠
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#BelongsideFamilies #WalkingAlongside #FamiliesSupportingFamilies #BelongsideCommunity #ByFamiliesForFamilies #PeerLed #ParentingDisability #BelongsideFamiliesTeam
As @melanie.dimmitt shares, grief and comparison soften with time. Thankfully, as we adjust and settle into this new version of parenting, they don’t hold the same weight they once did.⁠
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But they can still show up—unexpectedly, quietly, in small moments. And that’s okay.⁠
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It’s all part of the journey. And you’re not alone in this.⁠
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🧡 This moment is from our Beyond the Diagnosis series—a space for honest reflection on the emotional side of disability parenting. Explore more of the free series or register to receive this replay via the Linkin.bio