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Children's Behaviour Support
Behaviour Support for children looks beyond their behaviour to understand what’s triggering it. Instead of punishing meltdowns or aggression, our practitioners work out what their behaviour is communicating and design practical strategies around your childs needs, at home, at school, and out in the world.
You’ve tried reward charts, consequences, calm voices, and raising yours, but you can see your child struggling. Their meltdowns last longer than they should, you’re getting calls from school, and mornings often end in tears.
Punishment teaches a child what not to do, but compliance doesn’t equate to coping. Behaviour Support starts with why their behaviour is occuring, and treats behaviour as a form of communication. We see children across NSW and Tasmania, NDIS and private clients are both welcome.
Parents and carers
For support coordinators and plan managers
Our Behaviour Support team works with children and with the parents, carers, educators and support workers around them. Sessions run in clinic, at home, at school and in the community across NSW and Tasmania, because a child’s plan only works when the adults in their life can use it where the behaviour happens.
How do I fund my child's Behaviour Support?
Behaviour Support for children at Optimum Health Solutions is usually funded through the NDIS.
NDIS participants fund it from Capacity Building. Newer PACE plans list it as Behaviour Support, and older plans list it as Improved Relationships.
Private sessions are available too, with no referral needed, and you will get a clear picture of the costs before you book.
If it is not in your child’s plan yet, your support coordinator can ask for it at the next plan review.
If you are not sure which funding applies to you, call us on 1800 678 647 or email hello@opt.net.au. We will sort it out before your first appointment.
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Why do children develop behaviours of concern?
01
Developmental differences
Children develop at different paces. When the expectations at school or home run ahead of where a child is developmentally, frustration builds. A child who can’t sit still for forty minutes has reached the limit of what their body can manage. A child who can’t follow a three-step instruction has hit the edge of what they can hold in mind at once. The gap between what’s expected and what the child can do creates pressure, and that pressure has to go somewhere.
02
Sensory processing differences
What sits in the background for one child, like a loud classroom, a scratchy uniform, or the flicker of fluorescent lights, can be too much for another. When it all adds up to more than a child can handle, the behaviour is how it comes out. This is common in children with autism or ADHD, where sensory sensitivities may not yet have been picked up.
03
Communication limits
Not every child can name what they’re feeling. Some don’t yet have the words for complex emotions, and others shut down when they’re overwhelmed and can’t reach language at all. When a child can’t say “I am anxious” or “that hurts” or “I need a break”, they show you instead, through aggression, withdrawal, or a meltdown. Those are the only tools the child has right now.
04
School environment mismatch
Rigid timetables, crowded playgrounds, academic demands that don’t account for how a particular child learns. School refusal is almost always about an environment that feels unsafe, unpredictable, or impossible to navigate. The thing worth changing is usually the fit between the child and the setting.
05
Family transitions
Separation, a new sibling, moving house, changing schools: children work through big life changes by way of behaviour, because they don’t yet have another way to process them. What can look like going backwards is often a child making sense of a world that just shifted under them.
06
Undiagnosed conditions
Autism, ADHD, anxiety, and learning differences are often not identified in primary-school-aged children. A child who is seen as “difficult” is frequently a child whose needs haven’t yet been recognised. A behaviour support practitioner can help families notice these patterns and connect with the right assessments.
How Behaviour Support helps your child
How Behaviour Support differs from discipline.
If you’ve tried everything and nothing has worked, it’s not because you’re doing it wrong. Traditional discipline runs on a simple idea: make the consequence uncomfortable enough and the child will stop.
But if the behaviour is triggered by something like sensory overload, a communication barrier, or anxiety, the consequence never reaches the cause, and the behaviour comes back.
We start somewhere different: a functional behaviour assessment. We observe your child across settings, talk with you and with the people who know them well, and look at what happens before, during, and after behaviours of concern.
From there we build a plan around your child’s strengths: proactive strategies, skill-building goals, clear responses for hard moments, and a plan to reduce any restrictive practices. It’s reviewed as your child grows.
We go where the behaviours occur.
At home, we educate families on how to hand morning routines, meltdowns, and bedtimes where triggering pressures often shows up most.
At school, we work directly with teachers, teaching aids, and counsellors, providing written guidance that staff can follow when you aren’t there.
Out in the community, we practise skills on how to deal with situations where sensory demands may run high and structure can run low.
Providing consistency between home and school is one of the biggest factors in whether a behaviour support plan works, so we educate everyone in your child’s daily life on how to use the same strategies, the same way.
The plan:
Your child’s behaviour support plan sets out what’s driving the behaviour, the proactive strategies, the skills being built, and steady responses for the hard moments, written so home and school can use it the same way.We go through it with you and the school, and we review it as your child grows.
Eight disciplines, one team:
Morning meltdowns might trace back to sensory processing, something an Occupational Therapist can work on. Lashing out at lunch is sometimes about social communication, which a Speech Pathologist can build. At Optimum Health Solutions, your Behaviour Support practitioner works in the same team as both, plus Physiotherapists, Exercise Physiologists, Podiatrists, Nurses, and Dietitians, so you tell your story once and the plan stays joined up.
Planning for the move to high school?
For a child who finds change hard, Year 7 can bring a real rise in behaviours of concern, so we build the transition into the plan well before it starts:
- practising new routines
- building independence
- connecting with the new school’s support team early.
Children's behaviour support through the NDIS
NDIS. Behaviour Support is funded under Capacity Building. In newer NDIS (PACE) plans it sits in a dedicated Behaviour Support budget; older plans fund it under Improved Relationships. Your child’s plan needs to include that funding. If it doesn’t, your support coordinator can request it at the next plan review. We work with plan-managed, agency-managed, and self-managed NDIS participants.
NDIS
Referrals
14 clinics across NSW & Tasmania
Email us
hello@opt.net.au
Speak to us
1800 678 647
Get in Touch.
Where we offer Behaviour Support
Common questions about children's behaviour support
What is Behaviour Support for children?
What are behaviours of concern in children?
What ages does Optimum Health Solutions work with?
Does the NDIS fund Behaviour Support for children?
How does Behaviour Support work with schools?
What is the difference between Behaviour Support and ABA for children?
How do I manage my child's challenging behaviour at home?
Reviewed by Rachel Hardcastle
OPTIMUM HEALTH SOLUTIONS
Rachel has worked in Behaviour Support for over 16 years, where her experience has included complex and forensic work. Rachel’s approach is entirely person-centred, meaning her practice starts and ends with the person, building support around them. Rachel works clinically and leads the development of the Behaviour Support team at Optimum Health Solutions, supporting practitioners to grow and do their best work with the people they see.
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