Group Services
Therapy Programs
Why are group sessions beneficial and what do they entail?
Group sessions are a perfect way for your child to practise a range of skills alongside other children. They cost less than a 1:1 session so are perfect for families who are currently unable to afford the cost of 1:1 sessions, or who would like their child to participate in these additional to their child’s 1:1 sessions, depending on your child’s goals.
All of our groups are run by qualified therapists and allied health assistants within a small group setting, and are tailored to meet the needs of your child.
The different groups that we currently offer through Bright Start Therapy include:
P-Plates for Prep
P-Plates for Prep is Bright Start Therapy’s school readiness program, which focuses on helping children get ready for and transition to school. It is aimed at developing skills across a broad range of developmental areas to get them ready for school, including:
- social and communication skills
- self regulation skills and whole body listening skills
- understanding routine and transitions
- following instructions
- fine motor skills such as pencil grasp, cutting and pasting, colouring and tracing skills,
- gross motor skills such as balance and ball skills.
Social Smarties
Bright Start Therapy’s Social Smarties program is a group social skills program that is based on concepts from the “You are a Social Detective!” Social Thinking program.
Humans are all social detectives as we observe, gather and make sense of the clues in different social contexts (settings, situations and the people in them) to figure out the hidden rules for expected behaviours, as well as to understand how we each feel and think about what others say and do.
During our Social Smartie program, students:
- Learn formulas for gathering clues by observing a situation, the people, and what’s happening.
- Learn to identify feelings and emotions and connect them to behaviours.
- Are empowered to figure out how the social world works through their own detective lens.
- Understand that all feelings are okay, even uncomfortable ones, and we can still learn and grow.
- Have numerous opportunities to make smart guesses about various situations.
Throughout the program, children will learn the above concepts and have plenty of opportunities to practise them within their small groups. This program is a stand-alone in itself, however also forms the pre-requisite for those wanting to continue on with Bright Start Therapy’s Superflex Training Academy group program below.
Superflex Superstars
Bright Start Therapy’s Superflex Superstars is a group program based on the Social Thinking program called “Superflex: A Superhero Social Thinking Curriculum” which explores flexible thinking and social skills in further detail.
With our own creative twist on the program and run by our talented team of therapists, Superflex is a group program based on teaching children skills and strategies (their “Superflex Powers”!) to improve self-regulation and flexible-thinking abilities in fun and engaging ways!
Brick Buddies
Bright Start Therapy’s Brick Buddies program is an evidence-based social skills club run by our therapists for Lego© lovers of all ages!
It is a group that provides an opportunity for young people to improve their social interactions (turn taking, problem solving, sharing) while engaging with similar aged peers through fun and collaborative Lego building activities. Lego© groups are specifically designed for children who have difficulty with understanding or using appropriate social skills and have a love of Lego©. This group looks at developing the following skills:
- Maintaining attention and focus – staying on task for the entire project.
- Collaboration with others – working in a group towards a common goal.
- Social skills – joint problem solving, turn taking and sharing.
- Conflict resolution – working through different ideas towards a shared goal.
- Fine motor skills – manipulating Lego© blocks into place.
- Communication: using verbal and non-verbal communication to express feelings and ideas.
- Creative thinking – building models and free play time.
Cool, Calm Kids
Cool, Calm Kids is Bright Start’s emotional regulation group aimed at children between the ages of 4-6 years. This 10 week program or intensive school holiday group introduces children to the Zones of Regulation and the Alert Program teaching them how to identify basic emotions and giving them strategies and tools to help them deal with overwhelming feelings they may be experiencing in their daily lives.
- Emotions covered in this program include happy, sad, angry, worried and silly
- Children will learn ‘How does my engine run’ and practical ways to provide sensory input for regulation
- Children will each receive a social story for each of the 4 zones of regulation
- Children will make their own take home toolboxes to assist with emotional regulation at home
Sensory Ninjas: (6 yrs and older)
Bright Start Therapy’s Sensory Ninja’s program is a social and gross motor based group run by our therapists.
The Sensory Ninja’s program run for 1 hour each week across the term and the content in the group is aimed to develop the following:
- Fundamental gross motor skills including balance, coordination and strength.
- Basic sports skills including agility, throwing/catching and kicking through exposure to a range of sports and activities including soccer, AFL and basketball.
- Social skills including communication, appropriate non-verbal cues, reciprocal conversation, expanding pragmatic language and working as part of a team.
- Core strength to assist in sensory integration and posture to optimise participation in tabletop activities.
Mini Ninjas
Bright Start Therapy’s Kinder and Mini Ninjas program is a social and gross motor based group run by our therapists.
The Kinder (4-5yrs) and Mini Ninjas (2-3yr old) program run for 1 hour each week across the term and the content in the group is aimed to develop the following:
- Fundamental gross motor skills including balance, coordination and strength.
- Social skills including communication, waiting, turn taking, expanding pragmatic language and working as part of a team.
- Core strength to assist in sensory integration and posture to optimise participation in tabletop activities
Mindful Besties
Bright Start Therapy’s Mindful Besties, is an all girl group for young ladies aged 10-13 years, focused on supporting our girls through early adolescence and developing key skill areas:
- To develop emotional regulation strategies that can be implemented across environments and that are meaningful for the individual
- To develop social skills so that individuals can build meaningful relationships with same aged peers
- To develop teamwork and conflict resolution skills to be able to work with others and problem solve collaboratively.
- To develop flexible thinking when generating ideas, collaborating with others and engaging with peers (i.e., socially or in play)
- To develop skills in age-appropriate self-care and life skills
First Friends
This is our early years social group focusing on key foundations needed to foster social interaction in children. This program is aimed at our little population aged 3-4 years.
With our multisensory approach to learning, our team of therapists and AHA’s use a range of fun and motivating tools such as puppets, stories, games and role play, to assist children to learn important skills like:
- understanding feelings
- talking and listening
- taking turns
- greeting others
- problem-solving in social situations
The program is suitable for young children who may need extra support in social situations or in the lead up to preschool or kindergarten.
The goals of First Friends is to help children relate to others, teach constructive problem solving skills for social situations and promote the skills needed for educational group environments.
Additional downloads
Pencil Pals
Handwriting skill refinement program
Kidz Lab
Our kid run laboratory!
(5 – 7 years)
Science Club
Our kid run laboratory!
(9 – 13 years)
