Spot Therapy Hub

06/11/2025

Let’s talk about Autism & ADHD Diagnoses, and Mental Health 🌈🧠

It is very common for neurodivergent people to experience challenges with their mental health.

78% of Autistic children have a mental health condition, with almost half of them having at least two mental health conditions.

Around two-thirds of ADHDers have one or more co-occurring mental health conditions, such as anxiety or depression.

Does knowing your neurotype make a difference?

✔️Understand why you are the way you are, think the way you think, & act the way you act
✔️Understand the struggles you have faced in life
✔️Help you take action to seek neurodiversity-affirming mental healthcare, therapy providers and accommodations at school or work
✔️Connect with others going through a similar journey to you - your neurokin!

06/11/2025

Neurodivergence isn’t rare - it’s part of the everyday fabric of our classrooms, clinics and communities.

In Australia:
• About 1 in 25 children aged 5–17 are autistic (ABS, 2022)
• Around 1 in 10 live with ADHD (AIHW, 2023)
• Many experience both
• And when we include learning differences like dyslexia or DCD, that number grows again

These figures remind us that diversity in how we think, feel, move and learn is not an exception - it’s the norm.

Our systems, supports and expectations need to reflect that reality.

05/11/2025

☀️ January School Holiday Programs - Enrolments Now Open!

The summer holidays are just around the corner, and our team of Speech Pathologists and Occupational Therapists are bringing back a line-up of fun, inclusive, and neuroaffirming group programs designed to help kids connect, grow, and thrive through play!

🧠 Mini Scientists – Explore, experiment & discover
🎨 Christmas Crafts – Creativity & fine motor fun
👫 Connection Crew for Teens – Friendship, communication & confidence
👩‍🍳 Cooking Club – Practical skills for independence
🎮 Minecraft Groups (Junior & Senior) – Collaboration, problem-solving & social connection
🧩 Sensory Play & Early Language – For our youngest learners
🎒 Kindy Kids – School readiness & self-regulation
🌞 Full & Half Day Respite – A balanced day of play, connection & confidence

All programs are small-group, therapist-led, and run across our Waverley, Randwick, and Norwest clinics this December and January.

✨ Limited places available, book early to secure your child’s spot!
📲 Find out more via the link in our bio.

04/11/2025

When children show big feelings, resist routines, or push back on limits - it’s not a sign of disrespect or willful, ‘bad’ behaviour. It’s a sign that their nervous system is struggling and needs connection, not consequences.

The words we use in those moments matter. When we lead with curiosity and empathy instead of threat, we’re actually helping their brain wire for self-regulation, problem-solving and trust.

At Spot, we remind parents and educators that behaviour is communication.

When we replace “If you don’t…” with “I know you want…” or “I can help you…” we send a powerful message of safety.

Every calm moment you offer is a developmental moment - you’re literally shaping the pathways for future flexibility, problem solving and planning.

Follow for evidence-based, neuroaffirming insights, and share to support a more connected world for kids and families

03/11/2025

Wowsers - I get that there’s probably a hidden agenda in the advice of Mark Butler, Minister for Disability, whose Thriving Kids Tier 2 scheme will likely be delivered through early childhood settings - but that’s no excuse for harmful advice.

Children’s development is not better supported in child care than in the care of family members with whom a child has secure attachment.

It’s wrong to market child care as better for development because it offers structured learning. Replacing PLAY with structured learning is exactly why so many children are struggling at school.

Children’s nervous systems develop best when they have on-tap co-regulation from the people they feel safest around.
Their speech and language also thrive through natural ‘serve and return’ moments in daily routines — cleaning, getting dressed, going to the shops.

Note:
These facts don’t take away from the incredible work many childcare educators do to create safe spaces. But masking isn’t conscious, and like therapy, there are limits. There’s no substitute for time with our most trusted caregivers.

Some children come from vulnerable families, and child care can support wellbeing - but only alongside direct family support embedded in the home.

Regardless of family situation, children with disability rarely benefit from full-time care. It’s deeply concerning that many are in care five long days a week. What they truly need is less time in care and more support in their home environments - that’s evidence-based early intervention.

This isn’t a political post or a comment on Thriving Kids - it’s simply about child development and the reckless messaging being sent to parents that’s, frankly, harmful.

02/11/2025

In my world, I see a lot of professionals telling people that ‘normal’ parenting approaches don’t work for ADHDer and autistic kids.

The truth is, the most evidence based parenting approaches are BEST for all kids.

It’s just that traditional approaches, often rooted in behaviorism, are better tolerated by neurotypical kids.

Why? Because their nervous systems are more naturally moved to caution. They’re already less impulsive. They are already wired to be able to manage their body and emotions with greater ease and reliability.

When we use a behavioural approach with deeply sensitive, deeply feeling and neurodivergent kids, it damages our relationship with them. We reduce their nervous system capacity, even further. We harm them.

And yes, I think harm can still happen with neurotypical kids, but we’re far less likely to notice.

The worst part? For neurodivergent kids and those with disability, in the past parents and professionals have not pivoted to this ✨new✨ relationship based approach (which actually has 40 years of research behind it) - they have leant even harder into behavioral approaches, causing lifelong trauma for many autistic people in particular

General awareness is shifting, but we still have a long way to go… Not just in the disability space but in everyday parenting for all children

Please follow along here and be part of this change

31/10/2025

Some kids who seemed excited for Halloween - who picked out costumes and made plans - may have decided not to join in at the last minute.

This can be one way a PDA nervous system protects itself from the many layers of demand associated in events like Halloween.

If you’re curious about how PDA can show up in everyday life and events, follow along 💙

31/10/2025

https://www.facebook.com/share/1F71gCAoqT/?mibextid=wwXIfr

https://forms.gle/PDmJAkDgakzUPrbKA

30/10/2025

Instead of ghosts there are medical model diagnostic assessments that don’t capture a person’s strengths.

Instead of skeletons there are goals being set that are not meaningful to the person.

Instead of zombies there is compliance based therapy that does not honour a person’s needs and right to autonomy.

Instead of witches there are labels like Oppositional Defiant Disorder being used without understanding that it’s a trauma response & change will happen when the people around the child change what they are doing.

Instead of werewolves there are stereotypical ideas about autism that cause delays in a person accessing their identity.

Instead of vampires there is therapy that only focuses on building very specific skills, rather than developing self-advocacy as the most important ‘skill.’

Instead of spiders there are professionals and families trying to learn about autism from non-autistic ‘experts.’

Instead of Frankenstein it’s a room of professionals who are not screening for symptoms of Dysfunctional Breathing and Sleep Disordered Breathing.

"

30/10/2025

🎃 Sometimes at this time of year, when excitement (and sugar) are running high, it’s tempting to use the things our kids care about, like trick-or-treating, as leverage for “good behaviour.”

When we threaten to take away something that is meaningful to kids, their nervous system moves further into fight or flight. That actually reduces their capacity to show flexible, ‘mature’ behaviour and to be led by us.

So instead, pull them closer. Reassure them. Remind them of the wonderful things that are going to happen, without doubt. Let them know you’re excited too.

Then see whether you can get them to a better place through connection and co-regulation (not control).

🕯️Connection first. Behaviour follows.

30/10/2025

A reminder for all the parents, especially during the school holidays when we often imagine a time of lower stress…and yet the exact opposite can be the case.

Take care of yourself. Accept all the supports you can. It isn’t easy and we need to remember to give ourself the same advice we give our kids when they’re feeling overwhelmed 🌈💙

Final thought for those who might be feeling like time to themselves is unattainable: Keep it simple. Try to carve out as little as 5 minutes.

Make a cup of tea and actually drink it.
Sit outside or by a window a watch the leaves blow or the cloud float by.
Get some nice hand moisturizer and rub it in - enjoy the smell.
Do some alternating nostril breathing…or even 12 gentle breaths (this will literally only take you a minute! Draw out the exhale to bring your parasympathetic nervous system into dominance).

✌🏻💪🏽

29/10/2025