The Early Childhood Therapy team works with children from birth to school entry who have a wide variety of needs and their families.

We provide community-based services, meaning we provide services in the families' own communities - the most common locations are children's homes, daycares, and here at the Centre. The family and therapists decide together what the best location is for their individual situation.

We are a large team (~50 people) providing a wide range of services, including: physical, occupational and speech therapy. We work together as part of a team with Service Coordination, Family and Community Services and other programs and services according to individual needs of children and families. 

Our services vary depending on child and family needs and priorities at different times - the focus may shift over time between skill development, psychosocial supports for family members, recreation opportunities, integration in child care, or preparation for school.

Service options include:

• Assessments
• Consultation
• Direct therapy (in a group or individually) eg. physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy
• Programs for home, daycare or preschool
• Speech & language information drop-in sessions
• Parent groups
• Counseling
• Community education

We are involved in many partnerships, collaborative projects, planning processes and local community groups across Southwestern Ontario. Specific partnerships for young children include:

• All Kids Belong
• Community Feeding Resource Group
• Developmental Resources for Infants
• tykeTALK
• smallTALK
• Grey-Bruce Preschool Speech and Language Initiative

As well as system-level partnerships, many of the children we work with have inter-agency teams, and front-line staff work closely with people from numerous organizations to provide coordinated services to families.