https://www.sdn.org.au/childrenstherapies/

SDN Children's Therapies, Level 3, 19 – 37 Greek Street, Sydney (2025)

29/12/2024

📢 IMPORTANT UPDATE from SDN Children's Therapies 📢

As 2024 comes to a close, we will be transitioning this page over to our main page at SDN Children's Services.

We look forward to continuing to connect, engage and share stories with you on how we partner with families to support children to reach their full potential.

📝 What do you need to do?

Follow us at www.facebook/SDNChildrensServices, and join our village of +5K followers. Here, you will continue to enjoy:

⭐ Important updates from across our SDN village

⭐ Uplifting stories showcasing the promotion of children's wellbeing, learning and development in inclusive environments

⭐ A range of valuable parenting tips and resources, including short-videos, recipes, storytime books, and more!

Thank you for following us and being part of our journey here — let’s keep growing and supporting each other on this new adventure! ✨

26/12/2024

As the year wraps up, SDN is proud to share that we've positively impacted 5,235 children and families across our village. 🙌🙌🏻🙌🏾

This is a 9% increase from last year, driven by a growth in the number of children at our centres and by supporting more children and families with additional needs. 😍

We also actively advocate for inclusion in the wider early childhood sector, supporting 363 other service providers through agency programs (such as Start Strong Pathways, and Child & Family Interagency).

As we approach our 120th year, we're excited to continue supporting children and families in inclusive environments. 🌟

22/12/2024

Children can dive into the joys and benefits of making their own Christmas Tree using a range of loose parts. 🎄

This simple, home-based activity can be set up with various craft or reusable items, fostering essential skills such as fine motor development, creativity and mathematical thinking, as well as strengthening their focus and patience. 🤩

Find this activity in full here: https://ow.ly/AWNO50Ut5xk

21/12/2024

Join our Centre Director at SDN Pyrmont, Rachel, as we begin the countdown to Christmas with a special Storytime reading! ✨

‘One Little Reindeer’ by Seb Braun, is a short and simple tale that follows Santa Claus and his reindeer on their journey to deliver gifts. 🦌🎁

Perfect for getting into the Christmas spirit, this counting book also promotes early literacy skills and is recommended for children ages 1-3 years old. 📖

Find more Storytime videos and book recommendations at: www.sdn.org.au/village-of-learning

19/12/2024

We are excited to announce that our newly designed early learning centre, SDN Macquarie Park, will be opening their doors on Monday, 6 January 2025! 🙌

We are proud to welcome this new centre to our village in SDN’s 120th year.

SDN Macquarie Park will provide high-quality education and care for up to 90 children each day. This purpose-built centre has been refurbished with design principles and concepts of inclusion and neurodiversity in mind. Our environment has been designed to create a safe and welcoming space that supports the inclusion of every child. 🧡

We invite you to come explore the centre’s large indoor and outdoor spaces, where children can jump, run, play, yell and make a glorious mess! 🌳

To book a tour and join the waitlist, please visit https://www.sdn.org.au/services/our-centres/sdn-macquarie-park/ or call our Family Engagement Team on 1300 831 445 to discuss enrolment options. 📞

18/12/2024

For our last Therapy Tip Thursday of the month and this year, we wanted to incorporate a fun activity to help develop your child’s fine motor skills. 🙌

Playdough is a great way to work on fine motor skills, as it will help your child learn how to knead, squeeze, and pinch the dough. This will benefit them in developing their writing and drawing skills! 💜

Looking for a recipe on how to make playdough at home? Try ours: https://ow.ly/Pe2U50TPpig

We hope you enjoyed our Therapy Tip Thursdays this month on School Readiness, and we hope your child and family feel ready for a great start to school in the new year!

11/12/2024

For this week's Therapy Tip Thursday, we will be discussing phonology! 🤍

Phonology is how sounds are organised and come together to create words and speech 🗣️

Children are able to develop phonological awareness by the sounds, syllables, and rhymes they hear! 👂

A great way to help your child is by reading books out loud and asking them to repeat the same sound and rhyme in the word 📚

06/12/2024

Today marks the 119th anniversary of SDN Children's Services!

Our legacy began with a vision to create an equitable world where all children thrive and traces back to 1905, when we established our first service, SDN Woolloomooloo, in a terrace house on Dowling Street. 🏡

At SDN, the work we do positively impacts the lives of children, young people, and families. We’re proud of our history and the efforts of everyone who supports our village. This includes the achievements of our founding women and the decades of commitment and expertise from our dedicated staff. 🧡

In honour of this occasion, we've shared seven SDN highlights from across the last century.

We also invite you to join us in continued celebrations, as we enter our 120th year of supporting children's wellbeing, learning and development. Follow us on our journey, as we mark another milestone across our inclusive village. 🎉

Learn more about our rich history: www.sdn.org.au/history

04/12/2024

For the first Therapy Tip Thursday of this month's School Readiness theme, we would like to introduce the importance of pre-writing skills. ✍️

Pre-writing skills are lines and strokes that children need to master before learning the alphabet! This skill will help build the foundation of a child’s handwriting. 🖊️

28/11/2024

Did you know that double the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, compared with non-Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, start school developmentally vulnerable in the areas of social, emotional, language, general knowledge, cognitive and physical development?

We need your help to change this. 🧡

Since 2007, SDN has given scholarships to more than 165 children. By donating, you can profoundly impact Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children’s life-long learning by helping them gain access to the preschool education they deserve. 🏡

These scholarships are funded entirely by donations from private donors, including our own staff giving program. Our aim is to double the amount of donations we raised last year so we can fund even more scholarships. 🤩

Together, let’s give these children the present of a better future. 🎁 Donate today at: www.sdn.org.au/give-the-present-of-a-better-future

27/11/2024

To wrap off this month’s Therapy Tips we want to explain the use of a physical timer with transitions! ⏰

A physical timer will allow a child to manage their time and be aware of when an activity will come to an end.

For example, if you give a child thirty minutes to complete a colouring activity, they will know how much time they have before moving on to something else 🎨🖌️

20/11/2024

It’s Therapy Tip Thursday 💛

This week we would like to share that playing a song can signify transition to a new activity. For example, creating a pack up song or a goodbye song 👋 🛍️

Doing this consistently will help children to anticipate what’s coming next when they hear the music!! 👍

18/11/2024

Congratulations to SDN Beranga Autism Specific Preschool for achieving an 'Exceeding' result for their recent assessment and rating, and for their continued positive impact on the lives of children, families and the wider community. 💚

Amanda, Centre Director, shares, “I am extremely proud of the rating we have achieved as a team at SDN Beranga. The week we received our notice, we had a couple of staff departures who had been with the Preschool for many years. With this, the team had to persevere to fill in knowledge gaps.

I am grateful to my team who arrive as they always do, present and accountable, ready to support children and families in the best way they can every single day. We really worked hard as a team to demonstrate our high-quality practice, and with the help and support from the SDN village, we are thrilled to celebrate this achievement.” 🥳🙌

17/11/2024

As the Summer weather continues to warm up, we'd like to welcome you to SDN’s Sun Safety Series! Over the next three days, we’ll be sharing some important tips and resources on how children can stay safe and protected in the sun 🌞.

At SDN, we recognise the importance of balancing outdoor play and sun safety to children's wellbeing, learning and development—so we're here to help you navigate it! 🔍

In the first part of our series, we’ve shared our top five practical tips for keeping children safe in the sun. Click through the images below to explore sun-safe practices, from wearing protective clothing to applying sunscreen routinely.

Stay tuned tomorrow for part two, where we’ll share more on how our qualified and experienced educational teams implement sun-smart practices across our services. 😎

13/11/2024

Happy Therapy Tip Thursday! 😊

For this week, we wanted to discuss the importance of letting a child know that an activity will come to an end. This will help them prepare for change. 🤍

For example, this could include counting down the last 10 seconds of the activity together. ⏲️ 🔢

12/11/2024

We are excited to announce that our new purpose-built centre, SDN Macquarie Park, is now open for tours. ✅

Get a sneak peek above of our vast spaces which have been recently refurbished, and the centre will also feature a large outdoor learning area for children to run, jump, move, play and make a glorious mess! 🤗

SDN Macquarie Park will offer a safe, high-quality play-based program that explores a diverse curriculum from science to social justice. Additionally, the centre will include a dedicated Autism-Specific Program, specially designed for more intensive and targeted support for autistic children. ✨

Experience our inclusive village for yourself.
Book a tour now at www.sdn.org.au/sdn-macquarie-park OR
www.sdn.org.au/services/our-centres/sdn-macquarie-park-autism-specific-program/

06/11/2024

To start off this month's Therapy Tip Thursday which is themed around 'Supporting children with transitions', we wanted to highlight the value of using to-do lists. 📋

Creating visuals for your child's to-do list can help prepare them for their upcoming tasks.
They may also be rewarded with the satisfaction of ticking tasks off that they completed. ✅😁

30/10/2024

Today we celebrate Diwali or 'Deepavali', a celebration known as the Hindu festival of lights. 🪔

This cultural event holds special meaning for many communities, such as celebrating the victory of light over darkness and the triumph of good over evil. It also marks a time filled with hope and prosperity and is celebrated via a vibrant array of festivities and traditions. 🙌🏽

SDN wishes children, families and staff across our village a very Happy Diwali. 🧡

SDN Children's Therapies