FUNction First Therapy Services

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Townsville, QLD
FUNction First Therapy Services

We are proud to announce that our OT clinic provides Townsville's only private feeding services within our mobile practice.

FUNction First clinicians have a passion for helping children and their families overcome everyday obstacles and challenges, in order to function and engage in the activities most meaningful to them. Based on the principles of SOS, we treat children with issues from picky feeders to problem eaters.

23/09/2025

* Things that cause autism *

✅ Some genetic factors - the rate of autism in siblings of a child with autism increases by about 10-20% compared to neurotypical individuals

✅ We don’t know - autism is a complex condition with no one definitive cause.

❌ Panadol

In my opinion there is NOT an epidemic of autism.

Autism has always existed.

The main difference is that we are better at identifying children earlier ( and adults!) than we were 20 years ago. Believe me, this is a good thing.

I grew up in a very small town. There were no paediatric services, certainly not a paediatrician. I didn’t know anyone who had autism.

Looking back as an adult, I wonder how many kids and families just had to ‘get on with it’ without support. Or worse, were punished when they wouldnt sit, listen or just didn’t fit it, or their brain differences were seen as some type of character flaw that needed to be corrected.

“I didn’t get all this support at school and I turned out fine!”

But don’t we want our kids to have better and do better than just “fine”?

Receiving a diagnosis can be a really difficult and draining experience, but it can also be empowering. No one understands your child like you do and you are their best advocate. No matter where you are on your autism journey, support is available 💙💛

08/09/2025

Life Skills Queensland and Matt offered to make us another amazing toy for the clinic and here it is!!

This Shell service station is amazing and so realistic. You can see the dedication and attention to detail that has gone into the design. We are extremely grateful for this generous gesture 😃

I’ve only had it for a few hours and already we’ve engaged in so much creative, imaginative play. My favourite play scenario from today was when a kid tried to trade their car for the Tesla that I grabbed 🙅‍♀️

02/09/2025

I don’t know who needs to hear this but:

-Melatonin won’t work if your child can’t breathe
-Rewards won’t elicit behaviour change if your child can’t breathe ( I’m not a fan of rewards/ behaviour charts anyway!)
-Punitive measures won’t teach your child anything if they can’t breathe.

Snoring, restless sleep, hyperactivity, daytime sleepiness and bed wetting are all red flags of sleep disordered breathing. Contrary to popular belief, children do not grow out of sleep apnoea.

The symptoms of ADHD are nearly identical to sleep disordered breathing.

If your child is currently being assessed for ADHD, ensure sleep disordered breathing or a paediatric sleep disorder has been ruled out first.

28/08/2025

***Is it picky eating or is it an airway issue?? 3 ways your child's airway and breathing may be contributing to picky eating***

1) Enlarged tonsils can make swallowing some foods really difficult, awkward and painful and as a result, children will often avoid these foods.

2) Enlarged adenoids can 'plug' the nose and dampen the delicious smells and tastes of food. Food can then become a boring, bland task!

3) Tethered oral tissue/tongue tie. In order to develop a mature chewing pattern the tongue needs to move freely and easily to sweep the food onto the molars and create a bolus, then lift to propel the food back to be swallowed. Kids with a tongue tie may experience challenges with textured, chewy food and show a clear preference for soft/puree 'minimal chew' food - ie heavily processed food.

Sometimes picky eating is actually a symptom of something else affecting your child's health and development. An assessment with an experienced feeding therapist can help identify the key issues and develop a tailored plan for you and your child.

19/08/2025

One of the key elements of the NDIS is choice and control for participants. Allowing choice and control in therapy helps people with disabilities to feel empowered, heard and understood and helps them achieve better outcomes.

Some of the ways FUNction demonstrates choice and control are:

- We provide a range of appointment times when able to ( our earliest appointment time is 7.45am!)
- We can deliver therapy in a range of settings- home, clinic, day care, school, community.
- We establish goals based on our experience and knowledge but more importantly, what is relevant and meaningful to our clients and families. We make it clear that the client is control of the goals and this can change as needed.
- We offer a broad choice of games, toys, sensory experiences and therapy mediums- for example cooking, going to the shops, etc.
- We understand that we may not always be the best fit for your child or family or have the skillset that your child needs to thrive. That's ok- we can almost always point you in the direction of someone who might be a better fit.
-

07/08/2025

**4 things you need to know before sleep training your child**

1) There is no such thing as a 'sleep consultant' or 'sleep teacher'. The term is not a protected title in Australia- ie you don't have to complete any type of training or assessment to earn that title, nor do you have to register under a professional board and comply with various standards, training, code of ethics, ongoing professional development etc. There is no one holding you accountable. Essentially, there is nothing stopping an 18 year old high school graduate calling themselves and sleep teacher and giving out advice.

2) Sleep cannot be taught! It's a biological human need. Telling someone they can teach your baby to sleep is like saying they can help teach your kidneys to make urine.

3) The part of the brain needed to self soothe and go from a heightened state to a calm state in order to fall asleep does not finish developing until our early 20's. Babies, toddlers and even older children are not designed to self soothe!

4) Wanting to be close to your baby ( and them wanting to be close to you) is NORMAL and deeply rooted into our DNA. Any program that promotes separation in order to 'help babies self settle' is not in you or your baby's best interest and frankly nonsense from a science and attachment perspective.

21/07/2025

Do you see what I see???

This is the same child, pictures taken just 4 years apart at age 10 and 14 respectively.

His entire facial structure and function has changed.

What happened?

At age 10, this child received a pet hamster for his birthday which was kept in his bedroom and unfortunately developed an allergy to the hair. This caused:

- Inflamed nasal passages causing him to mouth breathe
- Tongue not able to get in the proper resting position ( behind the front teeth)
- The tongue not in the correct position meant this kid's jaws did not develop properly ( the tongue sitting low makes the upper jaw narrow and high as opposed to broader)
- With not a wide enough jaw, crowding of the teeth ( decay etc) can occur. We need the jaw wide enough to fit our teeth!

Over a long enough timeline, mouth breathing and a low resting tongue will change the shape of the face, jaw and also affect teeth placement.

If your child mouth breathes, we need to look at WHY and go from here. Rule out allergies, chronic nasal congestion or enlarged tonsils/adenoids. Sometimes, you might have to see a specialist such as ENT and your child may require myofunctional therapy (retraining the muscles of the face, mouth and tongue)

08/07/2025

A picture tells a thousand words.

Same child. Very different face. The first picture features the child at 10 years of age; the second 2 are at 14 years old.

What happened in those 4 years?

More to come later.

01/07/2025

**Propaganda we're not falling for in 2025!!**

- "Teaching" babies how to sleep 🙄

- Children 'managing their emotions'

- "There was no autism in my day"

- "Your child smiled at me therefore they can't have autism" 🙃

- Picky eaters =poor parenting

- School refusal =poor parenting

- Hitting = behavioural problem and poor parenting

- Forcing kids to share

10/06/2025

There has always been autism 💛

I think one of the reasons why it seems to be “on the rise” is because we are better at identifying it.
This is a good thing! Early intervention has been proven to be effective with helping children to teach their potential.

05/06/2025

I recently completed training in the MIGDAS-2 ( Monteiro Interview Guidelines for diagnosing Autism Spectrum )and will soon be offering this service to families as part of a comprehensive autism assessment.

More to come 💛💙

28/05/2025

**Trigger Warning**

Teach your children the correct names for body parts.

I recently read an article which studied convicted child s*x offenders and factors which stopped them from offending ( after they had groomed a child and intended to offend).

The number one factor reported was that if a child could verbalise and articulate their body parts correctly, this deterred the person from offending as they believed they would have a higher chance of being caught.

Teaching and using the correct name for body parts helps normalise discussing our bodies and their functions without fear or shame. Children can learn about bodily autonomy, consent and that they have the right to say no unwanted contact.

Protecting children is everybody's business 💛💙

Address

Shop 2, 237 Riverside Boulevard, Douglas
Townsville, QLD
4814

Website

http://www.functionfirst.com.au/

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