Therapy Assistance
Therapy Assistance
LaunchPod’s Therapy Assistance service provides children with regular, engaging opportunities to practise and strengthen skills identified by their allied health professionals.
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Our Therapy Assistants use play, everyday activities and your child's interests to make practice meaningful, motivating and relevant to real life.
What is Therapy Assistance?
Therapy Assistance is a practical support service that helps children practise and strengthen functional skills in everyday settings. LaunchPod develops an individualised Therapy Assistance Implementation Plan (TAIP) around each child’s goals and strengths. Where a child has allied health professionals involved in their care, their recommendations are incorporated into the plan.
Therapy Assistants use play, everyday activities and each child’s interests to create regular opportunities to practise skills such as communication, movement, independence and social participation. The aim is to make practice meaningful, motivating and relevant to real life, while helping children build confidence and apply their skills more consistently.
1. Initial Consultation
We begin with an Initial Consultation to learn about your child’s strengths, interests, support needs, everyday routines and goals. We also discuss current therapies, supports and what your family would like Therapy Assistance to focus on.
2. We Gather Information and Recommendations
With your consent, LaunchPod gathers the information needed to plan your child’s Therapy Assistance service. Where allied health professionals are involved, we invite them to provide recommendations that can be incorporated into the program.
3. Therapy Assistance Begins
Therapy Assistance can commence while your child’s individualised plan is being developed. Early sessions focus on building connection, understanding your child and creating engaging opportunities to practise skills through their interests and everyday activities.
4. We Develop the Therapy Assistance Implementation Plan
LaunchPod develops an individualised Therapy Assistance Implementation Plan (TAIP) using information from the Initial Consultation, relevant allied health recommendations and observations from Therapy Assistance sessions. Once developed, the TAIP is reviewed and endorsed within LaunchPod’s Clinical Governance Framework and becomes the plan guiding the ongoing service.
5. We Implement and Monitor the Plan
Your Therapy Assistant uses the TAIP to guide sessions while documenting activities, observations and your child’s responses. LaunchPod monitors implementation and progress and communicates with families and relevant allied health professionals throughout the program.
How it works
6. Regular Review Meetings
Approximately every 12 weeks, LaunchPod conducts a Review Meeting with the family to discuss progress, what is working, any emerging priorities and whether changes are needed. The Review Meeting Summary is documented and the TAIP is updated where required so the program continues to reflect your child’s goals and needs.
Who Is Therapy Assistance For?
Therapy Assistance is designed for children who would benefit from regular opportunities to practise and strengthen functional skills in everyday life.
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It may support areas such as communication, motor skills, emotional regulation, independence, social participation, attention, play and everyday routines. Each child’s program is individualised around their strengths, needs and goals.
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Where allied health professionals are involved in a child’s care, their recommendations are incorporated into the Therapy Assistance program. Where a child does not currently have allied health involvement, LaunchPod will discuss the appropriate pathway with the family.
What Might a Session Look Like?
There isn’t one typical LaunchPod session - because every child is different.
A session might involve building with LEGO, playing Minecraft, cooking, creating something, playing a board game, practising an everyday routine, visiting the park, using technology or taking part in a community activity.
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What looks like fun on the outside can create meaningful opportunities to practise communication, motor skills, independence, regulation and social participation.
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Activities are chosen with purpose and tailored to your child’s strengths, interests and goals. Once developed, the Therapy Assistance Implementation Plan guides the ongoing program and incorporates recommendations from allied health professionals where they are involved in your child’s care.
Clinical Governance at LaunchPod
Structured Oversight
Our Clinical Governance Framework provides clear accountability, defined clinical boundaries and structured oversight of Therapy Assistance. Therapy Assistance Implementation Plans, reviews, staff support and escalation processes all sit within this framework.
Accountable Practice
Our processes support safe, consistent and accountable service delivery. Session documentation, observations, progress, concerns and changes in support needs are monitored, reviewed and escalated through our governance systems when required.
Collaborative Care
Where allied health professionals are involved, we collaborate with them to understand their recommendations and incorporate appropriate strategies into the child’s Therapy Assistance program.
Questions we're often asked
1. Does this replace my child's allied health therapy?
2. How is Therapy Assistance different from support work?
Not at all. Therapy Assistance complements rather than replaces the work of your child’s allied health professionals.
Your child’s therapists remain responsible for assessment, clinical decision-making and therapeutic recommendations. LaunchPod helps put those recommendations into practice through regular, engaging opportunities to build and strengthen skills in everyday life.
While both services may spend time with your child, they have different purposes. Support work generally focuses on daily assistance, independence and community participation.
Therapy Assistance is an individualised service guided by a Therapy Assistance Implementation Plan (TAIP) and delivered within LaunchPod’s Clinical Governance Framework. Sessions are purposefully designed around your child’s goals, strengths and support needs and, where allied health professionals are involved, their recommendations.
3. How do you know what to work on?
4. What does a Therapy Assistant do?
We begin with an Initial Consultation to understand your child’s strengths, interests, routines, support needs and goals.
Where allied health professionals are involved in your child’s care, we invite them to share relevant recommendations and information. Observations from Therapy Assistance sessions may also help inform the development and ongoing review of your child’s TAIP.
Therapy Assistants create engaging opportunities for children to practise and strengthen functional skills through play, everyday activities and their individual interests.
They do not assess, diagnose or make independent clinical decisions. Once developed, your child’s TAIP guides the ongoing Therapy Assistance program and defines what is being supported and how it should be implemented.
5. How do you collaborate with my child's allied health providers?
6. Who develops my child's Therapy Assistance Implementation Plan?
With your consent, we invite your child’s allied health professionals to provide recommendations and relevant information that can inform their Therapy Assistance program.
We welcome updated recommendations at any stage and can share relevant information following Review Meetings. Collaboration is designed to keep Therapy Assistance aligned with your child’s broader supports without requiring their therapists to supervise or manage our Therapy Assistants.
LaunchPod develops your child’s TAIP using information from the Initial Consultation, relevant reports and recommendations, family priorities and observations from Therapy Assistance sessions.
Therapy Assistance can commence while the TAIP is being developed. Once completed, the TAIP is reviewed and endorsed within LaunchPod’s Clinical Governance Framework before becoming the endorsed plan guiding your child’s ongoing Therapy Assistance service.
7. How do you ensure quality and safety?
8. How do you measure progress?
Every Therapy Assistance program is delivered within LaunchPod’s Clinical Governance Framework.
Quality and safety are supported through structured documentation, endorsed TAIPs, ongoing training and support for Therapy Assistants, regular program reviews and clear processes for collaboration, escalation and continuous improvement.
Progress is monitored through structured session documentation, Therapy Assistant observations, feedback from families and Review Meetings approximately every 10–12 weeks.
The TAIP is updated when required, and LaunchPod can also prepare professional progress reports that may be shared with families and allied health providers and, where appropriate, used to support NDIS plan reviews.
9. Will my child's therapists have to supervise the Therapy Assistant?
10. Can my child still participate if they do not enjoy technology?
No. LaunchPod is responsible for employing, training and supporting Therapy Assistants, maintaining the TAIP, monitoring progress and governing the Therapy Assistance service.
Your child’s allied health providers remain responsible for their own assessment, clinical decision-making and therapeutic recommendations. We value their collaboration, but there is no expectation that they supervise or manage our Therapy Assistants.
Absolutely. Technology is simply one of the many tools we may use to engage children.
Sessions might include LEGO®, board games, arts and crafts, imaginative play, movement, cooking, outdoor activities, sensory play, everyday routines or community activities. We choose activities around what motivates and interests your child.
11. Can my child access Therapy Assistance if they do not currently have an allied health professional?
12. Are you an Allied Health provider?
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Yes. Having a current allied health provider is not automatically a requirement for accessing Therapy Assistance.
During the Initial Consultation, we will discuss your child’s needs, goals and current supports and determine the most appropriate pathway. Where additional clinical input would be beneficial, this may include consultation or assessment with one of LaunchPod’s Occupational Therapists to help inform the Therapy Assistance program.
Visit our dedicated Allied Health Providers page to learn more about LaunchPod’s Therapy Assistance model, Clinical Governance Framework, collaboration process and how to provide recommendations for a child’s program.