Child Development Institute - Northmead, New South Wales

Carolina Castillo

My son, who has ASD L3 and is non-verbal, has been receiving intensive therapy at CDI for almost a year and a half now. The progress my son has made while attending CDI has been very noticeable and encouraging from the very beginning in terms of awareness, ability to communicate intentionally with gestures, ability to tolerate changes and adapt to routines, as well as to interact socially with adults and peers.

My son is now receiving PECS therapy at CDI and in only 3 weeks, my son is now able to discriminate the visual images on the cards to pick the appropriate one to request what he wants. This is huge for my son as he had been doing PECS while in speech therapy and it never worked for him before. Another great development is that my son didn’t tolerate being around other children before CDI and now he’s happy to do parallel play and participate in group routines. These are great developments that will make my son’s transition into kindy next January 2022 much easier for him.

CDI works with the ESDM (Early Start Denver Model) method which has been great for my son as it follows and nurtures the interest of the child to maximise his potential for learning. For example, my son is a sensory seeker and nurturing his interest in sensory driven activities has been key in improving his attention span and engagement in therapy. I highly recommend the services provided by CDI to any parents with children in the autism spectrum.

Trang

My level 3 ASD/ADHD son has been attending CDI since last May. Prior to attending CDI Northmead we have tried many different types of therapy (speech, occupation, behaviour) and most has been unsuccessful or the progress has been very slow, however we have seen significant improvements in his behaviour since attending the centre. The centre’s program is tailored to his unique needs and his therapists have been nothing short of amazing. They have shown him so much patience and willing to work with him despite at times his condition preventing him from fully participating in activities. His therapist are always willing to discuss issues and provide useful tips in helping parents navigate the scary journey of raising an ASD child. I would highly recommend CDI to any parent with a newly diagnosed ASD child.

Samantha Macsok

Since enrolling my non verbal ASD son at the Child Development Institute it has proven to be one of the best decisions we have made for my son's development. The ESDM therapy they provide has been exactly what my son has needed and is tailored to meet the needs of your child. My son has made so much improvement since starting and I wish I started him sooner! My son loves attending and gets excited when he sees his school bag! I highly recommend CDI m, the Team of therapists really care and want to make a difference in both you and your child's life!

Von Le

The Child Development Institute has been amazing in helping our child with autism. Since attending CDI, he has shown greater improvements in communication. We have seen more engagement, greater eye contact and looking when we talk to him, he is starting to babble more and being more vocal in trying to express himself. He has even shown greater engagement at the daycare he attends. He has more social skills by playing and try to communicate more with his peers at the daycare.

Jack Smith

Being the parent of a toddler who receives a diagnosis of autism is quite a confronting, confusing and, at times, daunting experience. We we’re originally suggested CDI by our pediatrician, and given it was not far from where we lived, we decided to send our son for an initial assessment and eventually enrolled him several the services offered. Over the next two years, our son achieved the much-needed developmental milestones required to provide him both self-independence and confidence whilst associating with others.

The team at CDI created a safe space for our son to blossom, from when he started till now, he has matured to a point where he looked forward to attending, and before long was happy to bid us farewell at the door and immerse himself in the environment setup at their Northmead clinic, especially their Inclusion Readiness Program.

My wife undertook a level of parent coaching to help us really drive home the ESDM approach. We would highly recommend this for any parents who find themselves in a similar situation. It helped us better communicate with our son, and in turn helped us teach our wider family how they should approach situations to fully engage with him. Their mainstream support continues to be of great benefit to us, affording our son the proper experience of life at daycare and helps train the educators there to assist him throughout the course of his supervised stay.

Their management team was always approachable and understanding, at times where we were feeling concerned about scheduling or staffing, they always communicated ahead of time to ensure our concerns were put at ease – this was no easy feat, given the COVID-19 pandemic presented a multitude of problems for everyone worldwide, however looking back they managed to navigate this difficult time with an extra layer of diligence and ensured safety protocols for all the families enrolled in their service.

We would most definitely recommend CDI as an early intervention approach to assisting those with ASD or developmental delays, we’ve built a very friendly rapport with much of the team past and present and we wish them, and any families utilising the service, every success in the future.

Renee iori

I can’t even begin to tell you how much our son has achieved in his journey since being with the CDI. The amazingly qualified teachers ensure our son reaches his term targets, we receive weekly reports on every activity he has done, communication is fantastic and we feel safe leaving him in their care.
I highly recommend the CDI for any family wanting to help give their child the best head start.

Niki Dirnberger

I have nothing but good, amazing things to say about CDI. Both in terms of my own experience, in giving me the support and advice to help me understand my daughter's needs, and the reasons behind some of her behaviours, as well as helping Ava to thrive in her own right. The ESDM model suits her needs more than I could ever have imagined, and all the therapists take such joy in her achievements and really champion her, to the point where, within just three weeks of starting, her confidence has grown incredibly. I'm in awe of what they do.

Peter Daniels

The centre made my non-verbal son talk and be able to start in a Mainstream school. I didn’t think my son would be able to have a normal life and be a normal child but with the help of the CDI and the therapists at the CDI they have been amazing and made my son talk.

The centre is out of my way and I really need all day to take my son to and from the centre but it has all been worth it as my son is now saying teach me daddy and I love you daddy. I didn’t know at times if I would have a roof over my head but it was good that my son was able to start talking and start attending a maintenance school.

It has been over four years that my eldest son Started at the CDI. Starting my eldest son early at the CDI made the world of difference for my eldest son

When my youngest son was diagnosed with the same condition as my eldest son. It was a no brainer where I would take him.

This was so hard at this point that it took me about a year in phone calls to the CDI, cause I was in a really bad way and I just didn’t know how I would be able to take my youngest son to the CDI as it was difficult logistically.and I would need a lot of help.

One of eldest son therapy providers had given me a document on the back where all these names to call for help.

I called the first name on the list Wellways. Wellways provided free transportation to the CDI. This was a godsend as I had a condition which made it impossible to drive and I had to be on the road all day driving my eldest and youngest sons as well as mum and wife as I was the only one that could drive at the time and my wife was studying at the time and I had to drop her off and pick her up which was impossible and I don’t know how I made it during all this time.

I had held an administration role in a previous life. The receptionist that where working at the CDI before where absolutely brilliant as I could trust them and I had to literally call the CDI every day at one point before and the two receptionists where always there helping me and nothing was ever difficult.

I ended up breaking down as I couldn’t cope with everything that was going on and both receptionists where there to consul and reassure me that everything will be alright. Lizzy ended up leaving but before she left she gave me here new employment details.

With COVID and some difficulties that I had with a couple of other therapy providers and a couple of incidents I was unable to utilise my eldest sons plan and my youngest son Plan was severely affected by COVID and my youngest son is non verbal.

I just hope that the CDI is able to perform the same miracles that the CDI was able to achieve for my eldest son Dimitri as he was also non verbal.