To the posters asking about cleft/dyslexia. We have son with cleft (very mild repaired at 8 months, mild as in private dentists/doctors have not even picked it up), no facial disfiguration at all, will have dental problems tho.

Dyslexia, search on the subject, much will come up, funding is seriously short, you wont get one to one let alone 10 hours! we got a few hours of help with a learing difficulties teacher (total 27 sessions in 5 years) in a group of kids tho but was main help is parent volunteers HOwever - as someone said school is a no pressure zone here, relaxed to the point of horizontal at times, depending if the parents can relax about that type of education it can be very good for non academic kids.

Cleft, please dont mind if I tell you as it is - funding OK brisbane hospital sees kids from Cairns to Tamworth NSW and outback as far as you can go. The specialists are so heavily booked, but supported by students from the unversity of QLD, son had some cleft dentistry and was done by a young student who was FAB. We have his normal dentistry done private because the chug to brisbane is a nighmare. Last trip with traffic and wait was 9 hours but you shut up and put up many people have come down from 17 hours away. Similar system in Victoria havent experienced other states but hear its the same.

Probably best to realise now, you pay for all the specialists things for kids in OZ, unless you can get them throught the hospital. With one hospital in the whole state doing this work you can imagine the workload they have, but they are good, for many things your GP may well tell you quite bluntly - go private, the wait is too long.

Speech therapy, this is easier to access private. Throught the hospital we were only given a kit- log in and read the sounds, no instruction just read it with your kid. Luckily we dont really need speech therapy but had a few sessions private and the cost after our private insurance was only about $25 per session. Hearing tests $90, specialist first visit $300, get back about $80from medicare.

Wow, guess I hadnt thought about the cost side of things! As my son is only 2 he will still need extensive dental treatment which will be a very on going thing and could possibly need further facial surgery.
Think he will definitely need speech therapy as he is still not saying much, although knows everything and how to get it! lol

There is still lots to think about...its a big decision for everyone but when you have a child who needs that little bit extra, it is very scary!

Can you take a private insurance that will cover most of the cost of these treatments and is it that very expensive...

We have private healthcover, its paid back a large chunk of our families dental bills and smaller amounts towards speech and of course other stuff other family members have used. You really need to study what fund you sign up to, they vary, generally the lower the premium the less they pay ours is currently about $2700 per year with medibank private.

With the cleft surgery, the surgeons, often students, are at the brissy hospital but they are soooo heavily booked, but thats covered by medicare, but as I said they see patients from the entire state plus Northern NSW etc. We were down last week for 9 hours all up, but one specialist was too heavily booked we didnt get to see him, they have called us back this thursday on a cancellation. The constant time off school (and work = no pay!) worries me most but you have to take what you can get. They actually wanted him to have hearing tests as part of the check up, had appointment but equipment was not free, so sometimes its just easier to get it done private, thats next week been quoted $90 so not too bad.

If you want any stuff in more detail you can PM me.

Reading your thread with interest. My sister applied to come to Oz. She has a child with Development Delay. Sydney refused their application because of the DD. My sister has appealed and it's now on 'Deferred Decision'..whatever that means. I believe they are waiting for the next assessment which is due in August. It's annoying because my niece is doing great now. She only requires about 1-2 hours a day of one on one tutoring now. Her improvement has been marvellous of late. It's a shame that Sydney can't see that. Good luck to all you who are waiting for decisions.

Hi

Thanks for all info, think I need time to digest it all! I knew that healthcare would need to be paid for, but thought that this would provide access to a better standard of care
from the sounds of things it seems worse than what we have here. I have not been able to fault the standard of care we have received from our cleft team(nurse's,surgeons,dentists etc) we have easy access to them all and of course here their free! we have had lots of support from them, and my son would be under their care until hes in his twenties.
Im not sure that I would be happy with having to make do

Thanks again. need to decide if what I hope would be a better life for us all, is going to be at the cost of my youngest...

I've been away for a bit and am just catching up with old threads.

I have a child with Asperger's Syndrome a mild form of austism. She is in a learning support centre attached to a local primary school and doing extremely well academically, however, her social skills do let her down somewhat.

We were advised to contact Dr Martha Baz, who works out of Sydney and is totally independant of any migration agents and she gives her opinion as to whether it is worth your while applying. Her email address is [email protected] or [email protected]

We are currently awaiting her reply. I did post a thread with children with learning difficulties at the start of June and got lots of support and advice.

Good luck for the future,


Lynne

wife of Crocodileseamus

I AM A SPECIAL NEEDS COORDINATOR IN NSW. FUNDING COMES FROM THE COMMONWEALTH AND IS CATEGORISED. IQ IS A FUNDAMENTAL PART OF FUNDING. I WORK IN THE CATHOLIC SECTOR. IQ LESS THAN 75 - YOU ATTRACT FUNDING FROM THE COMMONWEALTH. THERE IS TALK IN MY CURRENT SYSTEM OF GETTING RID OF LANGUAGE/COMMUNICATION CATEGORY FOR FUNDING. SORRY RUSHING THIS BECAUSE I NEED TO GET ON WITH MY WORK - APPLYING FOR FUNDING! MENTAL HEALTH IS ANOTHER CATEGORY - OPPOSITIONAL DEFIANCE DISORDER SITS IN THIS ONE. PHYSICAL/HEARING AND VISION - ALL FUNDABLE. THE INABILITY TO COMMUNICATE IS A GREY AREA AND SITS OUTSIDE OF THE FUNDING CATEGORIES. IT IS LOOKED ON BY THE SPECIAL ED DEPARTMENT OF THE DIOCESE ON A CASE BY CASE BASIS. AIUTISM/ASPERGERS IS ANOTHER CATEGORY. ONE TO ONE HELP IS NOT USUAL WITHIN A SECONDARY ENVIRONMENT UNLESS THE STUDENT CANNOT KEEP THEMSELF SAFE.
THIS IS A VERY QUICK RESPONSE AND OF COURSE A VERY COMPLEX MATTER BUT HOPE IT HELPS. APOLOGIES FOR ERRORS, NO TIME TO PROOF READ.
TARA

Hi

I have also been in touch with Dr Baz who did reply to us, but still couldnt really give us a definitive answer, she does offer her services in putting together all the relevant medical info and then will tell you what she thinks your chances are before you go to the panel doctors(for a charge of course)

I have been told she is very good but I havent decided whether to take up her offer as yet..please can you let me know if you have or are going to do so?

Thanks Julie

Just to share with you all, we got our Visas today!

Our son has mild cerebral palsy and has also been diagnosed with mild austism (Asperger's type). Although it has been tough and, at times, very hard thinking we were wasting our time with the whole idea of a new life in Australia, we got there in the end!!!

Fantastic, congratulations, I truly believe that education offers more here to kids with special needs. Good luck and PM if you need any help with school applications. I might be able to help.
Tara

Just to let you know, my son is hearing impaired and when we had our medicals, i told the doctor and he noted down that he wears a hearing aid etc., and he said it was no problem - because they do the test where they stand behind you talking quietly and he didn't hear him at all.

We had no problems getting our 136 visa and my son has even had two masdoitectomy operations since arriving three yrs ago, all on the public system.

He also has had more help than any of the schools in England offered, even when i pushed and pushed for more help. Over here, it was put in place before he started high school.


Just bear in mind, all speech therapy/consultants are expensive and i would get private medical insurance to cover the costs.

Melanie

Have you tried Australian Hearing ? I use them for my son and I have never had to pay for Hearing tests. They have branches all over the place and are very good and i also pay 25. bucks a year towards his hearing aid costs (repairs/batteries etc) but that is all.

Melanie

I have been very surprised as to how they deal with children at school here with learning difficulties. It is all for the good I have to add! My daughter was having problems when we first got here and after one conversation with her teacher she was given one to one help or taken into a small group i.e. one specialist teacher to about 3 or 4 kids with similar problems.

Each school seems to have it's own special department that deals with special needs and for example the school my girls attend fitted the school out with new equipment purely due to a young lad starting with hearing problems - this meant speakers, microphones etc so that hearing the teacher would be easier.

At the high school where I work there are plenty of children with various learning difficulties to physical disabilities and they are all integrated into the school very well. This may be done by means of a teacher aide attending every class with the student or at least the core subjects or by the other students being very understanding and in my opinion a great help to all the students with any problems.

My daughter was seeing a speech and language therapist in the UK and here we have found there has been now need as her language and any problems have been dealt with swifty and smoothly. We have been offered other types of help from extra tutoring for her which would of been at a cost but to me quite minimal.

Hi all,

Have just been catching up with the threads on here and at last there are some with a positive response.

I was beginning to think that the health care in Australia was very behind the uk. It's great to hear from family's that have children with different needs and that they feel they are being adequately met.

I dont mind paying for private health care as long as I am receiving a better standard and service than if i didnt pay for it.

Thankyou aswell for the posts that show that schools over there do offer extra help for its students as a lot of the posts I have read give the impression that the schools are really laid back about education (which is not a bad thing, less pressure etc) but I also would like to know that should my children need extra help at some point that I wont have to worry about them getting it.

My hope's and dreams for what life in Oz would be like are starting to be restored, I would like to thankyou for that.

Julie

Hi,

Just wanted to let you know our son who is 7 years old has Aspergers Syndrome. When he had his medical it came to light that he needed glasses aswell. Even with both of these nothing came back and WE GOT OUR VISAS. So just to let you all know there is hope. (By the way we are now into our second week in Victoria and my son loves it!)

Good luck everyone, I'm sure it will be fine.