Frequently Asked Questions

We are a mobile Occupational Therapy service delivering neurodiversity-affirming, early intervention supports to autistic and neurodivergent children and their families in Perth’s Northern Suburbs. As we are an early intervention provider we can only accept children up until the age of 9 years old. Please refer to our services page for more information.

An Initial Family Meeting usually takes between 1-2 hours. Prior to the Initial Family Meeting, our team will send you intake forms to help us gather information about your child’s needs and family’s priorities for Occupational Therapy services. To help us with our information gathering, you will be encouraged to share any existing reports from other health professionals including diagnostic reports, school and/or childcare reports.

Your child does not require a formal diagnosis to access our services. Contact us and we will send you an application form. Just complete the application form giving as much detail as possible about your child’s abilities and support requirements.

You can contact us by phone, email or by submitting an enquiry here

At Divergent Therapy, our sessions follow a 90-minute model. This includes 60 minutes of direct therapy with your child and family plus 30 minutes of Individualised Therapeutic Service (ITS) time, which takes place outside the session and includes the important clinical work that supports your child’s therapy outcomes.

As your child's first and most important teacher it is essential that you're an active participant in all aspects of therapy! The primary focus of early intervention therapy services is capacity-building! Divergent Therapy aims to build upon parents' and caregivers' knowledge, skills, and ability to support their child’s learning and development by embedding strategies into existing daily activities and routines.

Early intervention recognises that children don't learn best through direct instruction, drilling, or therapy exercises with a clinician in a clinical environment. Instead, research supports the idea that learning for the caregiver happens during the home visit through capacity-building/ transferring skills and knowledge between clinician and caregiver, and learning for the child happens between home visits during meaningful interactions with their most trusted adults during naturally occurring routines and activities.

Parents are the experts on their kids! Given that children develop and learn in the context of their parents/family, caregivers play the most essential role in the therapeutic process. Evidence demonstrates the link between caregiver engagement and positive developmental outcomes for the child and lasting gains for the family.

Divergent therapy accepts self-referrals and can provide services to families with self-managed or plan-managed NDIS Plans, children with Chronic Disease Management Plans and families paying privately. Unfortunately, we cannot provide services to families with Agency-managed NDIS Plans.