Your child doesn’t need a diagnosis to get help
If you have a child younger than 6, and are concerned about their development, talking to a professional who knows your child best, is a good place to start.
This could be your child’s doctor, early childhood educator or child health nurse.
Concerns about your child’s development may include how they:
- Play and move around
- Do things to take care of themselves
- Socialise with other children
- Communicate what they want
Compared with other children their age.
If your child’s health or education professional agrees there are developmental concerns, our early childhood partners can help connect you to the right supports.
Children younger than 6 do not need a diagnosis from a medical professional to access support through our early childhood approach.
Connect with your local early childhood partner
Our early childhood partners are professionals working with children younger than 6 with developmental delay and younger than 9 with disability and their families.
Early childhood partners will work with you to understand your child’s needs and connect you to the supports and services that best meet your child’s needs. These supports and services are called early connections.
Find your local early childhood partner.
Raising Children Network provides up to date information about raising children and caring for yourself as a parent or carer.
Resources for families and carers
For further information download the Help for your child younger than 9 factsheet:
- Help for your child younger than 9 (DOCX 401KB)
- Help for your child younger than 9 (PDF 103KB)
- Easy Read (text only) - help for your child younger than 9 (DOCX 67KB)
- Easy Read - Help for your child younger than 9 (PDF 3MB)
View these resources in other languages.