A five day program for children aged 2 to 5 with autism associated learning difficulties and developmental challenges, running from the same Sinagra site as our long day care centre.
Your child will have time with therapists, time in a small group, and time alongside peers in the mainstream centre. Not in a separate building. Not somewhere else.
The Criss Cross Program is for children aged 2 to 5 with autism associated learning difficulties and developmental challenges.
Mini Bambini to confirm. Until then nothing can be written here, because getting this wrong would tell a family they are welcome when they are not, or the reverse.
An integrated curriculum that runs five days a week, inspired by the Group Early Start Denver Model. It uses a group setting to build social communication, alongside individual therapy.
Sessions with occupational therapists and behavioural experts.
Therapy happens here, so families are not driving between appointments across the week.
Behavioural specialists, therapists and educators build a personalised plan for your child, tracked through observation, assessment and progress reports.
What the program works on: attention span, self control, language and communication, social skills, play, and school readiness.
This is the question behind the question. Parents want to know whether "inclusive" means their child will genuinely be with other children, or kept in a separate room while the website says otherwise.
Children in the Criss Cross Program spend time with neurotypical peers from the mainstream centre, building friendships and seeing social behaviour modelled by other children. The goal is integration into the mainstream centre where that is right for the child, and a successful transition to school.
The current site states that integration happens but never says how. To answer the real question this page needs: when in the week it happens, for how long, which room or rooms, how it is supported by staff, and how the decision is made that a child is ready for more. Mini Bambini to supply.
The word NDIS does not appear anywhere on the current Mini Bambini website. Not once. The site's own FAQ asks "What are my funding options?" and the answer is absent from the page.
Needed from Mini Bambini before this page can go live:
A photo walk through of arriving, so you can look at it with your child before they come. Nothing on it is a surprise. You can also download it to keep on your phone.
None of the ten Australian centres reviewed in Phase 2 has anything like this, so it is a genuine point of difference. It needs six real photographs of the actual arrival route, taken in order, plus permission for any educator who appears. It should also be downloadable as a PDF.
An honest description of the sensory environment, including the parts that are loud. Being straight about the difficult parts is what makes the rest worth believing.
To be written with Mini Bambini, on site. It should cover: the noisiest part of the day and when it happens, lighting and whether it can be dimmed, flooring and how sound carries, where the quiet space is and who can use it, what happens at pick up when the room is busiest, and outdoor space and shade.
The current site refers to "occupational therapists and behavioural experts" generically. No therapist is named, no qualification or registration body is given, and it is not stated whether they are employed by Mini Bambini, contracted, or visiting.
Needed: names or at least roles, qualifications and registrations, employment arrangement, and the educator to child ratio in the early intervention rooms. On ratios, only one of the ten centres reviewed in Phase 2 publishes one at all, so publishing yours would stand out.
A quiet tour runs outside our busiest times, at a slower pace, with fewer people around. Ask for one directly. You do not need to explain why, and it is not a favour.
