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Event details

Wednesday, January 7, to Friday, January 23, 2026.

Event description

During the upcoming school holiday period, Vision Australia is offering its individual intensives program across Victoria, designed to provide children and young people with the chance to focus on specific developmental areas outside of a school environment.

This program is ideal for children and young people needing extra support to develop verbal and nonverbal communication skills, social confidence, confidence in self-care activities, gross motor and fine motor skills, and self-advocacy, as well as school leavers preparing for independent living, further education, and employment. The structured intensive model ensures maximum impact for skill attainment and long-term success.

Each session is tailored to the individual, allowing your child to consolidate some of the skills they’ve learnt during the school term or learn new skills. The specialists available to your child include orthoptists, physiotherapist, speech pathologists, counsellor, early childhood specialist teachers and occupational therapists.

Our programs are NDIS-funded under ‘Capacity Building’, and those who are not NDIS participants can self-fund.

Program locations

Over this summer period, our individual intensives will be available to clients in the following regions:

  • Melbourne
  • Geelong
  • Ballarat  
  • Bendigo

If you do not see your region available here, you can still access the program via telehealth.

Funding options

Our programs are NDIS-funded under ‘Capacity Building’, and those who are not NDIS participants can self-fund.

If you have any questions, please contact our children and young people's team via PaediatricVIC@visionaustralia.org.

Reserve your place

To reserve a place for your child in our summer individual intensives program, please submit your details via this form.

Register your child

Available disciplines

Vision Australia is offering individual intensives in the following disciplines (note: not every discipline is available in every region).

 

This physiotherapy-led intensive program is designed for children and young people who are blind or have low vision to explore and engage in sports or recreational activities that match their interests and strengths. It’s perfect for students during school holidays, and for school leavers building their lifestyle as a young adult.

The physiotherapist will work one-on-one with each participant to:

  • identify a sport or activity they are interested in and assess their capacity or innate talent
  • develop core skills and a deep understanding of the sport, including techniques, rules and strategies
  • build physical confidence through strength, balance, endurance and fitness training
  • prepare them for community participation by linking them to local clubs, teams or programs
  • support their coaches and teammates, providing guidance to ensure an inclusive and successful sporting experience.

Sports may include goalball, blind tennis, blind cricket, soccer/blind football, swimming and more.

This program empowers young people to develop competence, confidence, and a lifelong connection to sport and active recreation. 

Our individual intensive speech pathology programs are designed to support children, teenagers and young adults who are blind or have low vision in developing communication, social interaction and language skills. Sessions are tailored to each participant’s needs and provide focused, high-repetition practice to build speech clarity, expressive and receptive language skills, and confidence in communication across different environments.

This program integrates key areas of the expanded core curriculum (ECC) to promote independence and participation:

  • Compensatory access skills: Developing alternative communication methods such as tactile symbols, braille and auditory strategies.
  • Sensory efficiency: Using residual vision, hearing, tactile feedback and adaptive technology to enhance communication.
  • Independent living skills: Improving communication skills for daily routines, self-advocacy and accessing the community.
  • Social interaction skills: Enhancing conversational skills, turn-taking and self-expression in social settings.
  • Self-determination: Building confidence in using expressive language to make choices and advocate for personal needs. 

Our individual intensive occupational therapy programs are designed to support children, teenagers and young adults who are blind or have low vision in developing fine motor skills, daily living skills, adaptive strategies and environmental navigation. Sessions are tailored to each participant’s needs and provide focused, high-repetition practice to build independence in self-care, school tasks and functional participation in daily routines.

This program integrates key areas of the expanded core curriculum (ECC) to promote independence and participation:

  • Compensatory access skills: Using adaptive strategies, tools and technology to perform daily tasks independently.
  • Sensory efficiency: Sensory regulation, enhancing touch, proprioception and auditory skills for fine motor and functional activities.
  • Independent living skills: Developing self-care routines such as dressing, grooming, cooking and home management.
  • Social interaction skills: Encouraging confidence in engaging with peers, teamwork and participation in group activities.
  • Recreation and leisure skills: Supporting engagement in hobbies, creative activities and community participation.
  • Self-determination: Setting personal goals for independence and developing self-advocacy in daily life. 

Our individual intensive sessions with an orthoptist are designed to help young children, teenagers and young adults with low vision to make use of their residual vision for functional activities. This may include:

  • low vision aid / assistive technology training
  • embedding low vision strategies into your child’s everyday recreation and leisure activities
  • cerebral Vision Impairment program, which is individualised to your child’s abilities to promote consistent visual behaviours within your child’s everyday routine. 

This intensive program can:

  • support your child’s smooth transition to school
  • provide intensive early literacy support, including early braille literacy and access to learning for children with low vision or blindness
  • support active play to build on your child’s play and exploration and work with you to create optimal learning environments
  • extend your child’s play and social skills to support small group and large group participation.

These programs can provide psychoeducation on anxiety, practice in the use of calming techniques, emotional support and build on the young person / parent capacity to advocate for the young person’s needs.

Intensive counselling can provide opportunities to practice self-regulatory skills to decrease emotional responses and explore tactile ways to recognise objects. This may include the use of activities that enhance the child's tactile perception, such as exploring various textures through games and hands-on activities.

A counsellor can work with the young person on career exploration, interest-based activities and counselling to address anxiety about the future.

Plus, these programs offer social skills training in age appropriate and engaging activities based on the young person's interests, as well as family therapy, which can help families to improve understanding and communication and strengthen relationships.