Having worked with Sally….
Courtney, parent
'We are forever thankful that our paths crossed with Ms Sally Anderson. We met Sally at a ‘Stay Play Learn’ Program - 3 year old kindy program back in May 2021 run by NT Education. Our boy settled into Sally's class very quickly and picked up on the rules and expectations of attending. Sally worked very hard in teaching him (and his classmates) tools and resources to navigate life at such a young age. This has now extended from the classroom into our home, then onto pre-school and day-care. Some of the tools and resources are as follows; 'Safe Hands', flash cards, 'Now and Next' - this is a huge one for us (very successful with our boy), emotions cards, verbal communication, terminology for parents to use, tips and hints to use at home and more. We had no idea our son was struggling with self-regulation and ability to express himself till we crossed paths with Sally and we are grateful we did as he is now getting the support he needs. There was always excitement to go to Stay Play Learn to play with friends and see Sally-never a doubt about it. We are currently applying for NDIS and will be contacting Sally to commence services with her as we noticed a huge difference in our boy since he stopped seeing her a few days a week at school. We cannot recommend Sally enough. She has been around for some time and seen many children and students over the years. She can seem a little zany at times, but she knows exactly what she is talking about. As a successful engagement tool, Sally cleverly weaves music into her program which the children clearly love. We see Sally as a wealth of knowledge when it comes to our son and everything we have learnt from her has proven to be useful in a vast variety of environments and situations. Sally has the children’s best interest at heart and that is exactly what every child needs. If you think Sally would be helpful for your child/ren in even the slightest way, it’s definitely worth getting in touch with her.”
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Amanda Docksey, Director, Families as First Teachers Program, Early Years and Education Services, Department of Education, NT Government
“I worked with Sally when she delivered the Families as First Teachers – Stay Play Learn program at a School based in Alice Springs. I was drawn to Sally’s engaging and joyful manner and impressed with how she combined her love of music, and interest and knowledge of neurodiversity to cater for the needs of children participating in her program. Sally presented a session at the 2021 Families as First Teachers Conference: Together. Thriving. on ‘Practical Strategies for working with neuro diverse children’. Her obvious passion for sharing her knowledge shone through and was reflected in the very positive feedback.”
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Parent, Mima
“Sally has worked with Marley for nearly 2 years and meets with him once a week for music lessons. Marley has got to the point of performing. Marley is connected strongly to his music and is successful on so many levels.
Thank you Sally. Marley used to be quiet kid shy away from people didn't talk much but now looking at him up there with you is such a joy he has come a long way ever since Marley met Sally he is communicating more because of his music too and From my Family thank you again Sally.”
Go to link below to view some of Marley’s work:
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Lana Dubrowsky-Ryan
Principal Coach, Dept. of Education, Sth. Aust.
“Sally is highly skilled in building capacity in both neuro-typical and neuro-atypical children. Through a musical and therapeutic approach, Sally is able to inspire children to believe in themselves as successful learners. Her long-time commitment to inclusivity for all children with learning differences is evident in her current work as an NDIS provider and as a Teacher, Leader and Advisor. Her success in engaging children and increasing capacity in social participation and communication through song and movement, has been impressive. On a different note, Sally’s successes extend into Professional Learning for Educators. In collaboration with leaders, Sally is able to design tailor-made Professional Learning Programs to upskill, support and inspire Educators to build their capacity and capability when working with neuro-diverse children.”
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Ramona, Acting Director of Childcare Centre
'“I had the opportunity to organise an Innovative Support Project with Miss Sally and it has been a great experience right from the beginning. Although, it took a while to get government funding it was absolutely worth it.
Miss Sally was very cooperative, willing to accommodate her program to our centre 's needs, visited us for observations and interacted with our children and families.
When our parents learnt that she was going to come and run this project at our centre, some of them had already heard about her and got super excited for her sessions. We ran both parent and educator sessions, where we all learnt about techniques and the psychology about positive guidance for behavioural problems in the early years of children. Since then, I've been using these strategies myself and even introduced to my staff with great success.
I can highly recommend her program as it's not only beneficial for the centre, parents, children and educators but for the community as a whole.”
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Catherine Clucas
Inclusion Professional, Early Childhood Australia, NT Branch
Recently, Sally won a contract to work with Educators at a local Childcare facility as part of the Federal Govts initiative, Innovative Solutions Support. Early Childhood Australia were very pleased with the work Sally did at the Centre and the excellent outcomes achieved in professional learning for educators in the area of Neuro-diversity.
Sally Anderson, a certified NDIS Early Childhood Interventionist Practitioner local to Alice Springs, has extensive knowledge of working with children with additional needs, especially ASD, has both practical experience in the field as well as having completed extensive research on the topic. She was utilised in a mentoring/role modelling capacity with the aim of building the educators knowledge, skills and confidence in understanding children’s different learning styles, understanding and managing behaviours of neuro-diverse children in an inclusive social environment, how to use different ways of teaching with a focus on each child’s strengths and how to create an inclusive play-based program incorporating the 5 stages of play. Sally also guided and assisted in helping to continue to build positive and productive relationships within the parent/carer community.
I would recommend Sally Anderson to any organisation wanting to broaden their community’s knowledge and understanding of neuro-diversity and how it can be applied to child centered settings. This understanding of neuro-diversity successfully reached the parent community and contributed to the development of a successful parent/educator partnership for the future.