The NDIS early childhood approach: what happens after you reach out

By The Jay Way team

Published 24 October 2026 · Checked against official sources 24 October 2026

After you reach out about your child’s development, an NDIS early childhood partner contacts you to talk about your child and what’s worrying you. They may observe your child, look at reports and use screening tools. They then work with you on what comes next, as at 24 October 2026. That could be connections to local services, a short period of early supports, or help to apply to the NDIS.

The short version: the early childhood approach is how the NDIS supports children younger than 9 who have delays in their development or a disability. Your child doesn’t need a diagnosis for an early childhood partner to help, and doesn’t need to be eligible for the NDIS to get early connections. If your child is younger than 6 with developmental concerns, they may be offered early supports, usually for 3 to 6 months. The National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) decides who is eligible for the NDIS. Your partner can’t make that decision, but can help you apply.

Who is the early childhood approach for?

The NDIS says the early childhood approach is for children younger than 9 with delays in their development or disability. In the NDIS’s words, it helps children younger than 6 with developmental delay, or children younger than 9 with disability, and their families, to get the right support when they need it.

It aims to help young children:

build their skills and capabilities
take part in daily activities
be included in their community.

It focuses on everyday places: home, childcare, playgroup, preschool and other places where your child plays with family or friends.

What is an early childhood partner?

Early childhood partners are local organisations the NDIS funds. They have teams of early childhood professionals with specialist knowledge and experience working with young children and their families. They can help if your child is younger than 9 with delays in development or disability. Your child doesn’t need a diagnosis.

The NDIS suggests starting by talking with your child’s health or education professional, such as your family doctor, child health nurse or early childhood educator. They can help you work out what supports your child might need, and may put you in touch with a partner. You can also find a partner yourself using the NDIS office finder, or call the NDIS on 1800 800 110 if you’re not sure who your partner is.

What happens after you reach out?

Once you or a referrer makes contact, an early childhood partner contacts you to talk about what to do next. In the NDIS early connections guideline, the first conversation covers:

your concerns about your child’s development
your priorities, including goals you’d like your child to work towards
any screening tools, assessments or reports you have
the mainstream and community services you use now, and how well they’re working.

Your partner may also:

ask about your child’s day-to-day life, like how they play, talk with other children and tell you what they need
build an ecomap with you, a diagram of the supports and services your child has
look at reports from doctors, therapists or educators
observe your child in everyday places such as home and childcare
use screening and assessment tools to see how your child’s development compares with children of a similar age.

Two things your partner won’t do. They won’t make a diagnosis, although they can help you contact a health professional such as your GP if you want to look into one. And they can’t decide whether you should apply to the NDIS (that’s your decision) or whether your child is eligible (that’s the NDIA’s).

What are early connections?

Early connections are part of the early childhood approach. The NDIS describes them as quick access to supports that meet your child’s needs. Your child doesn’t need to be eligible for the NDIS to get them. Depending on your child’s needs, they can include connections:

with community and mainstream services, such as childcare, preschool, playgroups, schools, health services and family support services
to practical information about your child’s development, such as play, communication and behaviour
with other families for peer support
with early supports, if your child is younger than 6 with developmental concerns
to apply to the NDIS, if your child has developmental delay or an impairment they’re likely to meet the eligibility requirements for.

Early connections may be all your child and family need. The NDIS says some early connections are available to families living in Australia regardless of citizenship or visa status, although your child must meet the residence requirements to be eligible for the NDIS.

What are early supports?

Early supports are a short, goal-focused program for children younger than 6 with developmental concerns. They’re provided by an early childhood partner and aim to build skills in you and your child across everyday settings, including your home. The NDIS says they usually run for 3 to 6 months, or up to a maximum of 12 months where required.

Your partner works with you to decide where the supports happen, your goals for your child, who provides them and when they’ll end. This goes into an early supports plan, and you get a copy. When the period ends, your partner does a final review of the goals you worked on.

The guideline says a partner looks at things like whether the screening tools show development outside the typical range for your child’s age, and whether there are developmental concerns that don’t fully meet developmental delay. If your child becomes an NDIS participant, early supports stop and your partner works with you on your child’s NDIS plan.

Developmental delay or developmental concerns?

These two terms matter because they lead to different next steps.

Developmental delay means a child finds it much harder to do everyday things other children their age can do, and needs extra help to do them. To meet the NDIS early intervention requirements for developmental delay, a child must be younger than 6, their presentation must meet the definition in the NDIS Act 2013, and they must meet the residence requirements.
Developmental concerns is the NDIS term for delays in a child’s development that don’t meet its definition of developmental delay. For children younger than 6, this is the group that may be offered early supports.

For a child under 6, the NDIS says the evidence needs to come from the child’s doctor, specialist or treating professional and show that the delay is due to mental or physical impairments, substantially reduces your child’s functional capacity compared with other children the same age, and means your child needs specialist services from more than one professional working as a team for longer than 12 months. The NDIA decides whether your child meets this.

How do you apply to the NDIS through the early childhood approach?

Many children are supported without needing to apply. Applying is one of the options, not a required step. If your child is younger than 6 with delays in development, your partner works out whether your child is likely to meet the NDIS developmental delay criteria. If so, they may suggest you consider applying. If you decide to, they can support you to put together the information and evidence, including evidence of how your child’s functional capacity is affected.

To be eligible, your child must first meet the age and residence requirements, and then the requirements for disability or early intervention. A child can meet both at the same time. If the NDIA finds your child eligible, they become an NDIS participant and the NDIA works with you to create an NDIS plan.

If your child isn’t found eligible, you can ask for the decision to be reviewed.

What if there is no early childhood partner near you?

The NDIS says early childhood partners aren’t located in remote and very remote areas. If there isn’t one near you, first speak with your doctor, child health nurse, early childhood educator or another health professional about your concerns. The NDIS says it will work directly with you to connect you to supports and services. You can contact the NDIS on 1800 800 110.

What is a child representative?

A child representative is a person who does things and makes decisions about the NDIS on behalf of a child. The NDIS child representatives guideline says a child under 18 who is receiving early connections or applying to the NDIS will have one, even though they aren’t a participant.

In most cases, a child’s parent or parents have parental responsibility under the NDIS and are the child representatives automatically. There are exceptions. A guardian is usually the only representative if a child has one, a court or tribunal order can change parental responsibility, and the NDIA can decide to change who represents a child.

A child can have more than one representative. If parents are separated, both can still be representatives unless an order removes parental responsibility. The NDIS expects representatives to talk to each other before making NDIS decisions.

What happens when your child turns 9?

Children aged 9 and above don’t work with an early childhood partner. They work with an NDIS partner that’s a local area coordinator. If your child still needs support as they near 9, your early childhood partner can give you information about your local area coordinator. Until your child turns 9, you can reconnect with an early childhood partner at any time after early connections end.

Free tools to help

NDIS access request checklist: what to gather if you decide to apply.
Funding finder: an overview of payments and supports for families, including the NDIS.

Official sources

This article is general information. It isn’t medical, legal, financial or NDIS eligibility advice. Every child’s circumstances are different, and government programs and requirements can change. Check the official sources above before you apply.