00:02Shomar Biswa's son is now a chatty six-year-old.
00:06You know Nazim?
00:07Yeah, he went to my house.
00:09Four years ago, he barely spoke.
00:11My circumstances was really hard. I can't see a specialist.
00:17She was at a loss until contacts in the community helped her find a GP,
00:22then apply to the NDIS, which funded the early intervention he needed from a speech therapist.
00:28They make my son speak within a month.
00:33Once the $4 billion Thriving Kids program is fully rolled out,
00:38it will be the go-to program for children under nine with autism or developmental delay
00:42who have mild to moderate support needs.
00:46Community groups say it needs to be accessible to people from a diverse range of backgrounds.
00:51You need people on the ground who are bilingual, who are multilingual,
00:54who are connected in those communities already to be able to feed that information up.
00:58It is vitally important to get that live experience and it's vitally important that the government get it right.
01:06Children with a language background other than English are almost half as likely to access early intervention services.
01:13Advocates say that means they start school at a disadvantage, putting pressure elsewhere.
01:18You're also going to see a larger strain and stress on the health and education system.
01:24The federal government says relevant groups are being consulted to ensure Thriving Kids caters for children from a range of
01:30cultural backgrounds.
01:3132% of Australians were born overseas, yet only 7% of NDIS participants under nine are from families identifying
01:40as migrants or non-English speaking.
01:43It's an indication governments need to do better to target these families so children don't go without critical supports.
01:50slash 25%.
01:50hangальist
01:509% of students
01:51alcance
01:51Kathy
01:5180% of students
01:52D
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