The evidence-based curriculum of Secret Agent Society (SAS) captivates children with its espionage-themed games and activities. The program including a multi-level computer game, detective gadgets to help you feel better – such as the ‘Helpful Thought Zapper’, the SAS challenger board game and Secret Message Transmission Device Walkie-Talkie game. The key to its success is that it’s fun! Recruits will be supported to:

• Recognise simple and complex emotions in themselves and others.
• Understanding levels of friendship.
• Solve social problems.
• Express their feelings in appropriate ways.
• Cope with teamwork, games and ‘losing’.
• Detect the difference between accidents, jokes and nasty deeds.
• Cope with feelings of anger and anxiety.
• Cope with mistakes and transitions.
• Detect and understand bullying.
• Communicate and play with others.
• Build and maintain friendships.
• Prevent and manage bullying and teasing.

SAS Small Group Program is a multi-component program that up-skills and empowers children with social and emotional challenges and the parents/caregivers and teachers who support them.

The program includes:

Child Club Meetings:

WHR Allied Health deliver the sessions over 9 weeks for 90 minutes per session. Sessions are held at our offices in Torquay.

Missions:

Weekly tasks to practise the skills learned in Club Meetings.

Skill Tracker Card:

Encourages and Rewards skills practice at both home and school. These are set out in weekly club meeting and then supported at home and school by the parents/caregivers and school contact.

SAS Computer Game:

WHR Allied Health provides you with access to your own unique code for the SAS digital HQ. Children can create their own profiles and complete the computer-based challenges. This is played at home or at school to teach children to recognise emotions in themselves and others, express their feelings appropriately and cope with social challenges. The game motivates your child to learn and helps them succeed in club meeting activities. Cadets will also be required to login to their SAS digital HQ account program during the SAS cadet sessions, where they will be supported to complete different activities. We encourage your child to have their own laptop or tablet to participate in the program. If your child does not have access to a laptop/tablet, please discuss this with us at the time of referral.

Check out the recommended software versions here to check that your device is compatible: https://www.playsas.net/static/media/SAS-SystemRequirements-2020-V2.1ee0bd27.pdf

Parent/Carer Information Scheme:

Whilst our recruits are completing their training, within the term, we hold 4 x 2-hour sessions for our parents/caregivers. Sessions include provision and demonstration of your SAS parent/caregivers ‘Mentor’ login so you can access the digital portal where you can view presentation slides, monitor your cadet progress and access the skill trackers to support weekly learning. We also complete a 3-month post-program review and support with our cadets and parents/caregivers.

Weekly Teacher Tip Sheets:

We’ll get in touch with your child’s school and complete weekly liaison with teachers/support staff to keep them informed about what children are learning and how they can

Recruitment training will take place at our offices in Torquay – 40 Baines Cres, Torquay, VIC.

Our running of the SAS programs includes almost one hundred hours of support provided by our team. Over years of running the program, we have continued to have great success for our clients due to our commitment to ensuring groups are not just a collection of interested cadets (or families) but are focused on grouping cadets into what we think will make a great group. This may be why you’ve had to wait a while to be recruited – we’re sorry for the wait but think it’s worth it.  After each program, we self-audit how it has been administered and continue to refine the way we do things.

The time spent on ensuring the program has the best chance for our cadets to succeed is broken into the following hours across the program:

1:1 occupational therapist hours: 4.5

Therapy assistant group hours: 32.26

Occupational therapist group hours: 40.58

Group parent sessions: 20.75

The total cost of the program as administered by WHR Allied Health’s team of facilitators is $5,665.06. This includes access to the SAS Portal, rewards and catering throughout the program, as well as regular contact with yourselves and the cadet’s school teachers/support person.

Cadets can be self-funded, or if your child has a NDIS plan, which includes Capacity Building supports (Must not be ‘stated supports’), these can be used to fund the program. The parent sessions are invoiced to you directly and can usually be claimed from Core Supports when you are Self Managing or have a Fund Plan Manager in place. Unfortunately, we cannot directly claim fees from Cadets Core Supports via the NDIS portal.

The Secret Agent Society (SAS) Computer Game Pack and Small Group Program help Cadets crack the code of emotions and friendships. Junior Detectives graduate from SAS equipped with the skills to feel happier, calmer, and braver while making new friends and keeping them.

SAS features an animated ‘secret agent’ computer game, Helpful Thought Zapper, SAS challenger board game, Secret Message Transmission Device game and many more award-winning resources. The evidence-based, structured curriculum and captivating theme make this program one of the most successful of its kind in the world. The SAS program works with Cadets to teach them skills in:

• Recognising how other people feel from facial expression, voice tone, and body language
• Recognising own emotions from physical ‘body clues’ and thoughts, detecting early warning signs of anxiety or anger. Being aware of situations that are anxiety and anger-provoking
• Accurately reading social situations by integrating contextual and emotional clues
• Using relaxation strategies to calm down when feeling anxious or angry
• Being friendlier and more inclusive of others
• Introducing yourself to others and talking with them
• Group work and playing in a calm, cooperative way with others.
• Solving social problems
• Coping with changes in routine to when trying something new
• Solving social problems (in general)
• Coping with mistakes
• Accurately identifying and managing bullying

This program can also be utilised as a one-on-one therapeutic intervention for young people who require significantly more assistance to learn the skills required to benefit from the SAS program. For example, this can be beneficial for children in supported accommodation, in foster care or those who do not have a caregiver who can commit to the intensive input required to reinforce skills between weekly club meetings. In this instance, requesting an individual quote for clients will be required.

Please note that other occupational therapy, physiotherapy or therapy assistant supports provided by WHR Allied Health will require additional hours to have been added to the Improved Daily Living Support Area within the plan.

We completely understand that the commitment made by our cadets and their families includes significant financial, emotional and time contributions. Our experience has been that this can continue several weeks into the program; however, there is usually an observable difference after the halfway point. In 2021, most families experienced dynamic challenges and we were incredibly proud of the experiences shared by some of our cadets and their families, which they have consented to share:

Cadet: “The SAS program has helped take the stress out of my body”.

Mother reported that her son told her that he “had the best play date of his life with a new friend”. Prior to the program he didn’t see the need to have more than one friend and using the SAS program and support from his family and SAS facilitators used the conversation code, the play code and decoder with great success.

Mother: “My son actually stopped and noticed that I looked bored, he has never taken notice of our facial expressions before”.

Father: “My son is now trying to make friends with ‘nicer’ people and since learning the conversation code he feels confident to start a conversation”.  

Mother: “My son for the first time was able to see someone else’s perspective and didn’t get upset that they couldn’t do what he wanted to do”.

Cadet: “The conversation code is helpful because sometimes I get stuck in my sentences and it’s helped me to know to think of the answers, like think before acting”.

Mother: “My husband is a real eye roller, but since this program he said, ‘this has actually worked’! He and our son had a proper conversation. Our son