45 - Wednesday, March 22, 1989 - North Shore News

Chilean
women

heiped
PAGE 48

Special needs chil

PRESCHOOL HELPS PUP'LS HAVE
FAIR CHANCE WITH LEARNING

WHEN JASON started going to Playcare last September,
he could only speak in halting, two-word sentences. Now
the four-year-old chatters all the time.

Jason's mother says that
Playcare, a preschool for special
needs children, has given her son
‘*a head start.’’

Jason, diagnosed as language
delayed, is slower to develop
speaking skills than other children
his age. Without the help of
Playcare’s speech therapy pro-
gram, his ability to communicate
with his classmates when he enters
kindergarten this fall would be
impaired, his mother says.

Playcare, a licensed, non-profit,
day-care facility for children with
moderate to severe social, emo-
tional or behavioral problems, of-
fers speech and language therapy
in a pregram of individualized in-
struction.

**We teach social skills and try
to improve the child's self-
concept,’ says Playcare director
Mary Ellen Meunier. ‘‘We have a
strong communications focus.’*

Children from 2% to 5 years of
age with developmental delays,
such as poor coordination, balance
and dexterity, as weil as speech
problems, are taught to function in
a group, says Meunier. ‘‘Frequent-
ly, behavior problems are
associated with communications
problems,’’ Meunier says.

Parents with children who ex-
hibit behavior problems — ex-

By RAY TIC
Contributing

cessive tantrums, over-ag-
gressiveness, or withdrawal —- may
be referred to Playcare by the
Ministry of Social Services. ‘‘We
take children with developmental
problems, but not physical or
mental handicaps,’’ Meunier says.

Children with speech develop-
ment delays tend to find ways to
avoid talking at home, but can be
prompted to improve speech pat-
terns in a peer group. ‘‘Jason has
made incredible progress at
Playcare,’’ says his mother. ‘‘He
needed to be put inte a situation
where speaking is unavoidable.”’

The speech therapist on staff
sees each child individually every
week with a parent attending.
“The school uses the Hannon
speech therapy method,’ says
Jason's mom, ‘‘I had te learn to
get down to his (two-word
sentence) level and gradually pro-
gress a word at a time to more
complicated sentences."’

The Hannon method starts with
whatever skills the child has and
builds in steps, a word or sound at
a time. ‘‘Some children can only
say the middle of a word and we
have to add a beginning to it and

then an end later,"” says Meunier.

Parent involvement is avery
important part of the therapy.
“Our speech therapist won't see a
child unless a parent is there,”
Meunier says. ‘‘Parents learn to be
language stimulators at home.”

Playcare tries to maintain a
staff-to-student ratio, with volun-
teers, of at least one adult to three
children. With this ratio the in-
structors can take time to listen
and turn frustration into accept-
able behavior, Meunier says.

Playcare encourages parent in-
volvement. Parents participate in
all aspects of the program, and the
staff offers parent support
counselling.

“it's good backup for parents,”’
says Jason’s mother. ‘‘They pro-
vide resources — they tell you who
to talk to to get help.”’

The society is presently looking
for a new family support
counsellor to run the parent educa-
tion courses, but expects to be
back on stream with that program
soon.

The schvol can accommodate up
to 17 children at one time and
there is usually a small waiting list.
The average child stays seven mon-
ths, but the range can be from two
to 22 months, says Meunier.

The day-caze part of Playcare is
funded by the Ministry of Social

See Daycare
Page 47

dren get a head start

NEWS photo Torry Poters
JASON MENTZ at play with Shelagh Stubbs at a unique day-care centre
in North Vancouver.

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