My son is lucky enough to receive treatment from a great special needs kids facility in our city.
While he is not a child with traditional special needs, he is behind developmentally in some areas about a year.
With the help of a occupational therapist and a speech therapist we have been attacking every issue that he has one week at a time.
In just a few short months he has gone from barely being able to speak to knowing his full alphabet and spontaneously putting together 7 word sentences.
Knowing all this, you can imagine how surprised I was to read that the our government had frozen the funding for this great center.
Reading this made me realize how important it is for communities to support their children’s programs.
No one really ever knows if they will have a family member that will need the specialized care provided by the therapists at these facilities, but it certainly does feel good to know that your support could help a child get a good start at life.
Ways To Help:
1. Funding donation – The easiest and quickest way to make a difference is to support fund raising efforts. Many special needs facilities have a big fundraiser twice yearly. Buy tickets or donate during their campaigns. An amount as small as $5 goes a long way if enough people do it.
2. Toy/Book Donation – Part of what makes these centers successful is the tools needed to help move kids forward. I wish that more corporations would help out. Lord knows they gift enough stuff to celebrities, why not give some of the new toys they’re launching to selected children’s programs.
It really is the best advertisement. After all, the therapists always find every imaginable way to teach a child with the simplest toys.I can’t tell you how many times I have left a session and went right to the toy store because my son liked something we played with.
Parents who have toys, books or DVDs that their children are done with can also drop them off for use by other parents or the therapists.
3. Volunteer Your Time – While many of these places rely on their specialized staff to teach and improve children, there are always things that need to be done that don’t require a Masters.
I bet if you had a couple of hours to spare a week, many of these programs could find some way for you to help.
Every community has a center that offers a variety of rehabilitation services to children with disabilities and they should be supported. Our Facility serves almost 4,000 kids in our region alone.
*We have contacted some of the companies that we have relationships looking for any toy donations. In the coming weeks we will be profiling those companies that step up and offer to send developmental toys to my son’s or any facility that offers this specialized treatment.*
