Playing to learn

Trudeau Center Early Intervention Program helps children with developmental delays through individualized plans, play structures and sand castle building

By Margaret Taylor
Posted 7/19/18

By MARGARET TAYLOR Walk along the City Park beach on most summer Tuesdays, and you'll see a laughing group of toddlers participating in all sorts of activities. However there is much more than just fun at play here. Operated by the Trudeau Memorial

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Playing to learn

Trudeau Center Early Intervention Program helps children with developmental delays through individualized plans, play structures and sand castle building

Posted

Walk along the City Park beach on most summer Tuesdays, and you’ll see a laughing group of toddlers participating in all sorts of activities. However there is much more than just fun at play here.

Operated by the Trudeau Memorial Center, the community playgroup meets once a week and is open to both members of the Trudeau Center Early Intervention Program and other children ready to play. The program has been going on for more then ten years, with weekly participation numbers ranging anywhere from 9-18.

City Park Beach is the perfect place for the children to participate in a variety of outdoor activities. From building sandcastles to playing on the playground, each activity is designed to use a variety of different skills.

Pointing to the group of children making sandcastles with their parents on the beach, Jackie Ferreira, the director of the Early Intervention Program, explains that the group activity utilizes a variety of skills including sensory input, language, fine motor and gross motor skills. Honing these skills is the goal for all of the activities the children participate in.

The Trudeau Center Early Intervention Program takes a unique approach to assisting children, ages 0-3, and their families who are working with developmental and intellectual delays. The program embraces a “coaching” based model, in which service coordinators work with the family to create a plan and goals for the child to be carried out within the home. Service providers include a long list of trained professionals such as physical, occupational and speech therapists, along with educators, nurses, social workers and behavioral health specialists, and are all assigned to meet each specific child’s needs.

Ferreira says that the playgroup is an important part of the dialogue between the parent and the case-specific Trudeau staff members. Each Tuesday, service providers are invited to attend the group along with the parents and their children. Ferreira says that with both the parent and a case-specific service provider watching the child, the adults are able to observe specific skills, such as movement or interaction with others, in action. This group takes them out of the home, and introduces new group-based activity that allows children to fine-tune their skills in a new environment, and then use them back within the home.

For example, Ferrieria says that if a child is squatting in the sand building a castle, the service provider can observe this at the park. Later, with the parent, the service provider can set up situations within the home that get the child moving into that same position.

In addition to helping adults identify and build on a child’s progress, Karen Ostrowsky, a social worker with the Trudeau Center, explained that children with developmental delays have opportunities to interact with children without delays, known as peer models.

“This is a safe environment to socialize in,” Ostrowsky said.

Ferreira describes these “peer models” as siblings or other children who may have been in contact with the early intervention program, but not qualified for full involvement. These children tend to model typical behavior; the early intervention participant follows that example.

During the winter the playgroup shifts inside, where they recently were provided space at the Pilgrim Senior Center. There, the children participate in a weekly music class. During these winter classes, Ferreira says the staff keeps the children moving, utilizing song stories and all sorts of instruments.

The Early Intervention Program, including this community playgroup, comes at no cost to the family. Once children reach the age of 28 months, service coordinators and families look to transferring the child into school, and work with the school system to prepare for that transition. However, that doesn’t mean they stop attending the beachside playgroup in the summers. Some graduates continue to attend with their parents and siblings.

The Trudeau Center offers a variety of services for people facing intellectual and developmental disabilities at any age and phase of life. The main office number is 401-739-2700. For further information about the Early Intervention Program specifically, their number is 401-823-1731.

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