I chose to focus on the National Head Start Association website. Their web address is http://www.nhsa.org/ The focus of this website is to offer conferences, professional development, and other services to it's members. It also provides news and ways to become an advocate for Head Start.
I was reading through the blog on the website and parents were posting about how they loved the Head Start program. One parent's story caught my attention. She was concerned because her daughter was not talking, only mumbled, and the doctor said it was normal. When she sent her daughter to headstart, they discovered that the daughter was deaf in one ear. She had to have surgery and did speech therapy through headstart for two years. When her daughter started kindergarten, she was talking, could be understood, and was doing great. Had the child not gotten enrolled in headstart, she would have started kindergarten and nobody would have known anything was wrong until it was too late. This story really caught my attention because being in the early childhood field, we observe these things and have all kinds of opportunities to help children and families. I enjoyed reading all of the success stories on this website.
This site is one that I have saved becuase I used to work in a pubic blended headstart preschool classroom. I have read stories like that one and I have seen first hand noticing a child had a problem and doctors stated they were fine until the preschool office brought in the school nurse to check her hearing. They concluded she needed to see a hearing specialist and later this child needed a copeland implant. I wish we had more Early Start programs around and we could catch problems earlier than preschool.
ReplyDeleteThis just shows that professionals involved in Early Childhood really look at the whole child. I've heard many stories like this, I think it is because we look at many domains within childhood. Wonderful story and wonderful program.
ReplyDeleteThank you
Wow, thats an interesting story and goes to say Doctors often need a second opinion. I do hope that many parents will look for second opinions and give their child or children a chance.
ReplyDeleteGreat post!
ReplyDeleteChildren often cannot express themselves. The attention from the headstart helped. A stick in time saves nine. This all highlights the huge benefit in Earlychildhood focus. I can also relates this to fostering child development through empowerment and foundations of lifelong health.
Thanks
It is great when early childhood educators can read those instances of direct impact in the lives of the families and the children that we serve. Thank you for providing a great example of how just a little due diligence can mean the difference in the lifelong quality of life for a child!
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