National Campaign to Find &
Help
Special Needs Children
The Center for the Improvement
of Child Caring (CICC) has launched a national campaign to
help parents, professionals, agencies, caregivers and others
better identify and assist young children with special needs.
CICC Executive Director and founder, Kerby T. Alvy, Ph.D.
said, “It is estimated
that approximately 75 percent of the three million children
under five who have disabilities and other Ôspecial needs'
are NOT being identified and treated by professionals before
entering school. As a result, these vulnerable children usually
do poorly at school, suffer insults and hardships, often become
anti-social, and require remedial and legal services costing
taxpayers billions of dollars.”
Dr. Alvy, author of several
books on parenting, points out: “The
sooner children with special needs can be identified, the faster
they, their parents and their families can get the services
they require and deserve.”
As part of the campaign, CICC has developed and put on the
Internet, the CICC Discovery Tool and Referral System. Consisting
of a series of age-specific questions, it helps parents and
others quickly identify a variety of learning, communication,
motor skill and behavioral problems that may not have been
recognized or simply overlooked. It also connects them immediately
to important community services and agencies throughout the
United States that can help.
The CICC Discovery Tool and
Referral System has been used successfully throughout the
nation by thousands of parents of young children, caregivers,
agencies and professionals in the early childhood education
field. It is unique in that it provides—simultaneously—the
following three types of services on-line: educating parents
and staff about normative child development during their
child's first five years of life; assisting in identifying
whether a young child may have special needs that require
professional attention; and connecting users of the Tool
to a wide range of professionals, community resources and
educational materials.
The results of the Tool are in the form of a Developmental
Profile that can be printed out and shared with others. Dr.
Alvy and CICC hopes to bring the Tool and its benefits to the
attention of thousands of parents and others through a series
of speaking engagements around the country and through a network
of partnerships which are now being formed.
Parents, grandparents, other family members, child advocates,
child care workers, civic, professional and religious groups,
community agencies, government departments and private companies
can learn more about how to become partners with CICC in this
national campaign by going to the Partnering page on the CICC
Web site, www.ciccparenting.org, by contacting CICC by e-mail
at cicc@flash.net, or calling toll-free 1(800) 325-CICC (2422).#
Established in 1974, The Center for the Improvement of Child
Caring (CICC) is a private, nonprofit community service, training
and research corporation.
