Wellness fair for preschoolers catches needs early

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This article was published 24/04/2024 (913 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Four-year-old Gavin Nieradka was one of about 150 children who attended the Milestones Preschool Wellness Fair at the Keystone Centre in Brandon on Tuesday.

Gavin and his mom Mandy had just come from a vision assessment, which is one of the free screenings included in the daylong event.

“It’s our first time here and I think this is a wonderful learning opportunity,” Mandy said. “Just now, we had a bit of physical activity with throwing and catching balls back and forth and seeing what he can do.

“There are lots of different things set up. It’s kind of like testing, but also having fun in the process,” she said.

Besides a one-time interruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the wellness fair has been presented annually for more than 15 years, said Lisa Jackson, chair of the Milestones Preschool Wellness Fair committee.

Milestones is a subcommittee of the Brandon Healthy Families team, which distributes grant funding from Healthy Child Manitoba, a government committee that deals with policies, programs and services related to the well-being of children and youth in Manitoba.

This year, immunizations were available, as was advice from Canada Revenue Agency about family benefits and signing up for a child’s social insurance number.

Screenings were offered to three- to five-year-olds to gauge optical development and speech and language.

“The day is an assessment tool for parents and guardians to be able to see where their children are at the preschool age, so that if they have needs, they can be connected to resources prior to entry into school,” said Jackson.

“Because sometimes if a child enters kindergarten and does not have the needs assessed ahead of time, it can take a couple of years to identify problems and then that child is behind in school, in learning, in self-esteem and in general development,” she said.

Dayla Rodriguez said she brought her three-year-old son Giovani so she could find out what his level of learning is, “and to let me know the base where we can start.”

“So far, so good,” said Rodriguez. “We just did the the speech and language screening. They showed him pictures to find out what he acknowledges and knows, and then they got him to talk about them.

“It’s a pretty good event, because the thing is, as a parent sometimes you miss out on a couple of things and now we know that there are things that we can help him improve on,” she said.

Nicole MacIntyre said she brought her four-year-old daughter Karissa because she was worried about her eyesight.

“We didn’t know if she was shy and didn’t want to tell us what we were pointing at,” MacIntyre said.

“But now we know that she might need glasses. I can’t imagine if we hadn’t come here and found out what was wrong,” she said as her voice broke with emotion.

Jackson said the wellness fair is designed to pick up on issues, and if there are any, they can point parents or caregivers to the next steps.

“If somebody comes in and finds out that their child needs some extra help, it’s celebrated here because we caught it. And now we can offer assistance to that child and to that family, so that they get what they need,” Jackson said.

Information booths at the wellness fair were hosted by Southern Chiefs’ Organization, Brandon Friendship Centre, Child and Family Services of Western Manitoba, Public Health, Prairie Mountain Health and Manitoba Possible, which provides support to children with disabilities and helps connect families to the right resources, said Alyssa Wiebe, program manager with Manitoba Possible’s rural services.

“This is a preschool wellness fair, but we support individuals from zero to 65 plus. So, sometimes they start with us. They might begin in our programs when they’re little tots, but then they grow with us, and we support them throughout their lifespan,” said Wiebe.

As the children went through each of the five screening stations, they received a sticker for their passport.

And before they passed the exit, they had the opportunity to select a free book donated by Sunset Rotary and the Rotary Club of Brandon, Jackson said, thanking the volunteers who helped make the event possible.

“We had so many volunteers — most of them are retired teachers, retired social workers, or people who are just interested in the community. We even had 41 students from Assiniboine Community College who gave their time, and volunteers for the speech and language that came from Minot State University,” said Jackson.

The municipality of Boissevain-Morton is hosting a preschool wellness fair for children aged two to four, Thursday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Boissevain High School, 885 Mill Rd. North.

The town of Virden’s preschool wellness fair is scheduled for May 1 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. for newborns to five-year-olds at the Sacred Heart Parish Hall, 471 Queen St. West.

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