Children North Early Childhood Intervention Program (ECIP) celebrated ECIP Week Tuesday, Sept. 17 with bouncy castle, barbeque, displays and an Open House.
“For us, we’ve been in existence since 1985, so this is 39 years. Next year will be a big year for us,” Dayna Lapworth, Children North ECIP director, said in an interview with the Northern Advocate.
During the Open House, visitors got to see much of the workings of ECIP, including the area where age and ability suitable games and resources are kept for easy access.
“I appreciate that the sun’s out because it was supposed to rain for the rest of the week, but we’re just having a hot dog barbeque for everybody in town and bouncy castle and an Open House so people can just kind of tour and look at the bus,” Lapworth added.
ECIP is situated on La Ronge avenue in La Ronge, but serves many communities across the north, including: Pelican Narrows; Deschambault Lake; Sandy Bay; La Ronge and area; Stanley Mission; Wollaston Lake; Southend; Brabant; Pinehouse Lake; and Hall Lake.
They work with children zero to five 5 years providing early intervention services with children with any kind of developmental delays or who are at risk for delays.
“We know that 50 per cent of the brain development happens by the age of one and 90 per cent by the age of four, so the earlier intervention that we can get, the better,” Lapworth said. “Our goal is, through our pediatric clinic, that all kids that could have a diagnosis by the age of 5 going into school, would have one.”
The Pediatric Clinic is run through ECIP.
The children are tested through the clinic and ECIP has a program, “to basically build the brain. It’s pretty cool,” Lapworth said.
The AEPS system that we use – the Assessment Evaluation Programming System. It’s like, for example you will notice that a child who doesn’t crawl may have a challenge later in life with their handwriting,” she said, adding, It’s how the brain connects within itself “so, by following this, we test the child and then we go back and fill in what they’re missing in order to build those pieces of the brain. It’s pretty cool.”
ECIP also houses a Mentorship program for youth between six and 17.
They also received a $20,000 grant “to create a soft room,” Lapworth said.
The room is set aside for “kids that are overwhelmed,” she said.
The room will set up in the mall area that was previously the chiropractic office. The down side is, the children have to walk outside to access the room.
ECIP is trying to negotiate some kind of doorway or entrance into the space, to keep the children from getting cold and safe. The hope is they can negotiate a direct access into the space as part of the work being done to make the space fit their needs.
