By JAMES BELL
Hays Post
After stopping their monthly child development screenings during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Hays Area Children's Center hopes to begin screenings again in June.
During the summer screenings they will only be accepting children from birth age to 2 years and 9 months, but will expand to the full age in August.
"The next screening we are hoping to do is on Wednesday, June 7," said Jennifer Oborny, infant and toddler early intervention director.
The following screening date is set for Wednesday, July 8.
"... On Aug. 14, we will be able to do all children from birth to age 5," Oborny said.
During the screening, school professionals are on site to answer questions, including a speech language pathologist who can check speech development.
Motor skills, vision, hearing and behavioral development is also checked and performed in a child-friendly way.
If further assistance is needed after the screening, the center works to provide those resources.
"Once a child qualifies for our services from the infant to the toddler center, they get full access to a range of services that include assitive technology, audiology screenings, family service ordination, health and medical referrals, nursing services, nutrition, occupation, physical and speech-language therapies, psychological services, social work specialized instruction and vision services," Oborny said.
The center serves children in Ellis and Rush counties at no cost to families and works to identify developmental issues as early as possible.
The impacts of early developmental delays, especially vision can be long-lasting, Oborny said.
"One big piece is vision," she said. "If you don't have your vision corrected as early as possible, it can affect your long-term vision and brain development because there is so much going on in those first three years."
Audiology testing is also a key component of the developmental screenings and the center will benefit from new equipment over the summer.
"We are actually getting some new hearing tools this summer that we qualified for with some grants," Oborny said. "So I am very excited to about using those new items with our families for screenings."
The new tools will provide the most up-to-date hearing testing available.
While the center paused their monthly developmental screenings, they have continued to provide services to families through online video services.
"It's actually gone really, really well with our families," Oborny said.
They are hoping to get back in homes for testing over the summer, but they do not have a specific timeline outlines — but will follow guidance from Hays USD 489 and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
"We certainly don't want to bring something from one house to another, especially with the compromised health that some of these babies we work with," Oborny said.
To set up a screening or for more information, call 625 3257 or visit the HACC website, hacc.info.