Parents want more assistance for special needs kids
Posted September 13, 2010 9:10 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
BURNABY (NEWS1130) – The parents of a little girl with Down Syndrome say there’s a great program that can help their daughter, but by the time she gets to the top of the list she’ll be too old for it.
Wendy Seet’s three-year-old daughter Kate qualifies to have an extra support worker at her daycare, but there are more than 70 other kids ahead of her on the wait list in Burnaby.
She says the wait list in Vancouver is even longer. “In Vancouver there are 287 children on the wait list, so they’re essentially never going to get help.”
Seet says without the added supervision, Kate can’t even play on the playground with the other kids because she might hurt herself. “Even when she does fall, she doesn’t react the same way as a regular kid would. Like she wouldn’t brace herself fast enough before the danger part hit.”
Seet says she’ll be meeting with representatives from the province later this week to try and get a boost in funding for the program.
She is asking parents of special needs children to join her at a meeting in Burnaby Monday night from 7:15 to 8:45 p.m. at the McGill Library branch at 4595 Albert St.
