Funding and Education: Essential Components for Success in Early Start

Hannah and I were out the door and on our way to the 5th Annual Legislative Breakfast by 7:20 a.m. You can imagine how successful I felt just getting out the door with coats and smiles on our faces at that early hour. We had a job to do. I was speaking as a parent and board member from Becoming Independent, to all of the Sonoma County Service Providers and Legislators in attendance. This was a great opportunity to tell a personal point of view, with my daughter by my side.

Early Start is not:
Therapy….but it comforts parents.
A University….but it is a catalyst of learning, prompting parents to want to learn more, and seek higher learning to help themselves and their child.
A Big Box Store…but it is a one-stop wonderland of instructors, specialists that promote best practices in early childhood education, bringing individualized education to the forefront.

Early Start is not:
Threatening and isolating…It is warm and inviting, encompassing a body of families and children in a supportive learning environment.
Early Start is not limiting…Parents ask questions and find answers while socializing.
Early Start is not to be taken lightly, or discarded…It builds the foundation of learning for children, encompassing entire families.

Early Start is the reason I believed in my new vocation as teacher in my own home. The lessons I learned with my eight-month-old in small groups at Early Learning Institute were the beginnings of daily and weekly practice sessions that have never stopped. The specialists in OT (Occupational Therapy), PT (Physical Therapy), and SLP (Speech and Language Pathologist), are the reasons: my daughter runs with a beautiful gate on the soccer field with her team, climbs monkey bars with ease, writes with a pencil and even plays chords on a Ukulele, speaks effectively and confidently to her friends, attends a first grade class as a fully included student with an assistant, reads at the top third of her class and laughs at the humor in the stories, and shares friends that she has known all of her life from her beginnings at Early Start classes.

Given the option of co-pays, or other means of private pay...these programs won’t be chosen. Support Early Start programs with legislature that supports parents and children through funding and education. Hannah closed with a passage from the book written by Mia Hamm, Winners Never Quit. Give all children a chance to play the game and win in life!