West Hants Wellness Clinic for School Entry

The Wellness Clinics will ease the transition to school for children and families. The main goal is to build relationships between families, schools, and community agencies before the child begins school. The screening portion will help identify any developmental issues. In this way, intervention and support can be offered for the child and family prior to school entry. The Wellness Clinics are for three year old children who live in West Hants.

Registration for the Wellness Clinic will begin in the spring of 2012.

 The Wellness Clinics take place in the fall at the following schools:

 The “Clinics”

 Every parent who has a child who will be starting school in 2013 at one of these elementary schools can register for a clinic. A clinic will be held at each school. Children who will attend Uniacke District School are welcome to attend the Newport Station wellness clinic.

At the clinic, the parent and child will be greeted at the door. The child will be given a school bus badge to wear. As each “station” is visited, a sticker is placed in the window of the school bus badge. The parents will receive information at each station and will have the opportunity to speak various professionals regarding their child’s development. With parent permission, a picture of each child will be taken and given to parents at check-out. In that way, the child can review their visit to “big school” at home with other relatives. The parents will receive a take-home information package. At the check-out station, the badge will be checked and the parent will be asked to give feed-back.

The “stations”

The stations include screenings (a brief test) for speech, language, hearing, dental, vision, behavior and development. As well, there will be information stations to talk about child learning, reading and local resources. There will be a play area available.

The community partners include:

• Annapolis Valley School Board – host schools, reading station, health promotion station
• Public Health Services – vision screening, dental screening
• Nova Scotia Hearing and Speech Centres and Kingstec students– speech, language and hearing screenings
• Valley Child Development Association – development screening
• Nova Scotia Community College, Kingstec – reception, play station, speech-hearing station
• Understanding the Early Years Project – child learning information
• Addiction Prevention – parenting for prevention
• Hants West Family Resource Centre – preschool programs
• Hants Learning Network – finance sponsor
• Volunteers of Hants Community Hospital - prepare take-home packages
• West Hants/Uniacke Community Health Board - funding grant source

 Past Feedback from parents: “What was most helpful?”

 • “Putting everything together like this makes it very convenient”

 • “It was a great chance to see where my child’s development was”

 • “Networking with other children and learning what was available locally”

 • “Being able to ask questions about concerns you may have”

 • “Having nutrition questions answered”

 • “Knowing how to prepare her for school”

 • “Introducing her to new people and the elementary school”

 • “Seeing how my child reacts to different activities and people”

 Appointments

 If your child will be starting school in September 2014 in the West Hants/ Uniacke area, please register online starting Spring of 2012. Then, Lisa, the Registration Coordinator in Hants West, will contact you by phone to arrange an appointment.

You can register online by clicking HERE