Sending your Child to Daycare

Sending off a child to daycare is scary on its own. Doing so with a child with hydrocephalus can be even more difficult to handle. If you are looking to send your child to daycare for the first time, whatever your reason, here are a few tips. A checklist so to speak, of things to look at, ask, and consider in deciding which daycare is right for your child:

• Is it a Certified Early Learning Center (Certified ELC)? Certified ELC’s help your child learn, grow and develop both mentally and socially while they care for your child. In most cases, they are most likely to be your top-level childcare facilities as they are monitored more closely by the state to keep their Certified ELC status. You will find there are times where early intervention in areas such as these can be beneficial in helping resolve developmental delays.
• Do you feel capable of speaking openly, honestly, and candidly with the director and staff? Being able to speak with them in this manner helps you to have peace of mind when leaving your child in their care.
• Has the daycare cared for other special needs children in the past, even if they had different needs? Knowing that another special needs parent has trusted their child in the care of the staff is beneficial in building trust for the initial day of care.
• Do they have the ability and desire to adjust their classrooms to meet your child’s needs? If your child has a programmable shunt, can they ensure your child doesn’t end up near magnetic toys that could potentially reprogram it? If your child has depth perception issues or is using a walker, are there clear paths to a walkthrough?
• Is someone within the daycare going to know how to calmly assess and handle a potential equipment failure? Or, respond to seizures?
• Are you going to be able to ask this Certified ELC to work within the recommendations of your child’s doctors and therapists to provide a maximum therapeutic response to treat his/her deficits?

Given your child’s specific deficits and disabilities, you might have other questions in mind. You might consider using the Daycare article while searching to help you ensure your child receives the best care, and development interventions he or she can possibly receive for their specific case.

This article was written by HA volunteer, Kimberly Agocs.