Rainbows United enhances the lives of children with special needs and their families by bringing together community resources and providing customized services. Many activities are happening everyday across all programs and services that Rainbows provides. Here is a look at a day in the life of Rainbows United.
7:00 a.m. Children arrive at Kids’ Point ready to learn and play. Kids’ Point childcare and preschool is inclusive of typically developing as well as children with special needs, 2 weeks through Pre-Kindergarten.
8:00 a.m. Butler County Infant/Toddler Services Early Childhood Special Education Teacher, Melissa Baumgartel, arrives at her first home visit of the day with Tom. They work on social, cognitive, and motor skills by reading books, playing with a ball, and baby dolls. After the visit Melissa talks with Tom’s mom about introducing some basic sign language with Tom to encourage word acquisition.
9:00 a.m. Infant/Toddler Waterworks Playgroup is held at the North YMCA. Rainbows’ families bring their children for fun water play to work on various developmental skills. “Playgroup has activities every child can do, Gabriel has learned so much,” said a Rainbows’ parent.
10:00 a.m. Targeted Case Manager, Melissa Richardson, facilitates an initial visit for a mother of two girls with special needs. Melissa creates a Person Centered Support Plan for each child and the family completes the necessary paperwork including documents that allow the girls to attend Camp Woodchuck.
11:00 a.m. Speech-Language Pathologist, Sharon Stump, makes her last CBETS visit with Audrey at Christ the King Parish and School. When Audrey began receiving speech therapy, she was unable to speak any words. Through two years of speech, Audrey graduated through the program able to make all her speech developmental milestone sounds!
