This Saturday, August 9th the High Country Early Intervention (HCEI) will be holding a free resource fair for parents and children up to 5 years old. The resource fair, called Child Find, will be held at the Yavapai County Mackin Building (at the old fair grounds) 840 Rodeo Drive from 10 am to 1 pm.

Barbara Hill, the Executive Director of HCEI says that, “For every dollar spent in early intervention, meaning from birth to 3 years old, we save $17 when a child reaches kindergarten and goes into the school system. It’s better to spend the money on the front end than the back end, and the savings are monumentous. We know a child’s brain is very elastic and up until age three they are the most elastic and their capability of learning is so great. If we can get the children in that period of time, they will have greater success.”

Parents can bring their children in for free evaluations on the child’s developmental needs and school readiness. The fair is also co-sponsored by 4-County Conference on Disabilities, Arizona’s Children Association Kinship Program and Parenting Arizona, Inc. These organizations will be interviewing and evaluating children, and will refer them to appropriate community agencies that may be of help. Many of the agencies will be represented at the fair.

Hill says,  “We want to have local organizations who work with children or families come and offer some kind of an activity and share their agency’s information so that parents would then be able to access resources right away. There should be enough other agencies there so that if we identify a problem we will be able to immediately be able to get them plugged into the appropriate agency.”

Child Find will be useful to many parents, including those who may have gone to their pediatricians with questions already. Many times, according to Hill, the pediatricians will take a wait and see position. And, while that may be correct in many circumstances, at times there is something going on that, if addressed immediately, could have a huge impact on the child’s life. Hill says, “We want to get a jump start on the child’s development. We will give the parents milestones; where that child should be developmentally, and what is the next milestone. Then we want to tell them how to get there.” Although the child would be the actual client, the participants at Child Find will work with the whole family for the success of the child.

High Country Early Intervention works with children in Yavapai County on their fine and gross motor development, muscle tone, strength and development, range of movement, hand-eye coordination, attention to task and sensory integration. They also work with speech and language therapy and occupational therapy.

At the Saturday event, there will be fun activities for the children, free hot dogs, drinks and door prizes.

Hill says that there is still time for agencies and organizations to participate, and they can call at her directly at 776-9285.