Free Child Development Program for Parents in Colorado

If you live in Colorado and are concerned about any area of your child's development, you should hear about a program called ChildFind. It's for children up to age 3 and is absolutely free. Certified therapists will give your child a thorough evaluation to see whether he has the proper skills and abilities for his age level. If he is behind in any area, a therapist will come to your home for private therapy to get him up to speed.

I found out about this program because I've been concerned that my 2 ½ yr old son's speech and vocabulary were not progressing. At 2 ½, he's still using single-syllable words like "Da" for Dog, Duck, Dad, Dark, etc. We have to rely on the circumstances to interpret what he's saying, and even then it's challenging.

I feel so bad because I can't understand him when he tries to tell me something. I have to keep guessing until I figure it out, but sometimes he gets frustrated and grabs my hand and shows me what he wants. But other times he just keeps saying No when I guess wrong and eventually gives up. It just breaks my heart when that happens.

Friends and family suggested that there might be something wrong with his hearing, so we took him to his pediatrician to get checked out. His ears and hearing seemed to be fine, so Dr. Kyriazi referred us to the ChildFind program. We called and gave them our information and within a week we got a call from a coordinator that was assigned to us to help us through the entire process and answer any questions that we may have along the way.

She came to our house to help us fill out the paperwork to get started, and has been right there with us every step of the way. She was there with us during the evaluation with the therapists, which was really hard for me. For about 2 hours they played with Noah and asked us questions about what he says and does and home, and pointed out what he should be saying and doing at his age level. By the time we left I was almost in tears, and it was nice to have a friendly face there to soften the blows.

Once they determined how far behind Noah is, they assigned us a therapist who will come to our house once a week for private therapy sessions. The frequency of the visits depends on how far behind your child is, once a week being the most frequent for the children who are the most behind. Noah starts his therapy this week, and I'm just so happy that this program is available. I've been very impressed so far, and I'm hopeful that I'll be able to understand what my son wants to tell me very soon.