by Sarah Glass
To ensure local children are on track with developmental milestones, the Bitterroot Valley Education Co-op (BVEC) will offer free screenings in various communities this November through its annual Ravalli County Child Find program. Focused on identifying disabilities in children five years and younger, BVEC Director Jenny Rammell said the play-based screening is free of charge and focuses on the following skills: speech and language, cognitive, motor, hearing, and vision.
BVEC provides special education and school-based mental health services to Florence, Lone Rock, Stevensville, Victor, and Darby school districts. The Child Find program exists as part of the federal IDEA or Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the purpose of which is to identify and assess children with disabilities and introduce them to pathways that will allow them to cultivate positive mental health and success. BVEC works with parents, guardians, and local school districts to create comprehensive care plans including speech therapy, audiology, physical therapy, occupational therapy, adapted physical education, assistive technology, and psychological counseling.
In 2021, Nicole Jessop took her young daughter to a BVEC screening event in Corvallis. This choice, she said, elicited a web of support and services that greatly benefited her daughter.
“Our daughter has speech aphasia,” said Jessop, “which we didn’t know [before she was screened]. We just knew she was having a really hard time pronouncing her sounds. I was the only one that could understand her, and that was still, like, 50 percent of the time… Speech aphasia is when the brain has a hard time telling the mouth how to form the sounds in your mouth.”
Before Jessop had children, she said she worked as a special education teacher. She understood that her daughter was having speech delays but had not identified the cause. During the Child Find screening process, several BVEC professionals conversed with Nicole’s daughter and assessed her speech through different means as the girl played games.
“The kids are generally more open to that kind of evaluation,” said Jessop.
Jessop’s daughter is now six-and-a-half years old, and since her screening in 2021, her mother has marked her blooming self-confidence.
“One of the things that we were concerned about with her starting school was we didn’t want her to be bullied because no one could understand her… She would just shut down if someone asked her to repeat what she said because they didn’t understand,” Jessop said.
Due to her speech aphasia, Jessop’s daughter qualified for an IFSP or “individual family service plan,” and BVEC assisted the family with securing services for the girl. This included entry into a peer-based preschool as well as speech therapy.
“She ended up getting to go into their preschool when she was three and four before she went into kindergarten, and she received speech services there…” said Jessop. “That helped her get to the point of being understood by the time she started kindergarten.”
Child Find screenings will be held on November 1st at the BVEC Preschool in Stevensville, November 4th at Darby Elementary, November 5th at Corvallis Primary, and November 7th at Victor Elementary and Florence Elementary.
Rammell invites children from any Ravalli County school district to attend any listed screening site. She asks that parents and guardians call her at 406-777-2494, extension 112, to schedule an appointment.