There’s help for parents to better understand their young children

By Ennis Liu

The early education of the child is very important, but many new parents will not know how to correctly guide the child’s behaviour.

The Windsor-Essex County Children and Youth Planning Committee is promoting WEE Start, a free guide for parents to better understand early childhood education and child development.

It targets parents of children up to six years old.

The committee has been doing these events for six years, usually in March at the Windsor Public Library.

“They can be about a dental care, vision, speech, hearing, behaviour and early development like walking,” said Wendy Tavares, chair of the WEE Start program. “You can meet with a dietitian and nutritionist about healthy eating or you can meet with behaviour specialist, if you have concerns about your child’s behaviour as well as overall development.”

Jocelyne Gamberta is a mom of two children who came for the first time, the same day she discovered the event online earlier in the morning.

“For us and our family, what I really enjoyed most was talking to the professionals about the behavioral issues and the developmental stages to have that communication with them,” she said, adding she plans to invite her friends who are expecting babies soon.

They welcome pregnant moms and even grandparents. Preregistration is not necessary.

The program involves lots of activity, nutritious snacks and fun for the kids while parents are getting information. Interpreters are on hand to help in five languages including Mandarin, French and Arabic.

The number of people coming each year is increasing after WEE Start added a lot of publicity and promotion to social media networks.

“Typically we struggle with getting parents who aren’t involved with any of our organizations to come out,” said Tavares, adding they encourage anybody with ideas about how to promote the event to give them a call.