Letters -- Kate Pinsonneault, NIIDP Coordinator/ Administrator

Dear editor,

Thank you for writing the article published in the June 6 paper on the new center for early child development, but there are two things I would like to clarify.

First, I want to commend the work being done by the child care providers in our communities.

They do a fantastic job, and they do accommodate and provide services for a variety of children with medical or developmental challenges.

There are, however, a small number of parents who have had difficulty finding a child care program for their child. The reasons for this vary.

Some facilities have a policy that children need to be toilet trained, some children require a one-on-one worker which the child care facility cannot provide, while others are full and have a waiting list.

I want to clarify the statement in the Gazette, "didn't feel up to dealing with the challenges of children with developmental needs." They certainly do deal with these challenges every day and they do an excellent job.

The other thing I want to clarify is we are putting together a web site of children's services on the North Island. I told you about the mother with an 11- year-old boy who has literally gone door to door trying to find services for her son.

It really saddened me to have to tell her we could not help her either.

The web site will help address this by listing local, regional and provincial services for children, along with the agency contact information.

Hopefully, having all the services listed in one place will help parents and professionals find appropriate services for children in the North Island.

Your article suggested we wanted to have all services for children in our center. This, of course, would be impossible.

The North Island Infant Development Program only provides intervention services to preschool aged children with developmental delays.

Our target group is children from birth to three years of age.

I do feel badly for the hard feelings that have occurred as a result of this article. I hope the child care community knows how much I appreciate their dedication and all the wonderful work they do for our preschool children and their families.