Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 22, 1990 TAG: 9006220050
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: KIM SUNDERLAND NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Operated by the schools and Tiny Tots Day Care Center in Christiansburg, the program will integrate disabled children into mainstream child care.
"The state has said that kids cannot be segregated," said Tiny Tots director Elizabeth Dotson. "We agree that they need to be around children their own age. The children will learn from each other."
Money is being provided by the school system, which will also supply a teacher and an aide to work with the children while they're at Tiny Tots.
Details are being worked out by the special education department, said Chris Burton, a department coordinator. "We should be able to provide more information in the fall," Burton said.
Beginning this fall, Dotson said, eight mildly disabled or mentally retarded children ages 2 to 4 will attend Tiny Tots four days a week.
Currently, only Belview and Margaret Beeks elementaries offer mainstreaming for school-aged kids.
"But this is the first program for preschoolers," said Dotson. "This will give them a head start before they are bused to those two schools in the county."
The disabled children will benefit from the program because "they can learn by seeing and imitating the other children," Dotson said. "They'll learn earlier how to play with certain toys. . . ."
Neither the center's rates nor the ratio of care givers to children in the center will change, Dotson said.
Bus transportation will be available, and applications for the program are open to all area parents. Services provided by professional therapists will be free, and are offered to all children at Tiny Tots.
For information, call the Montgomery County special education department at 382-5114.
by CNB