With
big brown eyes and a wide smile, 2-½-year-old Bronson looked up at
his mother and said something she did not expect to hear. "Mama," he
said, holding up his hands to be picked up.
It was his first word, and he just started speaking them about
three weeks ago, said Ardis Knibbs, his mother.
For more than a year and a half, Bronson has attended speech and
language therapy classes through Kindering Center, an
early-intervention program in Bellevue that helps children birth to
3 years old who have developmental, cognitive and physical
disabilities or behavioral problems.
On Wednesday, Bronson and about 500 other toddlers and their
parents gathered at the Crossroads Park in Bellevue to celebrate
graduating from Kindering Center — their first of many steps as they
move through an individualized special education that may last until
they are 21 years old.
Through a stream of bubbles blown from a bubble machine, the
children came forward in groups to receive a diploma and a pinwheel,
which often went promptly into their mouths. For many of the
children who come here, learning to swallow, crawl, walk or talk are
accomplishments their parents may not have thought possible before.
"The first time he said my name I cried," said Knibbs. "Most
people take that for granted."
Her son has developmental delays from a deformity that caused his
skull to fuse as a baby, which put pressure on his brain. He
underwent neurosurgery at 11 months and will soon have to have
another surgery.
"We've seen improvement in his motor skills and cognitive skills;
he's basically average there," Knibbs said. "He's not even on the
scale yet for speech ... but it's the little things that are so
big."
Children at Kindering Center have diagnoses ranging from Down
syndrome to cerebral palsy, or may be medically fragile after being
born premature, said Jennifer Pineda, director of advancement for
the center.
"Sometimes a child missed an important stage, where they learn to
eat or feed themselves, because they were attached to all these
tubes," Pineda said. "Sometimes a child may be at risk for being
delayed because of the situation they were born into."
This sometimes occurs with the children who are in foster care or
had to be removed from homes because their parents were unable to
care for them, she said.
The center is a nonprofit program that receives state and federal
money, and parents may pay a fee based on a sliding scale.
Local school districts, including Issaquah, Bellevue, Mercer
Island and Lake Washington, also contract with the center to provide
therapy and counseling to many children. After they graduate, most
will move into preschool intervention programs provided through the
school districts.
The center has about 80 staff members and 250 volunteers, and
serves about 750 children annually through its early-intervention
program, said Mimi Siegel, executive director for Kindering Center.
"Studies have shown that it's what you do from birth to 3 years
old that has the most impact," Siegel said. About 20 percent of the
children who come to Kindering Center will leave without needing any
further special education, because they were able to "catch up" on
the skills they needed, she said.
Some parents may even start looking into early-intervention
programs while the mother is still pregnant with the child, if
sonograms or medical tests indicate a disability is likely, Pineda
said.
Doctors told Jeannie Hutcheson when she was 4-½ months pregnant
that her daughter would likely have severe developmental
disabilities because her baby's brain was deformed.
They told her the baby could die within weeks after being born.
Hutcheson said the prospect of having a baby with special needs was
scary, but with the help of family, friends and the Kindering
Center, her daughter, Lexi, has made small but precious strides.
Lexi, who turns 3 next week, can't walk or talk, and has trouble
swallowing, but she can hold her head up now, and can grab at toys.
"She tolerates noise much better now, and she loves being around
other kids," said Hutcheson, who lives in the Cottage Lake area near
Woodinville. "She's surpassed all expectations, especially the
doctors'."
Rachel Tuinstra: 206-515-5637 or
rtuinstra@seattletimes.com
