Watch above: The government of Saskatchewan is supporting special education for children with Down syndrome. Aaron Streck finds out how parents of Down’s children are responding.
SASKATOON – Shelley ven der Buhs’ youngest of four children, Logan, is nine-years-old and has Down syndrome. The family travelled two hours from Englefeld to Saskatoon on Wednesday to celebrate the launch of AIM, the Ability In Me program, to support children and youth living with Down syndrome.
“Having this program would open up a world of education for Logan,” said ven der Buhs.
Tammy Ives, too, has seen the need for a program like AIM in Saskatchewan first hand.
“The services that we’ll be providing is speech, language pathology services and as well there will be a reading program that will be starting later in the spring,” said Ives, who is AIM’s executive director. “It’s very family oriented so we will be providing services for the families which also then would benefit any organizations that they’re involved with.”
“As a parent, I didn’t really realize it until we went to Calgary and saw where my son was and where the children were there in the program. It is a high need here and we haven’t really promoted the program yet, we already have 45 families that are signed up.”
While 110 children is capacity, Saskatoon-based AIM won’t turn anyone away.
“It’s about being part of Saskatchewan and wanting to see a better place for all children in Saskatchewan.”
Premier Brad Wall was on hand to announce the government’s investment of $200,000 to AIM.
“The end of the sentence that begins with we want economic growth because the end of that sentence is right here today, we want that growth because we should be able to provide this and hopefully see it expand across the province because these families, these kids deserve it,” said Wall.
Staff was hired on Monday and will look to technology to connect families around the province to the program.
Similar to Ability In Me, the ‘PREP’ program in Calgary has been successfully operating for the last 25 years.
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