MARQUETTE, Mich. (WZMQ) – The Marquette-Alger Regional Education Service Agency (RESA) will soon be hosting an early childhood screening event for children who are getting ready to enter school for the first time.
Children who will be turning 3 or 4 years old before December 1st, 2023, will be eligible for the early childhood or preschool screening event. Screenings allow parents to make sure their child is on track with their development before preschool or kindergarten.
“Screening is important for a few reasons,” said Whitney Schampers, the Early Childhood Specialist at Marquette-Alger RESA. “One, it lets us know your child is in the area and this helps us when we’re planning programs and community events. Two, this events allows parents to talk to people from the Great Start readiness program, which is free preschool and what the Governor is using to expand to universal preschool. Head start, which is another free preschool program. And we have a couple other options, we’ve had Great Start to Quality coming and talking to parents about private preschool options as well.”
The event will also have specialists who will may be able to see what parents may miss.
“Even if you think that your child is right on track where they should be with their age, this is still nice,” said Schampers. “Some people don’t think about, for example, a speech language pathologist. When they are screening for speech, they are looking at the tiny muscles that make up the words that kids are saying, and are trained to look for things that maybe not everyone would know to look for. And same with our person doing our motor skills. There are a lot of fine motor-things that you may have not been trained on, but they are professional in those specific areas.”
The event is a collaboration between Marquette-Alger RESA, Community Action Alger Marquette (CAAM), the Health Department, Great Start to Quality, and local school districts.
The screening will take place at the Marquette-Alger RESA building in Marquette on August 18th. For more information or to register for the screening, click here.
