Preparing for kindergarten

By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
HERMITAGE, Pa. -- Some preschool children with mental or physical disabilities just aren't ready to make the transition from home to kindergarten.
The Children's Center of Mercer County Inc. can help, offering a number of early intervention programs in either structured classes or a child's home.
The agency, which gets $30,000 a year from the United Way of Mercer County to help finance its $400,000-a-year budget, has been around since 1918 but under a couple of different names.
It was known as the Mercer County Crippled Children's Society when it opened in 1918 and later adopted the name Mercer County Education and Rehabilitation Center. It's now the Children's Center of Mercer County, but its goal of helping children has never changed, said Carol Rich, executive director.
"It's an early intervention program," she said, explaining its primary purpose is to get children ready for school; it's the only agency of its kind in Mercer County.
Some children may have physical or mental disabilities that cause them to develop at a slower-than-normal rate, and for others, it may just be a need for socialization skills.
Services offered
The center operates four early intervention classes for 3- to 5-year-olds Monday through Friday with a maximum of 15 children per class.
In addition, its staff offers in-home early intervention services for children from birth to age 3, Rich said.
Just like the classroom setting, that intervention could be educational, speech, physical development or a combination of services, she said.
There are plans to open a resource room for parents who don't have other sources of information for meeting the needs of a developmentally challenged child.
The center also runs a day-care program open to anyone from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays, offering care for children from 6 months to 5 years old as well as a preschool and after-school program for children up to age 12.
Pupils in the after-school program can do their homework or participate in group activities. They can even interact with the younger children in day care if they wish, she said.
During the summer, the center runs a day program for children from birth to age 12, she said.
"We're filling a need," Rich said, explaining that the agency's niche is preschool and developmentally disabled children.
Personnel
The facility is licensed for a total of 125 children and has a staff of 14 that includes teachers and aides. There are occupational and physical therapists as well as nurses who visit the center to work with the children on a regular basis.
Their salaries are paid by Midwestern Intermediate Unit IV, an arm of the state educational system that provides services to public school districts in Mercer, Lawrence and Butler counties.
The center is in the Hermitage City Building Annex.