Program caters to toddlers

By jeanne starmack

starmack@vindy.com

campbell

Darmetrus North seemed impressed by “Itsy Bitsy Spider,” though not in a good way.

The 20-month-old, sitting on his aunt’s lap as a teacher led a group of toddlers and adults through the game, just scrunched up his face and cried. Hard.

He and the other toddlers were working on their fine-motor skills with the game’s hand motions, explained Jeanne Sokol, the teacher who was leading them.

That didn’t seem to mollify Darmetrus, but maybe the game will grow on him. He’ll be playing it every day for a month, per Sokol’s recommendation, as part of the Campbell School District’s new Play-Learn Program.

The program, which started Thursday in a preschool room at the elementary school, is designed to encourage brain development and socialization skills in children from birth to 3 years old.

It will do that through play and activities appropriate for the age group, not through academics, explained Dr. Robert Walls, elementary school principal. Parents are learning activities to do with their children at home, too.

Sokol, of the Mahoning County Educational Service Center, and Lori Gonzalez, the elementary school’s preschool teacher, are leading the program. It will meet from 3:45 to 4:45 p.m. every Thursday. So far, 12 adults and 15 children are in it.

At a cost of $1,400 a year, a United Way grant funneled through the county ESC, it will reap a big return, said Walls.

“It’s pennies, really, when you compare it to the results,” he said, adding that for every dollar spent on early education, 17 are saved in intervention costs during the high-school years.

Walls found out about the program during an elementary-school principals conference he attended this summer in Columbus.

Darmetrus, there Thursday with his aunt Stephanie Rosario and her children, Dayla, 20 months, and Anthony, 5 months, found a plastic red truck that was infinitely more interesting that “Itsy Bitsy Spider.”

He sat at a table and turned the truck over in his hands while Rosario gathered canvas shopping sacks the group was decorating to use as bookbags.

Rosario said she learned about the program from her mother-in-law, who found out about it at the school’s open house.

“She knows I’m into getting them developmentally ready for school, and she recommended coming,” said Rosario.

Some of the school’s teachers have even joined the program.

Third-grade teacher Kim Kolidakis is bringing her son, Panormitis, 2. She’s there “just to get some new ideas on how to work with him.”

Walls said that if parents are interested in joining the group, they can call his office at 330-799-6830 or 330-799-8272. Participants must live in Campbell School District.