The Child Care and Protection Agency (CCPA) on Tuesday launched a special early childhood development toddlers’ reading programme at the One Mile Health Centre.
The launch saw in attendance scores of parents with their infants and toddlers who were encouraged to take advantage of the programme as reading is essential to a child’s development.

The initiative themed “Back to Basics” was made possible by the CCPA in collaboration with the Ministry of Public Health/Maternal and Child Health Unit and the National Library.
Director of Child Services Ann Greene posited in her remarks that reading is part of a child’s normal developmental process and parents must be integrally involved.
She said the book shelf that was unveiled at the health centre must be used when parents visit the post-natal clinic.

“We got to get back to basics, we got to get back to the time when children learn to read on the lapse of the parents,” Greene commented. She also encouraged the clinic to initiate a ‘Baby father day’ as fathers too should get involved in teaching their children to read.
Both Mayor of Linden Carwyn Holland and Regional Chairman Renis Morian emphasised the need for fathers to play a role since all of the parents present were mothers. Holland said some parents may think that teaching a child to read at such a tender age is useless, but the toddlers do understand.

“Don’t think they don’t understand what you are saying, they do understand, but they are just unable to express themselves,” Morian said.
Registration and License Officer Daunne McFarane explained that the programme targets children from birth to three years old. The One Mile Health Centre is the facility for the pilot project in Linden.

“It is our intention to have similar set-up in other Mather Child Health Clinics across Region 10. These clinics will be monitored and support given where necessary,” McFarane said.
The programme was launched at the East Ruimveldt Health Centre and should be rolled out at 361 health centres across the country. The public is being asked to donate books to the book shelves that have been made available.