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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 10, 1979)
THE BATTALION MONDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1979 Page 3 Program helps infants By PHYLLIS J. POWELL Special to the Battalion At first glance, the class of 3-year- olds playing and running around the wooden floored classroom was like any other day school class of their peers. Two boys threw bean bags through the clown while a girl rode a tiny tricycle around the room. Another girl was rocking in a wooden structure whose flip side formed a :iny set of stairs; three steps up, :hree steps down. A third girl rushed rom one toy to the next. But after a few moments it became obvious that this class was different. Several of the children laughed as hey played, but none of them alked. This class is one of the two classes he Bryan Mental Health and Men- al Retardation Center (MH-MR) jffers in its Infant Stimulation- Parent Training program. “The program is available to any diild 3-years-old or under that is dentified as delayed in develop- nent,” said Sue Leysath-McBeth, :he program s director. The program is divided into two parts. The First Steps Forward sec tion is designed for infants up to 2- years old who show some sign of de velopmental delay. The second part of the program is a day school program for 2- and 3- year-olds who show some problems in their development. But these children must be able to walk to attend the day classes. The classes, Leysath-Mcbeth said, are available to children of all income levels. There is no charge. The Texas Educational Agency provides some of the funding for the developmental skills program for the 2- and 3-year olds. The rest of the funds are provided by Grant-in-Aid and local donations. The First Steps Forward program for the infants re ceives all of its money from private donations and the Grant-in-Aid program. The children are referred to the First Steps Forward program by physicians, friends, the Health De partment or by their parents. Leysath-McBeth said they use the Koontz Developmental Program as a guideline for determining what levels the children are functioning. ALTERATIONS Four skill areas are tested: gross motor, fine motor, social and lan guage. The Koontz guideline gives th staff an idea of what the child should be able to do at certain ages. The results of the evaluation deter mine what children are admitted to the program. The infants are seen in their homes three times each week for one hour sessions with the parents and the teachers. There are two home teachers in the First Steps Forward program. They are trained to exercise or sti mulate the babies in the areas they need help in. While they are exercis ing the babies they also show the parents how to perform the exer cises. There are 36 children in the First Steps program and 14 others still in the application stage. The day school program for the 2- and 3-year-olds is divided into two classes. One meets on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings and the other is held on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The classes are held in the clas sroom annex of the First Free Will Baptist Church in Bryan. The special education teacher for developmental skills is Linda Led better. She has four teaching assis tants who are students at Texas A&M University and are interning for the MM-MR Center. We emphasize the behavioral approach, Leysath-McBeth said. “We encourage good behavior by re warding it with praise. Only three of the students in the day care program are classified as mentally retarded and only three of the 36 infants are classified as re tarded, although the majority do have significant delays. “But we try not to label these kids,” Leysath-McBeth said. “We try to give them all th help we can without burdening them with labels. ” It IN THE GRAND TRADITION OF OLD TEXAS WHERE MOTHER TAUGHT DAUGHTER THE FINE ART OF SEWING — SO HELEN MARIE TAUGHT EDITH MARIE THE SECRETS OF SEWING AND ALTERATIONS “DON’T GIVE UP — WE LL MAKE IT FIT!" AT WELCH'S CLEANERS. WE NOT ONLY SERVE AS AN EXCELLENT DRY CLEANERS BUT WE SPE CIALIZE IN ALTERING HARD TO FIT EVENING DRESSES. TAPERED SHIRTS, JEAN HEMS, WATCH POCKETS, ETC. (WE RE JUST A FEW BLOCKS NORTH OF FED MART.) The is, whodi the ed Oman ainst ivyam is II e western poets we itself. % WELCH’S CLEANERS 3819 E. 29th (TOWN & COUNTRY SHOPPING CENTER^ The Cow Hop The Biggest Burger Bargains in B-CS! Now has a limy Bayer, member of Lambda Sigma, a jphomore honor society, straightens up Ihristmas trees in front of the Commons on Tree sale ends today the southside of campus. Lambda Sigma will sell the trees from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. today in front of the Commons. Battalion photo by John Littman WHAT DO THESE PEOPLE HAVE IN COMMON? irloin bM researcher to gather info ^ogram to study drownings A Texas A&M University resear- :r in Galveston has begun a two- ir study of the thousands of water- ated deaths in Texas since 1971 to Ip design a safety program catered preventing more tragedies. The search, said Dr. James :Cloy ofTexas A&M University at Iveston, will examine when, how ivhy drownings and other water- delated deaths occurred on Texas ivers, lakes and bays from 1971 to 1978, First phase of the project will titrated on the coastal zone. iVith 367 air miles of marine coast- and 2.8 million acres of inland rater, Texas has the nation’s second ighest death toll from aquatic acci- lenfs, said McCloy. |An average of 608 people died annually from 1970 to 197 in water- irelated accidents, he said. ■The study is being supported by 819,000 from the Texas A&M Sea Grant College Program and $9,968 from the Moody Foundation, he said. Through Sea Grant's public edu cation programs, he said, safety mea sures can be implemented at hazar dous locations during seasons when dangerous water activities occur most. Data for the eight-year period is being gathered on a confidential basis from the Texas Health Depart ment, Texas Parks and Wildlife De partment and from coroners in the coastal counties of Harris, Galveston and Nueces where Houston, Galves ton and Corpus Christi are located. About 32 percent oo all water fatali ties occur on the coast. McCloy said drownings are the number 2 killer of persons under age 45, second only to automobile accidents. California, with its 840 miles of coast, is the leading state for drownings while Texas is second. The search, said McCloy, will ex amine a number of circumstances, including whether drugs or alcohol were involved, what kinds of clothes were worn, where and when the accident happened and what kind of activity was involved. Information correlated by the computer should tell Sea Grant spe cialists and other safety officials where to concentrate efforts in draw ing up procedures and management techniques, he explained. The information might also point to whether environmental changes such as a new lake or beachfront de velopment tend to increase or de crease water-related death rates in specific geographical areas. David A. Eubank Mark Jones Steve Sisney Cindy Crowell Scott Hennis Dennis Walters Catherine A. Woehrmann Barry Rosson Susan Neal Cynthia Crowell 1 Robert Schneeburg Robert Merkelz Joan Kelly Daniel Oaks Robert Green Colan Devereaux David Mellina Jefferson Dutton Gary Blanton Mike Dillow Steve Rawles James Vick Paul Names Sherrilynn Rollins Stephen DuPlantis Tamera Schuyler Patricia Davis Erin Frazier Dolly Elliott Penny Lynn Karen Kingston Paula Fadale Ronald Rand Gary Blanton William Crump Carol Hageman Margaret Hennen teak $095 with French fries and Texas Toast — (Available only after 3 p.m., Mon.-Sat.) 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