The Rotary Park will be a dinosaur obstacle of fun on August 14 for children in Drumheller.
Children’s Rehabilitation Services will be bringing their obstacle course to the Drumheller area for the second time this summer.
The program has been bringing an obstacle course to the spray park since 2009. The obstacle course allows children to have fun while allowing parents to ask Children’s Rehabilitation Services questions about their child’s development.
Steve Tetz, Area Lead with Children’s Rehabilitation Services, said the event happens twice a year. This year, on July 15, they included the Passion for Health, which is a part of Alberta Health Services.
“The idea was to just get some more exposure in the community and give people a chance to learn about child development and ask questions about child development. It is all fun and the kids have a great time,” Tetz said.
“At the same time, it gives us a chance and parents a chance to watch how their child is moving, how they hold things. There are some communication pieces to it as well for the speech perspective.”
He said by bringing the obstacle course to town it allows parents to ask questions they might have about child development.
“It also lets people know our services exist and what kinds of things to look for with child development,” he said.
“We have had a few families say ‘I don’t even know if this is an issue, but do you want to take a look?’ so I’ve watched a (few) kids walk,” he said, continuing by noting that a lot of times if parents were to go elsewhere they are told to wait or that their child will outgrow it. Tetz is also an Occupational Therapist.
“This gives people a little bit of exposure to the concept of child development and motor development and allows them to ask any questions they might have,” he told the Mail.
Tetz said that some of the less Urban centre’s don’t always realize these services are available to them.
“They think it is a city based service… We do walk in clinics as well where people can drop in and if they have a question do a quick screening with one of our people and get some answers that way too.”
He said the best way to find out about the location and dates for the walk-in clinics, as well as more information about the services they offer in the Drumheller area, is to contact the Children’s Rehabilitation Services coordinated intake at 1-855-420-7986 for the Drumheller area and 1-855-414-5272 for closer to Red Deer.
