Go to the mobile version of this Web site.

Login | Contact Us | Site Map | Paid archives | Electronic edition | Subscription Questions | Extras

School taps every child's abilities

By Julie Hutchinson, Special to the Rocky

Published November 17, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

Text size  
Time to gather Group leader of the day Desmond Silverman-Joseph, 4, holds the gather-up sign at the end of recess at the Sewall Child Development Center in Denver last week. What is now Sewall began in 1944 as a place to treat polio victims. Today, Sewall is a nationally acclaimed preschool where children of all abilities, from as young as eight weeks up to age 5, learn from each other in programs designed to make the most of each child's gifts. Half the children have special needs. 22

Photo by George Kochaniec Jr. / The Rocky

Time to gather Group leader of the day Desmond Silverman-Joseph, 4, holds the gather-up sign at the end of recess at the Sewall Child Development Center in Denver last week. What is now Sewall began in 1944 as a place to treat polio victims. Today, Sewall is a nationally acclaimed preschool where children of all abilities, from as young as eight weeks up to age 5, learn from each other in programs designed to make the most of each child's gifts. Half the children have special needs. 22

More Season to Share

More stories »

What is now the Sewall Child Development Center began in 1944 as a place to treat polio victims.

Today, it is a nationally acclaimed preschool where children of all abilities, as young as 8 weeks up to age 5, learn from one another in programs designed to make the most of each child's gifts.

In this interview, Coleen Truax, Sewall's vice president of development, talks about the center and the children it serves. The center has applied for a Season to Share grant.

What fuels your passion for Sewall Child Development Center?

Because we are committed to inclusion in preschool and child care, half our kids are special needs kids with conditions from autism to Fragile X to Down syndrome, and half are, quote unquote, typically developing kids.

What keeps you up at night?

Truly it is finding the funding we need for day-to-day operations. At this point, I'm most nervous about next year. When you look at foundation assets, if they've suffered some of the huge declines that have affected the stock market, they're going to have much less to give next year. This will be impacting every nonprofit in our community.

Tell me about a case in which Sewall really made a difference.

One little boy who always touched my heart is Cal Crum. He has a twin brother, Quinton, and they enrolled together. Both were born prematurely, but within 40 hours of birth Cal had a major brain hemorrhage and the official diagnosis was cerebral palsy.

So Cal's mom found Sewall because she was looking for a place where she could enroll both of her boys.

When Cal started he was not quite 3, barely crawling. Within six or eight weeks he had started walking on his walker. At a certain point Cal said he want to learn to ride a trike. Eventually, Cal was cruising the trike track on his tricycle.

When he graduated from preschool, he was using forearm crutches - he called them his sticks. When he walked out to get his diploma on his sticks, well, it still makes me cry to think about it.

How have Sewall's clients changed in the past few years?

We have such a demand in our program for intensive autism services and, unfortunately, our capacity cannot meet the demand, and we can't always accommodate every parent who wants their children here.

Children with autism have special needs, and we're focusing on behavioral intervention, things like making eye contact and learning to read verbal cues so they can go on to integrate into their local public school classroom and not have to be segregated.

The reward on that is when you hear the mom of a 4- or 5-year-old say, "He told me 'I love you' today for the first time."

What's the biggest need among the people you serve?

All of the children have their own unique needs, and we provide within our preschool classrooms every kind of therapy. They may be getting physical therapy or speech therapy, but it's within the context of the classroom - we're not pulling them out of their classrooms.

It's tough being the parent of a child with special needs. So we provide a safe place for parents to adjust to the new reality, and it can be a really hard adjustment.

Sewall Child Development Center

* Mission: To help children with special needs and their families integrate into society by addressing their individual needs alongside children developing on a typical schedule

* Year founded: 1944

* People helped: Sewall reaches about 2,500 children and their families annually

* Staff: 78

* Volunteers: 250

* Budget: $3.3-$3.4 million a year

* Web site: sewall.org

How to donate

Post-News Season to Share, a McCormick Foundation Fund, gave more than $2.1 million last year to 65 agencies serving disadvantaged children, as well as people who are hungry, homeless or in need of medical care. Donations are matched at 50 cents for each dollar, and 100 percent of all donations, plus the match, go directly to local nonprofit agencies.

* To donate:call 1-800-518-3972 or go to seasontoshare.com.