Polk County Public Schools, Parents
Keyword for this page: Child Find
Child Find assists with identifying children with special needs who are currently not enrolled in school. We provide vision, hearing, speech and developmental screenings for children from 3-5 years of age who are suspected of having a disability.
We are searching for children with special needs who are not in school. Our search effort is to locate children in two different age groups:
Child Find screens preschoolers who may have special needs, so that schools can better plan for future educational programs. We can screen your child's vision, hearing, speech and developmental skills.
Contact Child Find if you think your child might need special help. Polk County residents should call 863-647-4262 and Hardee County residents should call 863-773-2600 ext. 258.
For children under 3 years of age, please call USF Early Steps Program at (866)549-1740 for more information or visit the Early Steps website.
Most children should be able to perform certain tasks or functions by certain ages.
This website is loaded with information for parents on typical and atypical development, brain growth and function, and child rearing issues. It covers all areas of development and the index provided makes it user friendly.
This website includes an interactive developmental timeline for children birth through five. A parent is able to explore the five areas of development---socio-emotional, cognitive, language, sensory and motor. It can also be navigated using age. If more information is needed on a topic, the parent simply clicks on the item. The final checklist can be printed from the computer. A small library of one minute videos on child rearing is also available.
www.firstsigns.org
This website is dedicated to the early identification and intervention of children with delays. The site lists developmental milestones through the age of three and posts red flags warnings which might indicate a delay or disorder. A discussion of different disorders is included on the website.
www.bornlearning.org
This website is provided by Success by Six and United Way agencies to help caregivers and agencies provide quality early learning experiences for children. It outlines the five most important things a new parent can do, provides developmental milestones for children birth to five, and provides suggestions on turning every day experiences into learning opportunities for children.
www.todobebe.com
This site is written in Spanish and provides Spanish speaking families with information on a variety of topics.