'A sense of power': New communication panels offering nonverbal children a chance to interact at city parks
Communication panels have been installed in three Regina parks, offering those who are nonverbal or who are experiencing disabilities an opportunity to interact with others.
The double-sided panels have pictures and words on them representing a variety of feelings and actions. Children can point to the appropriate picture to portray what they wish to communicate.
Nichole Forbes, a speech language pathologist with the Regina Speech Centre, said the boards offer a sense of independence for children.
“It offers a wide variety. It covers their needs but also things that they may want to initiate and implement for play themselves - what they want to do and how they want to use the park,” Forbes said.
“That’s what communication does. It gives our students a sense of power to communicate their needs. That’s what we want to be able to offer our kids who use devices like this.”
The panels are currently installed in Gocki Park, Regent Park and Les Sherman Park.
The city said a fourth panel is scheduled to be installed in the spring.
“We need accessible equipment all over our city at a variety of different locations, so we’re just excited to see something new come up and be another accessible feature,” Courtney Domoney, a community consultant for social inclusion with the City of Regina, said.
The panels use the Picture Exchange Communication System, which is used for people of all ages with various cognitive, physical and communication disabilities.
Some of the prompts include park features like a slide, swings and ramps.
Others portray feelings like sad, happy and mad, or responses like yes and no.
“The system of pictures that’s used is something that a lot of students or children or adults use to communicate,” Domoney said.
“Instead of them having to carry the system with them at all times, now the system is in place at the parks for them to use.”
The panels were created in partnership with the faculty at St. Maria Faustian School and the Regina Speech Centre.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Canada's most wanted fugitive arrested in P.E.I. in connection with Toronto homicide
A suspect in a fatal shooting in Toronto’s east end last summer has been arrested in Charlottetown, just one week after he topped a list of Canada’s most wanted fugitives.
BREAKING Federal employees will be required to spend 3 days a week in the office
Starting in September, public servants in the core public administration will be required to work in the office a minimum of three days a week. The Treasury Board Secretariat says executives will need to be in the office four days per week.
Concerns about plexiglass prompt inspections at some Loblaws locations in Ottawa
Inspections are underway at more than one Loblaws location in Ottawa after complaints were filed about tall plexiglass barriers.
OPP officer said 'someone's going to get hurt' before wrong-way Hwy. 401 crash
As multiple Durham police cruisers were chasing a robbery suspect on the wrong side of Highway 401 Monday night, an Ontario Provincial Police officer shared his concerns, telling a dispatcher, "Someone's going to get hurt."
Poilievre unrepentant over calling Trudeau 'wacko' as his MPs say Speaker should resign
An unrepentant Pierre Poilievre returned to the House of Commons on Wednesday to pepper the prime minister about his drug decriminalization policies after being booted the day prior for refusing to take back calling Justin Trudeau 'wacko' over his approach to the issue.
Five human skeletons, missing hands and feet, found outside house of Nazi leader Hermann Göring
Archeologists have unearthed the skeletons of five people, missing their hands and feet, at a former Nazi military base in Poland.
Toddler of Phoenix first responder dies after bounce house goes airborne
A two-year-old child died after a strong gust of wind sent the bounce house he was in airborne and into a neighbouring lot in central Arizona, the Pinal County Sheriff's Office said.
Plane overshoots runway at airport in St. John's, N.L., no injuries reported
Investigators from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada are headed to St. John's, N.L., after a plane overshot a runway at the city's airport this afternoon.
A teen was found buried in a basement in New York. An engraved ring helped police learn her identity two decades later
For more than two decades, the unknown victim was nicknamed "Midtown Jane Doe" because she was found in the Hell's Kitchen neighbourhood of New York City. But this week, investigators finally revealed her identity.