One in seven young children have a diagnosed mental, behavioral or developmental disorder, according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC). And even more children go undiagnosed each year due to inaccessible health services or a lack of awareness about local support systems.
Help Me Grow, which offers developmental and behavioral screening for children, is getting a boost from local United Ways and 211. Together, they’re the centralized access points for 55 percent of the Help Me Grow systems in the U.S. They’re connecting people to child health, behavior, development and learning resources; providing parents with answers to their child-development questions; and ensuring children can participate in developmental screenings.
And it’s making a difference. Recently, a mom in Florida called 211 because she didn’t know what to do about her toddler being kicked out of daycare for behavior problems. 211 connected her to a Help Me Grow Coordinator, who then connected the child to therapy and the mom to developmental evaluation tools. 211’s care coordinator helped the mom get an appointment quickly with experts, who found the child had developmental delays. Now, he’s in a smaller child care setting with more teachers and fewer kids. “I’m so grateful to Help Me Grow,” she says. “It’s such a relief. He’s like a different child now.”
Every day, 211s are helping children and families in need. Last year, 211 provided 200,000 connections to education resources; 40,000 connections to child development screenings, and 100,000 connections to
early childhood education and literacy programs or child care providers
Learn more about 211 by visiting www.211.org.