Children’s advocates highlight importance of developmental screenings for kids

Rochester, New York — The Get Ready to GROW is a new awareness campaign initiative that offers free developmental screenings for kids, including height, weight, vision, and hearing.

Advertising agency Mower is providing resources for the “Let Their Greatness Grow” campaign. That campaign is aimed at informing parents about how crucial these screenings are. The initiative, led by the Children’s Institute, is getting a boost with a new campaign

“Children during this age of life, their growth is so rapid,” said Children’s Institute Executive Director Ann Marie White. “We see there is so much brain development, and things can be changing on a day-to-day way. As families, we don’t always have that expertise to know, ‘Well, maybe my child’s not talking at the same rate as other children,’ because we only know our own children a lot of times. So, what happens and why this is important is because we can add that boost of knowledge, skills, and relationships to families to help say and see, ‘Well, this seems to be going well with your child’s growth, and here are some areas that maybe need a boost or needs to be looked at a little further to make sure that those needs are addressed in a timely way.'”

Parent Nadiah Tucker says she hopes families will pay attention to the campaign.

“Maybe this can motivate parents to do what they have to do to get their kid’s certain services,” she said. “It’s important that we don’t deny the fact that sometimes our kids do need extra services.”