A series of expert led talks will kick off in Lake Macquarie next month aimed at giving families a hand navigating kids and parenting after a disrupted few years with Covid.
Lake Macquarie City Council Community Planner Children and Families Jessica Salvador said 10 workshops will go ahead as part of the 2022 You’re Kidding Me program.
“This year’s focus is to help parents whose kids, aged five-years-old and under, might be dealing with challenges brought on by the pandemic,” Ms Salvador said.
“In some cases, isolation and lockdowns may have completely ruined any sense of a stable routine for families, as well as made children more susceptible to separation anxiety and speech impairments do to a lack of socialisation outside of the house.”
Early Start Speech Pathology Senior Speech Pathologist Hannah Parker said free speech screening assessments will be on offer at a number of sessions over the course of this year’s event.
“Because everyone has been isolating or been at home a lot more, kids aren’t having much socialisation with kids their own age so we’re seeing more difficulties with kids interacting with peers,” Ms Parker said.
“We’ll run free 15-minute speech screenings for children aged between 3-5 years old to see if they’re on track with their speech or if they could benefit from additional support.”
This year’s You’re Kidding Me program will run face-to-face from September 6 until late November.
While the workshops are free, bookings are essential.
You’ll find a full program listing, including dates, times and booking information for the event at lakemac.com.au.