Learning from communities: Thinking about accessibility and equity

With a steadfast commitment to making our services accessible and equitable, Hearing and Speech Nova Scotia (HSNS) had the opportunity to further this goal in 2023. We were able to accomplish that by working closely with the East Preston Daycare and Family Resource Centre in the historically underserved Preston community.

In discussion with staff at the East Preston Daycare: Trina Fraser, Juanita Smith and Kim McMullin, we learned that lack of access to transportation has been a major barrier to community members receiving hearing and speech services. They shared that offering our services locally in their community would make it easier for caregivers to connect with us and for the early childhood educators to be included. Trina also expressed that the daycare would welcome professional development workshops, to better help community members learn how to support children with speech and language needs.

As a result, HSNS clinicians have been visiting the East Preston Daycare regularly to provide direct and indirect speech and language services. The daycare has provided us with space to meet with caregivers one-on-one, and the early childhood educators have welcomed us into their classrooms. “Collaborating with classroom educators has been such a positive experience,” said Kathryn Francis, Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP). “They care so much for the children they're working with and have been very open to trying new strategies, to support the children’s learning and growth.”

One of the highlights of the year was a screening event, where SLPs Ashley Tucker-McIntosh and Ariane Tye visited the daycare to carry out speech, language and hearing screenings for preschool children aged 3-5 years. Twenty-one children were screened, identifying a number who would benefit from a more in-depth assessment of their communication skills or hearing abilities. In cases where further assessment was recommended based on the screening results, Ashley and Ariane supported the daycare in communicating to caregivers the results of the screening and recommendations on next steps.

To continue our engagement with the community, we recently sent out a survey to daycare staff to plan for the requested professional development opportunities. This will enable our team to discover what early childhood educators would value learning about most. Possible workshop topics include supporting early language development, building social skills and developing early literacy skills.

Working with East Preston Daycare and Family Resource Centre has allowed us to learn directly from community members about how HSNS can better support families in Preston. “It started with a conversation in a parking lot,” says Myrto Brandeker, Manager. “And it has led to an emerging relationship with the community and a greater understanding of how we can best provide hearing and speech services, in a way that is truly valuable to community members.” We are grateful for this opportunity and look forward to our ongoing collaboration with the daycare and community.