Ongoing Good

Finding continued support and service thanks to SMD and Easter Seals

Mark and Candace Wozniuk from Minitonas, Manitoba have been working with SMD for more than three years now…and it’s made a huge difference in their lives.

The Wozniuk’s two girls, Tawny and Brooklynn, were both born with a genetic hearing loss. Brooklynn also had Sensory Integration Disorder which causes children to react differently to touch and movement. Diane Maydaniuk (who works at the SMD Parkland Office in Dauphin, Manitoba) became the girls’ Case Worker and helped the family connect with an occupational therapist, physiotherapist and speech therapist.

Brooklynn, who has just turned six, has graduated kindergarten with flying colors. “The teacher and aides in the classroom made a wonderful effort to integrate sign language,” says Candace. “Eventually it became a regular part of their daily routine, right down to the children answering questions during ‘show and share’ in ASL.”

Candace has also been teaching ASL to nine-year-old Tawny’s class for the past couple of years. “The children are already asking me if I will be coming this year to teach them a song for the Christmas concert and Tawny’s class is getting invited to do performances at some of the long term care homes in Swan River.”

It’s a long way from where they started. Candace remembers when her daughters’ hearing loss was first diagnosed. She was told little more than that they would be fitted for hearing aids and should be enrolled in speech therapy as soon as possible.

“That is when I started to make phone calls,” says Candace. “I found out what kinds of programs are in the rural areas for people with disabilities.”

“I must admit I never really thought about Easter Seals a lot until the girls came. But with SMD and Easter Seals, there is someone always there to answer your questions, be a shoulder to lean on and sometimes just to explain things in everyday terms.”

“I think the final reward was when my daughter came out of her room after having her hearing aids for two weeks and told me Mickey Mouse could talk - we knew it was all uphill from there!”

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