Conference to Focus on Disabled Children

Social service and community organizations will host a daylong conference for professionals and families of young children with special needs.

Titled “Walking the Path Together,” the conference will be held at Oxnard Community Center from 8 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Many of the workshops are designed to help parents address situations that arise with disabled youngsters. Others deal with father-to-father peer support and understanding the various laws dealing with disabled children.

Workshops for professionals--teachers, nurses and therapists--will include a presentation called “Nuts and Bolts of Kids With Equipment,” demonstrating special feeding techniques that teachers or aides may need to use on medically fragile students.

Annette Goodheart, a marriage, family and child counselor, will deliver a keynote speech titled “Loss, Laughter and Healing.”

The conference is co-sponsored by the Ventura County Superintendent of Schools Office, the Rainbow Family Resource Center, Early Start, Head Start and the Ventura County Foster Parent Education program.

There is a $15 admission fee, but scholarships and child-care stipends are available. For more information, call the Rainbow Family Resource Center at 485-9643.

To register for the conference, call the Ventura County Special Education Local Plan Area at 383-1920.