When your child fails to meet specific developmental markers, your physician may recommend further testing to arrive at a diagnosis. Many parents in British Columbia are first sent to Sunny Hill Health Center at BC Children’s Hospital in Vancouver for assessment. Once a diagnosis of cerebral palsy is made, children attend child development centers across the province. These child development centers are important to children with cerebral palsy and their families, both for therapeutic value and interaction with other members of the CP community.
The following child development centers provide assistance to children with cerebral palsy all over British Columbia. Support includes physiotherapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy, as well as social programs
Vancouver Coastal
BC Centre for Ability — Burnaby, North Vancouver, Richmond and Vancouver
Services: brain injury services, community living, family and professional resources, social emotional services, supported child development, therapy services, vocational services, and more.
Developmental Disabilities Association — Richmond and Vancouver.
Services: brain injury services, inclusive day care, infant child development, physiotherapy, supported child development.
Inclusion Powell River — Powell River
Services: community connections, infant development program, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, supported child development program, and more.
North Shore Disability Resource Centre — North Vancouver
Services: community-based services, infant child development program, information and advocacy services, and more.
Reach Child and Youth Development Society — Delta
Services: early years centre, infant child development, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, speech and language services, supported child development, and more.
SHARE Family & Community Services — Coquitlam
Services: community living, counselling, early intervention therapy, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, speech and language services, and more.
Sunny Hill Health Centre — Vancouver
Services: assistive technology, complex developmental behavioural conditions, feeding and nutrition, gait assessment, positioning mobility, rehabilitation, therapeutic recreation, tone management, and more.
Fraser Valley
The Centre for Child Development — Delta, Langley and Surrey
Services: communication therapy, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, psychology services, supported child development, recreation, and more.
Fraser Valley Child Development Centre — Abbotsford
Services: child development consultancy, family support workers, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, speech and language therapy, and more.
Ridge Meadows Child Development Centre Society — Maple Ridge
Services: early intervention therapy, family support services, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, speech-language pathology, and more.
Vancouver Island
Aboriginal Supported Child Development — Victoria
Services: community resources, health services, home visits, support child development, and more.
Clements Centre Society — Duncan
Services: family resources, occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech and language pathology, support child development, and more.
Comox Valley Child Development Association — Courtenay
Services: infant development program, occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech-language pathology, supported child development program, and more.
Kiwanis Hilton Children’s Centre — Port Alberni
Services: child care, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, and more.
Nanaimo Child Development Centre — Nanaimo
Services: infant development program, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, speech language pathology, and more.
Interior BC
Children’s Therapy & Family Resource Centre — Kamloops
Services: early intervention program, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, speech and language therapy, supported child development, and more.
Kootenay Family Place — Castlegar
Services: child care, early intervention program, neighbourhood house, therapy services, and more.
NONA Child Development Centre — Vernon
Services: infant development program, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, speech-language therapy, supported child development, and more.
Northern BC
The Bulkley Valley Child Development Centre — Smithers
Services: family services support worker, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, speech and language pathology, and more.
The Child Development Centre of Prince George and District — Prince George
Services: early intervention therapy, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, speech language pathology, and more.
Kitimat Child Development Centre Association — Kitimat
Services: early intervention program, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, speech language pathology, and more.
Quesnel & District Child Development Centre — Quesne
Services: infant development program, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, supported child development, and more.
Terrace Child Development Centre — Terrace
Services: infant development program, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, supported child development, and more.
Many families also contact the Cerebral Palsy Association of British Columbia to learn more about their child’s diagnosis. In fact, the Cerebral Palsy Association annually receives over 600 inquiries from throughout BC about living with cerebral palsy. The team at Renaud Law Group has supported the CPABC since the early 2000s, as well as several disability advocacy and child development groups across the province.
