O’Neill Early Head Start

Diezel Sidak was born on January 22, 2008 at St. Anthony’s Hospital in O’Neill, NE. He was also born deaf. Diezel has six siblings, a brother that is deaf, and his mother is disabled with bi-polar disorder. Mom and Dad have done a very good job raising all seven children and dad works full time as a truck driver and is not home all the time. Mom has taken Diezel into several appointments and now he has his first Cochlear implant in and is doing well. He receives services every day between a deaf educator coming in two times a week; a speech therapist two days a week; Mom takes him to the hospital the other 2 days for combined services; and EHS Family Consultant, Marjie Peed visits him once a week. Diezel has made so much progress with his implant and the doctor said he is doing 65% better than most of the children with implants. He has now started the process of testing for his second implant which he will receive in the next few months. Mom has also started a sign language class for the family. His siblings will learn how to communicate with him even without his implant turned on

Lucky Learners Preschool

Several hours after his birth, Caleb Rowse was taken by ambulance to The Children’s Hospital in Omaha where he would spend the following 30 days. Caleb was born with spina bifida and a cleft lip and palate. His spinal cord was repaired the day after his birth but the following week he developed an infection in his back which led to bacterial meningitis. He then had to spend numerous weeks at the hospital being treated with IV antibiotics. He had to have his back repaired a second time, a central line inserted to receive his IV antibiotics, and a VP shunt placed in his head to help drain the extra fluid from his brain. Caleb has endured multiple surgeries to repair his cleft lip. When Caleb was about 2 his parents started to notice that Caleb wasn’t able to move his legs as well as before. Upon visiting with a neurosurgeon in Omaha, they were told that Caleb was going to have to undergo another surgery to put a shunt in his back as he had developed cysts on his spinal cord. The shunt would help drain those cysts.

Caleb is now 3 1/2 years old, and looking at him you would never know what he has been through in his life. He now walks with the aid of a walker and makes every attempt to do what the other children his age are doing. His therapists have been instrumental in making him successful in everything he does. In August of 2008, his parents decided to enroll him in the Lucky Learners Preschool in O’Neill, a formal partnership with O’Neill Public Schools and Head Start. He had some struggles in the very beginning, as his walker made it a challenge for him but with the help of his therapist and teachers, changes have been made to make things more accessible for Caleb. Being in preschool has been a great experience for Caleb. He has had the chance to make many new friends and the experience has helped him feel more like the other children. Lucky Learners Preschool staff: Karla Kopejtka, Kathy Coats, Nancy Hilkemeier, Colleen Adair, and Erin Couch.

ABC Preschool

The ABC Preschool, a formal partnership with Albion Public Schools and Head Start, has chosen the Duane Fritzen family as their success story of the year. Duane is a single dad, raising three boys, twins, Dakota and Dylan, five years old, and Britton, four years old. All three boys were in our program last year, and Britton is in our program this year. Duane has been a single dad since the twins were two and a half and Britton was one year old. Duane works as a lead site leader at a hog unit south of Cedar Rapids, Nebraska. His morning begins very early, thus having to get the boys to the babysitter very early. By the end of the day, he is tired and it’s hard for him to reenergize and spend quality time with the boys.

He said, “We get home and they want to play. I have
to get dinner and then have to help them with homework. A
lot of times, they don’t want to cooperate, which makes it very trying. We have to have our baths and then it’s time to
go to bed. Sometimes, they don’t want to go to bed and they don’t understand that my day begins very early.” “The ABC Preschool has helped me in several ways. I like the organization of the class. Not only did my boys learn educational activities, they learned to be social and to follow a routine. They also learned how to deal with conflict and this has helped a lot at home. I do not always have to intervene. They are getting so they work out their own differences.” “The other great aspect of the program for me was the goal setting for outside of the classroom. The program helped me to make a routine for the boys, so it wasn’t always chaotic in the evenings. The program helped me with meal planning and other family oriented activities that we could do as a family. I would recommend the program to any parent.”

Duane was a Parent Policy Council Representative last year. He has attended Parent Meetings, Male Involvement Activities and any other outside classroom activities. He volunteers monthly and the kids really have a great time with him. Duane Fritzen is truly a success story for the ABC Preschool. ABC Preschool staff: Sherri Kelley, Connie Kahlandt, Marianne Osantowski, Sue Stuhlmiller, and Sheena Krohn.