With a string in hand, three-year-old Floyd Murphy dangles a magnet above coloured cars, nestled in a wooden board like puzzle pieces.
The magnet connects, and he pulls up the wooden shape triumphantly.
It's a toy, but also part of a host of daily therapy options his parents Julia Neumann and Mike Murphy use at home to improve his cognition and physical development.
"This is really good for him because it improves his coordination," says Neumann of Floyd, who has Down's Syndrome.
It also gets him to focus on a task, use both hands, and develop fine motor skills.
Floyd dumps the pieces on the table.
"That's one way to do it," Neumann laughs.
Floyd's first months, including a traumatic few weeks in a Vancouver hospital's neonatal intense care unit, were an especially steep learning curve for the young family.
"I knew what Down's Syndrome was when I first heard about it, but I didn't really know much about it," explains Mike, adding Floyd has low muscle tone and loose ligaments. "I was kind of surprised to see that it involved a lot of the physical challenges; I mostly assumed it was mental or intellectual kind of thing."
In those early days, the family turned to Prince George's Child Development Centre for help.
"They've been involved in virtually every aspect of Floyd's life and development," Mike says."We would have been lost without them."
Neumann says a huge part of the centre's approach is teaching parents how to get involved in their child's development. Therapists also trained Floyd's daily helper and the pediatrician is kept in the loop.
"Everything is interconnected," she says of the approach. "Right from the start... we felt that we were informed about Floyd's potential and really learning the ways we can help."
Floyd smiles and waves, singing "ding dong" while his parents talk.
He's just learning words like "momma" and "dada," but has an arsenal of more than 100 sign language words.
But speech therapy is a small component of the support the family gets from the centre, which also includes physiotherapy and occupational therapy.
Mike says it would be impossible for the family of two children to afford all the specialized toys and therapy aids - which the centre loans to them for weeks at a time - let alone the larger equipment they use during sessions at the centre.
Floyd can't walk on his own yet, and grips his father's index fingers as he moves through living room from toy to toy. But with the help of the centre's treadmill, that's changing.
"He's made huge progress already in the last couple of weeks," Mike says.
Getting essential equipment is one of the main fundraising goals of Friday's Kris Kringle Luncheon at the Civic Centre, says Darrell Roze, CDC's executive director.
The centre serves some 11,000 children each year, a number that has doubled in 15 years despite having the same staffing levels.
"When you have less people to provide the service, you look to have equipment that is more effective while child is here," says Roze, adding the centre has about 50 employees. "It's spreading the services thinner than it used to be."
The centre never turns children away, and offers free assessment and support for children with an array of developmental issues.
"Anyone that has a concern with their child's development can come here and they don't require any type of referral from a professional in the field."
Roze says he hopes to raise more than $20,000 Friday, a number that goes a small way to bump its annual $2.2-million budget.
"They become pretty critical," he says of the fundraisers, adding it is frustrating the province doesn't take greater interest in early care for kids.
"As a society we think that children should get educated... but when a child is five years old, kind of the base development that leads to their ability to learn in the future, much of that has already taken place," says Roze, noting a special needs child in the school system can access up to $30,000 a year in support, but only a fraction of that is available to pre-school ages.
"We can have a substantially larger impact on children early on than as they grow older."
The 29th annual Kris Kringle Luncheon is at the Prince George Civic Centre from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Tickets are $38.
