Caring for the disabled is not child's play but parents are about to get some help with a new program combining skilled nursing care, educational opportunities and creative play for youngsters, all under one roof.

United Cerebral Palsy will open Your Child's Place, 289 North Ave., Washington, next month. The $4.6 million, 14,000 square-foot facility is the fourth center of its kind in the state and is modeled after Child's Way in Pittsburgh.

	Pam Panchak, Post-Gazette James Francken, of Canonsburg, who works for All-Pro Painters in Carnegie, puts a finishing coat of paint on trim at Your Child's Place in Washington on Tuesday. Click photo for larger image.

Your Child's Place will provide skilled nursing care for disabled children on a daily basis and will share the facility with Rainbow's End Recreation Station, opening Thursday, where children with and without disabilities can play together. Parents must present a letter of medical necessity or a prescription before being able to use Your Child's Place.

Both programs operate under the umbrella of United Cerebral Palsy and will serve families in southern Allegheny, Washington, Fayette and Greene counties and the Wheeling, W.Va., area, said Anthony F. Mauro, director of development for United Cerebral Palsy of Southwestern Pennsylvania.

Your Child's Place, with its skilled nursing care, will allow a parent to leave a child for the day and feel free to run errands, go to work or have some free time -- all of which are difficult, if not impossible, to do otherwise, Mr. Mauro said.

At Your Child's Place, with a nurse-to-child ratio of 1-3, every attempt will be made to meet the needs and comfort of disabled children, he said. There's equipment and electrical outlets for suctioning, oxygen and other emergency devices. A back-up generator is on hand in case of a power failure.

Should the need arise, an exam room includes a child-friendly examination table shaped like an elephant, all the better to put a young patient at ease. He or she can wait there until an emergency crew arrives.

"My hope is that we never have to use this," said Sandy Phillips, clinical director of Your Child's Place.

"We want kids to be kids here," Mr. Mauro said.

Each age group is assigned to a different room, appropriately named caterpillar for infants, busy bee for toddlers and butterfly for preschoolers. Your Child's Place is equipped to handle up to 30 children on any given day.

Medical personnel will be dressed in colored scrubs and other employees in khakis and polo shirts to avoid the "white coat syndrome," so called because of patients' fear of doctors' attire.

Every effort has been made to put children at ease. Even the floors are heated, Ms. Phillips said. Lighting will not hum or buzz, which is sometimes disturbing to autistic children. Toilets are child-size and easy to use for those in wheelchairs.

An outdoor screened area will be available to children in warm weather and plans are under way to create a handicapped-accessible garden. Jeri Zwicker, a Claysville landscape architect, is designing the garden.

While Your Child's Place is for day care, Recreation Station is simply a place to come and play awhile. It's a creative play center similar to Center for Creative Play in Swissvale, considered an authority on the subject, Mr. Mauro said. Forget videos and computer games. Here it's simply old-fashioned imagination at play.

"Children just don't play or use their imaginations" like they used to, Mr. Mauro said.

The only requirement is that an adult must accompany a child. Recreation Station is not a day care center, but rather an entertainment facility open to the public.

There is plenty to engage children and parents alike. Themed activities are expected to change weekly. The 5,600-square-foot play space features a carpeted open area with murals on the walls and a stationary 15- by 6-foot play train built by California University of Pennsylvania students. A "ticket booth" with gated window enhances the train station theme.

The far end of the open area can be used for reading.

Several rooms are devoted to different purposes: music, art, block building, science discovery and a sensory area to either stimulate or desensitize a child, said Nikki Sarchet, Recreation Station director. For example, a special swaddling swing in the sensory room can be used to comfort a child. Lights or music may be used to stimulate.

Recreation Station also offers a celebration room, including kitchen, and is open to the public for rental for birthdays or parties.

To further entertain children, Recreation Station also plans occasional displays by the Washington County Trolley Museum or the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh.

Throughout Recreation Station and Your Child's Place, bright colors of orange, yellow, blue, green and lavender are meant to appeal to children. Rays meant to resemble the sun are painted on the floor.

"Colors are bright but they're very soothing," Ms. Phillips said.

There is also an elevated "tower" from which a child in a wheelchair can view others in the open play area. A child in a wheelchair constantly views the world at chair level. This gives the child a different perspective, Mr. Mauro said.

Your Child's Place charges $35 a day, plus a medical fee, which, in most cases, is covered by insurance. Recreation Station charges $7 per person.

For more information about Recreation Station, call Ms. Sarchet at 724-223-7805, ext. 624.

Anyone interested in using the services of Your Child's Place, which requires a prescription, should call Ms. Phillips at 724-223-7801, extension 606.