Then and Now (Pre School Year 1)

Some people are eager for their child to start school at 5.  Some are even agitated when they have to start school a year later because the school cut-off and their child's birthday are not cooperating.  We have a late birthday, 9 days after the cut-off point.  That means we turned 5 after kindergarten started.  Hardship for some; blessing for others.  Instead of one year of preschool, we got two!

Our first year of pre-school, we attended private school.  When I selected the school, I really had no idea of the impact a speech delay would/could have on school success.  Like others, I thought "it's just a delay; she'll catch up."  Well, half of that is accurate; the other half, not so.

In our case, catching up hinged on the quality of the early intervention and the support/resources the child as in other environments. We had the benefit of full day (private) pre-school AND early childhood intervention speech therapy services 2 days per week.  In an earlier post, I talked about following the bus.  (Aug 31, 09)  By the time she started preK, she was used to riding the bus to go to therapy.  This new arrangement allowed her to get therapy and as a wise special education professional said "she can learn the skills and then transfer those skills in the private school environment."

We were fortunate, her teacher - Ms. Lorenda Gordon - was good at what she did.  One of the first things they did was give her a craft stick with two faces on the top.   A happy face and a sad face.  With a simple craft stick, she was able to communicate how she was feeling.  Sounds simple enough but did I know that joining a group made her uncomfortable? Did she know how to communicate this discomfort? We learned alot about the social dimensions of ASD that year.

When we discovered that the noisy group on one day was too distracting for her, she was simply assigned to another group.   I also learned many valuable lessons that year: 1) routine is good; 2) partnering with teachers is critical, 3) being open and honest with other parents is a choice, 4) advocating for your child sometimes means 'change in plan' and 5) my role is to provide experiences and support that stimulate growth.  Speech will come in its own time.

Looking back - then and now - there are still only 26 letters in the alphabet.  What they learn about in preschool is where to find the letters, how to say the letters, how to have fun as they learn the alphabet, and other new things about themselves and the world around them.  If they need the extra time to strengthen their cognitive skills, the speech, and their social skills - take it and run!!

In the course of trying to understand what I was facing and how to cope, I came upon some interesting reading - research that identified some of the elements of sound early childhood education programs.  Programs strong on reading, letter introduction, number concepts, science - exploring the world and of course playing well together.  If our program - paid, public, faith-based, someone's basement, or a living room - doesn't have most, if not all, of these ingredients - ask yourself what impact that will have on readiness for school.

The difference between then and now is that then I wasn't sure of the benefit of an extra year of preschool.  Now, we're on the honor roll routinely; high functioning in many areas; more receptive to transitioning and certainly able to stay on task.  Making adjustments at the front end has paid off dividends...that's my gift to my child.