Preschool

The first few weeks of preschool were tough; lots of crying for both mommy and child, lots of testing boundaries with his teachers and not socializing with the other kids. But all that’s changed; now Justin walks in the building willingly and doesn’t even look back to say bye to me. As soon as I unstrap him from his car seat he grabs his book bag, climbs out of the car and tries to rush across the street to the entrance. Even after being kept home all last week because he was sick, Justin’s teacher said it was like he was never gone and he picked up right where he left off.

Justin is a favorite with the other teachers and the kids. The week before last I smiled when a teacher started yelling for Justin as soon as she saw us walking towards the building. J’s teacher also mentioned that teachers always ask about J when they see him in the hallway. Even the bus driver has taken a liking to J and he doesn’t even ride the bus. The “mom” (another classmate) of the classroom is always helping J with his coat and book bag and one little boy is always in Justin’s face asking him what he’s doing and trying to play with him.

So what has Justin been up to the last month and a half?

- drinking out of a straw
- doing more imaginative play; his teacher said he grabbed a pitcher and spoon out of the classroom kitchen and started mixing
- putting together puzzles
- loves the letters & numbers bulletin boards, sometimes a little too much as he’ll leave group time to go stand by the board and recite his numbers & letters
- becoming more sociable with the other kids and participating in group time
- being exposed to potty training; Justin is too small to use the bathrooms in the boys’ restroom but the teacher still takes him with the other boys. Unfortunately since it’s a general population bathroom they can’t keep a step stool in there for J to use. But I’m really hoping that seeing others using the big potty will make J more curious and anxious to try it as well.
- developing a love of arts & crafts; J especially likes to paint

So all in all Justin is doing pretty well and his teachers are impressed with how smart he is. Our next focus: speech therapy. J’s vocabulary is pretty good; he’s speaking new words day by day and starting to repeat more and more but he still struggles with speaking in sentences, asking for things by name and continues to communicate with us by using gestures rather than verbally. I have a meeting with the school’s speech therapist on Thursday to go over his evaluation/goals and hopefully she can start working with him next week.