ECSE Take Two

Shortly after Nate started preschool his teacher recommended he get a speech evaluation; she was concerned about his articulation and lack of conversation.  I suspected a speech delay but wanted to see how he’d do in a school environment and if the interaction with other kids would help.  Although Nate’s school is in the city we live in, we fall in another city’s school district so he needed to get the evaluation through the boys’ home school. So he had a preliminary screening with the head speech pathologist at J’s school, who after meeting with Nate and talking to his teacher, recommended a full developmental assessment.  He was evaluated by Ms. Lisa, J’s teacher, and Ms. Kim, J’s speech pathologist, who diagnosed him with an early childhood developmental delay.  They also noted possible sensory disorder issues and autistic tendencies but those can’t be diagnosed within a 2 hour assessment.  So the recommendation was that he start in the Early Childhood Special Education program, same program as J, so he could start receiving speech services and they could further assess the other issues. 

 

Initially I was sad about this; although I really like Ms. Lisa I had become very fond of Nate’s teacher and school AND the bonus was that it was a full day, full week program.  ECSE is only a half day program Monday - Thursday, with Friday classes 1 Friday every month.  And because of his age he couldn’t be in J’s class, he needed to be in the morning ECSE class.  Fortunately there was a spot available in an afternoon program at Nate’s old school so he can attend ECSE in the morning at his home school and stay at his old school in the afternoon. 

 

I was also worried about the transition because Nate was so attached to his teacher, the para pros and his classmates.  He started his new school schedule last week and had a great first day in ECSE; no crying or screaming.  According to Ms. Lisa he seemed very comfortable and happy to be there, sat at circle time for 30 minutes and participated.  And he loved riding the bus to school.  The report from Mrs. Stanek (afternoon teacher) was that he had a GREAT day and was very happy.  He was so excited and moved from one thing to the next.  So fortunately I was worried for nothing and now I have two kids with developmental delays; it’s never a dull moment in the Jones’ household. 

 

 

 

IEP Meeting

Last month I met with Justin's teacher and speech therapist for his end of year IEP and to discuss goals for next year.  

Comments from his speech therapist - J's speech is unintelligible, speaks in a lot of jargon with a few understandable words thrown in here and there, is drawn to the classroom boards with shapes and colors and often uses shapes and colors when communicating.  For example, during kitchen play he’ll pick up a bowl or a plate and instead of referring to it by name he’ll call it a circle.  Carl and I have noticed this at home when it comes to colors; when he’s watching Yo Gabba Gabba and sees Muno he calls out red instead of Muno’s name.  This surprised me because J is speaking 4 or 5 word sentences at home so I gave examples of him saying I want chocolate milk or I want to eat breakfast, etc.  The therapist and his teacher said that they have never heard him speak a complete sentence and noted that while that is great he is speaking some at home it is routine and probably something that we have worked with him on.  Which is true, one of the things Molly suggested we do was to not give Justin anything until he properly asked for it.  The speech therapist also noted that J is unable to answer any W questions or answer simple yes/no questions like “Are you a boy”.  Again I mentioned that he does this at home and Molly even commented on him answering some W questions so of course it’s frustrating when he’s not doing these things consistently.  But J clearly wants to communicate so one of the goals for next year is to work on getting him to initiate conversations on his own by implementing the PECS System.  The therapist said she can tell someone has been working with J because he knows his rote skills and the fact that he sounds out his letters when he says them.   Unfortunately we lose Molly this summer, she’s moving to Chicago L so we’re looking for someone to work with J during the summer. 

Comments from his teacher – general lack of focus and inability to pay attention for long periods of time.  If they’re working on writing letters J will write one letter, push his chair back and try to run away to play.  Once she gets him back to the table he’ll write one more letter and try to run away again.  J follows routine directions very well but needs prompting with non-routine directions and although he does not respond to two step directions at school I have noticed he will at home.  He prefers to write/paint/draw standing up and on the easel which is funny because he’s never shown any interest in the easel at home.    

J will not be starting kindergarten next year.  The biggest reason is his speech, or lack of communication skills.  In addition, although J knows/has the core requirements required for kindergarten (i.e. knows his letters, numbers, shapes, colors) he doesn’t know how to expand upon it.  The general consensus is that he will benefit greatly from another year in the ECSE program.  I asked about his readiness for special education kindergarten and although it is a possibility, typically with kids in Justin’s situation they recommend another year of ECSE.  They are concerned about placing him in a program with lower level performing students and by repeating ECSE they will be better able to assess his readiness for general education kindergarten.  It's somewhat disappointing but of course we want what’s best for him academically, socially, and emotionally and ensure he's ready to start kindergarten than have trouble later on.

 

New School

Justin started at his new school last Monday.  At the kindergarten orientation earlier this month I was able to speak with the school principal and the speech pathologist regarding my concerns on J's readiness and the speech pathologist mentioned an ECSE (Early Childhood Special Education) program where J could be mainstreamed into kindergarten.  At the speech pathologists urging, I contacted the Director of Special Services to find out more about the program.  But before I heard back from Special Services I got a call from the Special Education teacher at J's new school.  As it turns out, the speech pathologist gave her my contact information.  The teacher, sensing my difficulty with making a decision on J's readiness, suggested we transfer J to her class and she could evaluate his readiness. 

I must say the whole process went pretty quickly; I enrolled J in the district, faxed his IEP to the Special Services department and we took J to the school to meet his new teacher the Friday before he started.  J probably could've started sooner but we delayed the final enrollment appointment because things were so hectic with Carlene's wedding.  I must say that in just two weeks I'm very happy with our decision to switch J mid year.  Even though it's only a half day program J will receive so much more speech therapy because the class has a fully dedicated speech therapist in their classroom on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.  So J will receive 40 minutes of individual therapy, in addition to group therapy the rest of the day.  They also have music therapy every Thursday where a guitarist comes to the classroom and plays songs and they have a book buddy program where 3rd graders come to the classroom to read them stories, do arts & crafts and play games with them.  The class has PE on Mondays and once the weather gets nice they'll start going outside every day.  Another plus is that there are 3 para-pros in the classroom in addition to his teacher, which means that J gets much more individualized attention compared to his old school where there were only 2 adults in the classroom.  The only downside of making this switch is that the program is only half day so I end up spending my entire lunch break shuttling J back and forth.     But it's totally worth it. 

When we met with J's teacher the Friday before he started she gave us a classroom list with pictures of all the kids, the para's and herself.  It was nice to go over the faces he'd be seeing his first day of class.  She also gave us a calendar which lists the weeks topics/concepts taught in class which makes it easier for us to ask J questions about his day.  On Thursday the teacher sent home a packet with all of J's work that week , along with a letter welcoming J to the class.  So yeah, this switch is totally worth it!!!

A bonus for J is that he gets to ride the bus home from school.  He loves it so much he cries when he has to get off, even the first day when he was asleep when the bus arrived at the house.