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.

 

Field Trip: Hess Hathaway Farms

Last month J's class had a community based instruction day with all the Early Childhood Special Education classes from the district at Hess Hathawy Farms.  We toured the farm and saw various animals, took a hayride, explored the various farm themed learning activities set up in the pavilion and the kids enjoyed playing on the playground. 

Field Trip: Oakland Gymnastics

Justin had a class field trip his first week at his new school and he loved every minute of it.  So much so that we're probably going to enroll him in gymnastics/tumbling classes this summer.

 

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. 

Decisions Decisions Decisions

Last week I got a little discouraged when I was talking to friends about their kids preschool experience. I began to doubt the quality of education Justin is getting at his current school and I thought about pulling him out and finding another school. With kindergarten looming right around the corner I wondered if he’d be able to keep up with other kids if their curriculum is superior to the curriculum he is getting. And although we’re not sure that J is 100% developmentally ready for kindergarten we think he’ll be academically above preschool and won’t benefit from a third year. So our hope is to send him to kindergarten, knowing that he may have to repeat it if he’s not ready for the first grade. 

 

Of course that brings up a long list of things to consider; will he be sad when he sees his friends move on to the 1^st grade without him, should he attend kindergarten at another school to alleviate that problem, will repeating kindergarten create confidence issues, should we look into Montessori schools, should he attend a 3^rd year of preschool at a new school with a different curriculum that might better prepare him for kindergarten, should he remain in his current ECDD (Early Childhood Developmental Delay) program or should he join the general student population. 

 

Anyway, I thought about it more and realized that we're not getting daily updates so really we have no clue what J learns every day at school. And it's our fault for not asking. Of course I questioned are we as his parents doing all that we can. So I went back and looked at the monthly newsletters that J’s teacher sends home. It lists things she’d like the parents to go over with their kids to reinforce what they’re doing in the classroom. We’re doing some of them like his ABCs, numbers, and shapes but we haven’t addressed the President, states, or his phone number. His teacher also includes a calendar that has an activity to do daily to supplement concepts learned in the classroom. I’ve done a few but I’m not consistent. 

 

Yesterday I met with J’s teacher to discuss his progress report and some of my concerns. J continues to be at the top of his class and the teacher is very happy with his progress. The biggest hurdle she sees is his speech, although she noted it has improved. She stressed that academically he’s doing really well and knows things that some kindergartners don’t so she feels that once his speech catches up he’ll really take off. She gave me specific examples of how she introduces new concepts in class which eased my concerns that he’s not being held back by the curriculum. She was very open to sending me a weekly overview of what’s taught in class so that we can ask J specific questions about what he’s learning. She also provided me with a class list so I can go over J’s classmates’ names. I wish I would’ve asked for it sooner, especially since I loved that last year J’s teacher sent home a book with a picture of each child with their name so we went over that every night. 

 

The only thing I was disappointed in is the fact that they don’t focus on writing daily since I’ve been told that’s a requirement for kindergarten. But she said that kindergarten is when they start focusing on writing and that J’s tracing skills are good and he’s one of the better tracers in the class. That being said we are doing daily lessons with him; working on activity books to practice his writing, working on sight words, matching, counting and I’ve pinned several activities for him to work on to help get him ready for this next step.

 

Today we went to a preschool open house, on the off chance that J does need another year of preschool at a different school and because Nathan will be starting preschool in the fall.  Tuesday we're attending a kindergarten orientation at J's potential new elementary school and they will discuss kindergarten readiness, the kindergarten program/curriculum and special services.  We definitely need to get as much information as possible so we can make the best decision for J.

Parent Teacher Conferences

Overall Justin is doing really well, his vocabulary is increasing, he's stringing more words together and his teacher is understanding more and more what he says.  And he knows his stuff; he's one of the top 3 kids in the class.  They put up new words and objects on one of the classroom boards and Justin walked up to it and started rattling off the objects, both spelling and identifying the object.  She was so proud that she called the principal down to the room so she could see and now the principal is telling the other teachers in the school about the top 3 kids in J's class. 

J's teacher also said he's her favorite lol; she handed him something and he told her thank you and then gave her a hug.

Thanksgiving Feast

Tuesday the pre-school and kindergarten classes at Justin's school invited parents to join them in a Thanksgiving celebration.  Monday we sent J to school with frozen vegetables to contribute to the stone soup they made for the feast and they read the Stone Soup story. 

Homework

And so it begins, helping the boys with their homework.  This week Justin got his first homework assignment.  Carl and I both had to sit down with him and help him connect the dots since he's not very focused right now.  All he wanted to do was scribble so we helped guide his hand but he eventually caught on and I was so excited when he drew a line from 4 to 5 on his own.

 

End of Year Program

Last week Carl and I attended Justin's preschool end of year program. When I walked in the classroom J looked at me with a puzzled look as if "what are you doing here mommy?" But he was good; he didnt act out or try to come sit with me. Instead he sat in his seat, participated with the program and then looked back at Carl and I after each section to make sure we saw him. It was so cute seeing J interact with his classmates and teachers and I know he'll miss them once school is over. But on the bright side he gets to spend the summer with his Ty C, brother and brouzin. Too bad Ariana won't be there since Lalla's off for the summer but I'm sure they'll have plenty of playdates.

Just like Mrs. Dawson told us J is the loudest singer in the class. You'll notice he didn't sing along with the numbers on "Number Rock" but when it got to the chorus you clearly hear J chime in and clapping along right on beat. I was so proud and couldn't stop grinning from ear to ear!!!

Mrs. Dawson

Mrs. Ridgeway

Parent Teacher Conferences

We met with Justin's teacher shortly after he started preschool to discuss some concerns but yesterday I attended my first official parent teacher conference.

Every morning J takes off his coat, hangs it in his locker and closes the locker and happily sings the good morning song with his classmates. Since he sings louder than anyone else his teacher asked if his hearing is okay. He's had numerous appointments and his last one, which was when he turned 3, came back normal so they told us that he didn't need to be checked again until he turns 5. But since his teacher mentioned it and hearing obviously impacts his speech I think I'm going to schedule an appointment.

J is a wiz at puzzles and completes them really quickly. J knows his shapes, colors, letters and numbers and recognizes numbers and letters out of order. But one concern is that when he's counting and gets to 14, 17 and 18 he leaves off the 1 in front of them and then will continue counting. He also knows the months of the year and the days of the week; I was shocked and proud when I heard that. J also loves music time and playing on the computer.

The biggest concern is J's speech. Although J is starting to use more 3 and 4 word phrases he still doesn't communicate in sentences and continues to use gestures. But his teacher wasn't overly worried about it because he has a wide vocabulary. She also mentioned that he loves singing songs and clearly sings all the words to songs in class but for some reason he doesn't want to communicate via regular conversations.

But we've already found a speech pathologist who will come to the house twice a week during the summer to work with J so hopefully he'll be talking our ears off in no time. The only other concern, well not really because this is his first year of preschool so the teacher isn't focused on writing just yet, but she asked that we work with him on holding a crayon and tracing shapes and letters.

So overall Justin, affectionately called Mr. Justin by his teacher, is adjusting well and walks around like he owns the school which is funny because 1) he doesn't look like he's even old enough to be in school and 2) he's the tiniest kid in his class. But I'm really happy that he loves school, his teacher and the teacher's aid.

Failure

This morning I met with the speech therapist at Justin's school. Long story short J's language development is the equivalent of a 21 month old; J is 41 months so that's about a 1 1/2 year delay, OUCH!!! I couldn't help but feel like a complete failure after hearing that. Especially considering J had a speech evaluation last year which put him at about the same delay. Perhaps I was in denial a year ago; after all the therapists only have one 30-45 minute session to evaluate him and in both cases J didn't do half of the stuff we know he can do. And after last year's evaluation I discussed the results with J's Early Intervention teacher who works with him weekly and she didn't feel that his delay was that severe. Between her weekly sessions and us working with him regularly at home we didn't feel the need to rush to therapy but now I'm second guessing that decision. I know I shouldn't compare but I look at other preemies, all born around the same gestational age as J, whose language has just really taken off and I can't help but wonder what I did wrong.

But after talking to Carl and a couple of friends I've realized I can't let this get me down. On the bright side J's expressive language (use of words and sentences to communicate thoughts, needs or wants) is only slightly below average. It's his comprehensive/receptive language (process of understanding what is said) that really brought his score down so we discussed her goals for him. Two of them are things that J is already doing but he didn't show during his evaluation so the therapist said she will adjust the goals accordingly once they get into their sessions. One of them was something Carl and I had already identified so at least we're on the same page there. The last two were things that I've actually never considered or thought about but now realize are key to his development so I'm glad she'll be working with J on them. She gave suggestions on things for us to do at home, some of which we're already doing so we just need to continue with what we've been doing even though it doesn't seem like it's helping. The therapist will provide weekly updates on what they worked on during the week so we can reinforce things at home. So we have a plan; the hope is that we'll see significant improvement by the end of the school year.

On another note, I finally got a chance to see J with his classmates while I waited for the speech therapist. Since there are some kids that get dropped off and others that ride the bus the preschool kids wait in the hallway with the teacher and her aide to give everyone enough time to get in the building and to let the older kids get into class. Once everyone is rounded up they walk in a line (follow the blue line on the floor) to the classroom. Justin was 2nd in line and walked to class on his own; his teacher was at the middle of the line and the aide was at the back. It's so simple but I was so proud seeing him walk to class.

After the meeting I peeked into the classroom; they were wrapping up breakfast and most of the kids were still at the table eating while a few kids sat on the floor reading. Even though the door was open I couldn't see J but I didn't want to just walk into the classroom and disrupt things. But the aide saw me and told me to go ahead and peak my head around the corner since J was off to the side where I couldn't see him. He was sitting, well more like hanging off the chair with a spoon in his mouth and he saw me but he didn't smile, cry, get up, nothing so I just turned around and left. I didn't see much but it was nice to see nonetheless since we don't get the opportunity to observe or participate in classroom activities.

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.

Preschool Update

Tuesday's drop off went better, at least for me; I didn't cry even though I heard J screaming as he walked away with his teacher.  On Wednesday J cried as the aid walked him away but even the teacher's who monitor the front doors commented that he did much better.  But when Carl picked J up his teacher said that he wined all day, only napped for 15 minutes and didn't eat.   As it turns out J was coming down with a cold so we kept him home Thursday.  He was still coughing and had a bit of a runny nose on Monday so he didn't go to school Monday either.

Carl dropped J off this morning; he called me as he left the school to tell me he better understood how I felt last week because he got a little choked up this morning when he gave J a hi-five and hug goodbye.  J whimpered a little as he walked away holding his teacher's hand but he didn't throw a tantrum.

When Carl picked J up his teacher said that he didn't play with the other kids at all, he threw a fit when he was told no and fussed during nap time.  She also called him SPOILED which Carl didn't appreciate.  I found that a little ironic because Carl says the boys are spoiled all the time.  Now I've never thought we/I spoil them; we don't let them have everything they want, we tell them no and I don't baby them. 

So, what is spoiled; is a child spoiled because they throw tantrums, don't like to be told no, because they don't interact with other kids?  Is it possible that they're still adjusting to a new environment?  Or is it possible that I, as mom, am in denial?