Anyone put their child in a "typical" preschool?
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Anonymous
| My son, who will be 3 in July, is speech delayed. He is currently in a special needs preschool through Child Find , which he has shown progress with, however the preschool does not operate in the summer and he did not qualify for the extended school year services. I wanted to put him in a social skills group for the summer but the hours of the groups did not fit our work schedules. So my next thought was to put him in a regular preschool for a few days a week since during his recent IEP meeting his teacher thought it would be beneficial to put him in a regular preschool maybe a day or two a week. If I put him in the preschool for the summer I wanted to get a speech therapist to come out to the preschool. I really want him to be around kids this summer since he had such a fun time in his preschool, I am just really scared he may not adjust well to the "typical" preschool or the teachers may get frustrated with him since he will not be able to communicate with them as much as the other children. I am really worried and having a hard time making this decision whether or not to put him in a school for the summer. Please if anyone has any experiences of putting their special needs child in a "typical" preschool please share. Thanks so much. |
Anonymous
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I put my special needs child in a typical preschool. He had severe expressive delays until he was about 6.5 years old. He also had cognitive issues and ADHD. The cognitive issues made him appear a year or so younger than his age, so they weren't awful. He did his entire pre-kindergarten education in a typical preschool. We held him back a year in preschool 3, so it was four years instead of the typical 3. Anyway, obviously it worked very well for us because we kept him there. He made friends and still plays with those kids to this day.
During the summers I took him out on Friday afternoons for speech therapy. During the school year, he got picked up by a school bus and driven to the local elementary school for therapy once a week along with the private therapy I did. It worked out fine. It was harder to have the speech therapy in the school, although we did it on occasion. The problem is that there just wasn't space, not that anyone cared. On the few times we did it, they had to use the director's office, so we had to make advance arrangements. The thing I've noticed with preschool aged kids is that they're very accepting of everyone. I never found that teachers got frustrated with my son, but I'm sure he was passed over from time to time because he was so hard to understand and he was very quiet in school as compared to home, which his teachers attributed to his speech difficulties. |
Anonymous
| Like the PP, I have a significantly speech delayed DS who was in a special ed preschool through FCPS. We put him in 'regular' programs but asked that they consider putting him in a younger class (this was with preschool and with summer camps at times). We met with the staff and had no problems at all. |
Anonymous
| where do you live OP? Dolley Madison PS in Mclean has a wonderful inclusion program, with ST support while in class. they run a small summer camp for ages 3 to 6. Good luck. |
Anonymous
OP here, thanks for the suggestions everyone - I really wanted to put him in the Dolley Madison Preschool, we live in the Lorton area and both work full time so it would be difficult to get our son to and from school because I believe the school is only for half the day 
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Anonymous
| Our child has a speech delay and was in a 2's class at a regular preschool and its been fine. If anything my concern has been that they cater too much to him vs. trying to encourage the speech but we also are doing individual speech therapy. The school has no concerns for him being 3 with a delay and said that they get a huge range within the 2-3 year old range. |
Anonymous
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I think it is a great idea and he will really enjoy himself. In my experience with cooping in preschools, a lot of typically-developing little boys in the "twos" classes don't really have much to say--I would be surprised if he had any trouble at all fitting right in.
Is he home with a nanny usually or ??? Arlington County has some great preschool summer camps for that age group and they reserve some spots for special needs kids. |
Anonymous
Thanks for the advice. My son goes to my grandmother's house while we are at work. I've checked into a lot of camps but I can't find one with "daycare" hours, all the camps are either half days or 9-3 , which unfortunately does not fit with our work schedules
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Anonymous
| Our co-op allows you full, part or buy out. Grandma sometimes co-ops for us (and they would allow Grandma to do it all the time). |
Anonymous
| Where's work? Could grandmother pick him up from a half day type preschool camp? |
Anonymous
I work in Fairfax and my husband works in Manassas. I wish my grandmother could pick him up  She has never drove and has never had a license!
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Anonymous
| Can you hire someone to transport? |
Anonymous
That's such a great idea! I never thought about that. I will look into that right now thanks!!! |
Anonymous
| Yes and I wouldn't recommend it. Severe speech delays and sensory integration issues. I thought I was doing the right thing by picking an "integrated program" @ Easters Silver Spring. They are a well meaning program but simply do not have the knowledge or staffing to facilitate special needs. If I had to do it all over again I would have kept him at home daycare, that could be more flexible and accommodating to my sons needs. |
Anonymous
| Yes, I did and it was a mistake. |