Just got rejected from Maddux

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I highly recommend Potomac Glen Day School! Simply having good social role models for your child might be better than any "specialized" program elsewhere. The teachers there love what they do and are dedicated, enthusiastic and patient.

www.potomacglendayschool.com

Gee thanks for the ad. Do you actually have a kid with SNs or are you just spouting bull crap? Thank God for the "specialized" programs, PP. Why do you think this forum exists? B/C social role models alone don't cut it.

[Anonymous]

The potomac glen writer clearly has no clue about children with special needs .

[Anonymous]

why are you bashing pp who recommended potomac glen?

op said her child's main needs are social skills and there's a lot of research about the importance of good role models.

we were at a non-special needs preschool (not potomac glen) and our dc did very well. we looked at a half dozen non-special needs preschools and we were happy to find a few that were very willing to be inclusive and work with special needs kids. it was a great decision for us and could be for op as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:why are you bashing pp who recommended potomac glen?

op said her child's main needs are social skills and there's a lot of research about the importance of good role models.

we were at a non-special needs preschool (not potomac glen) and our dc did very well. we looked at a half dozen non-special needs preschools and we were happy to find a few that were very willing to be inclusive and work with special needs kids. it was a great decision for us and could be for op as well.

It depends on what is causing the issue with social skills. If her child is on the spectrum, having good role models isn't going to help much. I have a kid with Asperger's who has always been mainstreamed and as I told our school at our last IEP meeting, DS "needs explicit verbal or written instruction in social skills bc if he could simply pick up social skills simply by having good role models, he wouldn't be on the spectrum."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:why are you bashing pp who recommended potomac glen?

op said her child's main needs are social skills and there's a lot of research about the importance of good role models.

we were at a non-special needs preschool (not potomac glen) and our dc did very well. we looked at a half dozen non-special needs preschools and we were happy to find a few that were very willing to be inclusive and work with special needs kids. it was a great decision for us and could be for op as well.

It depends on what is causing the issue with social skills. If her child is on the spectrum, having good role models isn't going to help much. I have a kid with Asperger's who has always been mainstreamed and as I told our school at our last IEP meeting, DS "needs explicit verbal or written instruction in social skills bc if he could simply pick up social skills simply by having good role models, he wouldn't be on the spectrum."

Should add, this was so that he gets push-in services with the Speech pathologist who is helping with pragmatic speech. We were having issues of transferring social skills to his peers after learning them with the speech pathologist. Since push-in services, DS has mastered 2/3 speech goals and we will have to put in new goals for pragmatic speech into his IEP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:why are you bashing pp who recommended potomac glen?

op said her child's main needs are social skills and there's a lot of research about the importance of good role models.

OP is already in PEP, looking at Maddux, TLC, and Arc programs--she probably has already BTDT in mainstream preschool department. "specialized" programs"--the potomac glen PP needs a swift kick in the pants. I don't like swoop ins from Gen'l Parenting. She's just trying to drum up an extra body for her school. We all already know the importance of role models. If only it were that easy. The PP obviously has never felt your heart sink when you get that rejection letter for a place really could help your kid and not just a place to drop tuition money. Role models are a dime a dozen in preschools and sometimes our kids are role models too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:why are you bashing pp who recommended potomac glen?

op said her child's main needs are social skills and there's a lot of research about the importance of good role models.

OP is already in PEP, looking at Maddux, TLC, and Arc programs--she probably has already BTDT in mainstream preschool department. "specialized" programs"--the potomac glen PP needs a swift kick in the pants. I don't like swoop ins from Gen'l Parenting. She's just trying to drum up an extra body for her school. We all already know the importance of role models. If only it were that easy. The PP obviously has never felt your heart sink when you get that rejection letter for a place really could help your kid and not just a place to drop tuition money. Role models are a dime a dozen in preschools and sometimes our kids are role models too.

There's a lot of truth to this, but there's also too much snippiness and painting with a broad brush.

It's not all one or all the other, and what a child can benefit from depends on how far along they are in developing their social skills. Our DC, early on, needed a lot of therapeutic help because they didn't have the tools to make use of social cues and modeling. But by the 3rd year of the SN route, the balance had clearly tipped -- the ability to learn from peers had been adequately developed, and classroom skills were being held back by atypical modeling. Mainstreamed the next year and DC has done great learning socially from peers, studies them, thinks about them, asks questions on the way home from school about handling social situations. We supplement with after hours teaching in social cognition. There's no universally applicable formula here.

[Anonymous]

PP, the OP wasn't looking for a mainstream preschool that accepts kids with social skill issues. If you check the preschool forum, you'll see the faux posts for Potomac Glen. Snippiness well deserved.

[Anonymous]

My own view is that snippiness is rarely the best approach, and I read this thread differently from PP. OP's first post indicated they had applied to Maddux, which is not SN but helps kids with social thinking. Later on OP says they're looking for something with "more structure" than their current mainstream but does not say it has to be SN. So I think it was entirely reasonable to interpret a mainstream preschool with receptivity to kids with social skill issues, providing it was sufficiently well-structured, to be within the realm of responsiveness to OP's ask.

I don't know squat about Potomac Glen school or whether it fits the bill in any way. But I don't think the lecture about what socially-challenged kids need to advance was really appropriate. There's no one size fitting all.

[Anonymous]

I thought Maddux was a special needs school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought Maddux was a special needs school.

It is. We're there. No non SN school has an OT and SLP in the classroom.

[Anonymous]

If it is just socialization, then depending on the school and teacher, yes, some can and do provide the support. My child went into a new preschool/private this year and he was clearly in need of social skills help due to his speech delays. The school was amazing and very clearly has worked with him and supported him and more importantly, got him caught up. We considered Maddux but the cost did not see worth the benefit but he probably would have been a good candidate. He clearly needed to transition to a regular classroom vs. continue in one with kids who had some degree of delays/special needs.

That poster meant well. Maybe they do have the experience or a friend who had a good experience with the school. Our school has 1-2 negative reviews from kids who were ADHD, not speech/OT/PT issues and sadly, initially it scared me off until I went to look at the school as I really liked the setup. Gratefully, I did go look and and its been a great year for my child. They've been very understanding and attentive and its very different from their online reviews. And, despite the reviews, they are open to mild special needs, not behavioral issues (which people need to separate when they talk about special needs as special needs can mean many different things).

OP, I would not close yourself off to a regular preschool/school. It is hard to find one accepting of your child, but there are some out there and it surprised me the ones who actually were, which mostly were not advertising it vs. the ones who advertise it but when you visit, it is clear not to bother applying as they don't have any interest in your child.

Not getting into Maddux is not a big deal. Yes, it is touted as the school to go to for specific needs, but I know many kids who did not get in and parents found other situations that have worked out well. Don't be discouraged.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought Maddux was a special needs school.

It is but they prefer to think of themselves different, and are basically the school for very mild special needs, like speech and ot and some social issues. They only take very mild kids without behavioral issues and they have to fit within a very specific profile, from what I have heard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought Maddux was a special needs school.

It is. We're there. No non SN school has an OT and SLP in the classroom.

+1. They like to present themselves as a school for kids who need a "little more" to their upper middle class clientele and not necessarily a SN school. It's a selling point since Maddux does not get take public funding.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought Maddux was a special needs school.

It is. We're there. No non SN school has an OT and SLP in the classroom.

+1. They like to present themselves as a school for kids who need a "little more" to their upper middle class clientele and not necessarily a SN school. It's a selling point since Maddux does not get take public funding.

We are at Maddux and it provides just the right amount of intervention for our kid, who would probably otherwise get by in a typical environment, but wouldn't thrive and gain the added guidance needed for more dynamic social interactions and confidence building skills. While most of the kids their qualify as having SN, they are very mild and many would have to fight for PEP or an IEP elsewhere, even though they need the support. My hope is that our Maddux history will help us get that IEP when the time comes.