LEAP Preschool at UMD for Social Pragmatic Communication Disorder?

[Anonymous]

Anyone have experience with this program that can weigh in on whether it could help a kid with expressive and receptive delays AND social delays? He's 4.

[Anonymous]

It really depends on the social delays and how they are expressed/not expressed. We just interviewed there. Both the director and I agreed it would not be the right fit for my child. During the interview, it was stressed that they really don't do pragmatics per se, but rather it is an outcome of the socialization that is built into the program.

[Anonymous]

OP here - thanks so much for the info! Do you mind sharing your impression of their approach? I can't visit until JAnuary ao just trying to get a sense of whether it's really an option.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here - thanks so much for the info! Do you mind sharing your impression of their approach? I can't visit until JAnuary ao just trying to get a sense of whether it's really an option.

We went for a morning visit. I don't know if I can tell you much about their approach---a better person would probably be someone who has a child enrolled in the school. From what I saw though, they start the morning with circle time and have the children interact by answering various questions--what is the day, what is the weather, what month is it, etc. Then they read a story and there is Q&A about what is going on in the story. That was followed by some free play time when the children were pulled out for therapy. Therapy happens one on one and there is an observation window. There's an observation window to the main classroom as well. The therapy session I observed was well done. The therapist had planned a number of skills to work on, they were play based and the child seemed very happy to be engaged. The children who are left in the classroom remain with other therapists and this is when I was told that the pragmatics would occur--the therapists help to facilitate the play.

[Anonymous]

Social delays often come with speech delays. Technically LEAP isn't designed for kids on the spectrum but there are usually a few kids with ASD who are accepted.

LEAP focuses on pre-literacy skills and is one of the few language based preschools in this region. (I think Dolly Madison in VA is one and there are PEP programs specific to language through Montgomery County--I like LEAP's approach much better than MoCo.)

Through LEAP you get 3 individual ST therapies a week taught by the graduate students under supervision by the director. You'll get a different therapist each semester. You can't beat the price for what you get if you had to pay for private therapy.

Take a tour to get a sense for yourself.

There are also lots of speech summer camps in this area too, so that might also be an option.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It really depends on the social delays and how they are expressed/not expressed. We just interviewed there. Both the director and I agreed it would not be the right fit for my child. During the interview, it was stressed that they really don't do pragmatics per se, but rather it is an outcome of the socialization that is built into the program.

PP, I would think about an inclusive pre-school like St. Columba's, NCRC, or Maddux.

[Anonymous]

OP,

Also wanted to suggest that a social skills group might be helpful for the pragmatics issues. You can search the archive or post a separate thread.

[Anonymous]

My son did Leap many years ago and I can't say enough about it. He had expressive and receptive delays and was eventually diagnoses (very) ADHD. They don't specifically address social skills but did a great job, particularly with the on-on-one therapy since the students work really hard preparing and discussing each kid.