Where did you send your speech delayed kids?

[Anonymous]

Nervous about sending my special needs daughter to PGCPS. She will be entering kindergarten. Can anyone provide insight? She has a severe speech delay with behavioral issues.

[Anonymous]

Does she get services through PGCPS early childhood programs? If not you should have her assessed in the spring and have an IEP ready to go for the beginning of the school year. If she is in speech therapy and you have a current progress report they will likely use that to help craft the IEP. The services my son gets is once a week for 45 minutes. The quality of the SLP is good but I don’t think it is nearly enough so we supplement with private speech once a week.

[Anonymous]

My twins are 3 and get services at Winship Wheatley, I’m in Bowie. However, I agree with previous poster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does she get services through PGCPS early childhood programs? If not you should have her assessed in the spring and have an IEP ready to go for the beginning of the school year. If she is in speech therapy and you have a current progress report they will likely use that to help craft the IEP. The services my son gets is once a week for 45 minutes. The quality of the SLP is good but I don’t think it is nearly enough so we supplement with private speech once a week.

PP here:
I wanted to add that my child is in Pre-K at our in bounds elementary school which is where he gets speech. Just being in the Pre-K classroom has helped a lot. If your child isn't getting services and you would like the county to start now they will enroll her at one of the Pre-K programs for free if she is eligible for speech. They bus them to the ECCs if you don't get a slot at your local school. They will also provide services to children at private schools.

As far as behavioral issues go, I think that you will find the County is better equipped to deal with that than any private school. My daughter's friend was at a local private school and she was encouraged to leave because of behavioral issues. She went to the local ES and they got her on a 504 and other interventions and she is doing great now.

I guess the big thing is to be prepared to advocate for your child. Call the principal before the school year starts and let them know about your child's situation and your concerns. "I wanted to let you know that Larla has a significant speech delay and some behavioral issues. I have some concerns about how she will adapt to school. If there is any information that might help the school help her please let me know". If you know that your child will be getting speech therapy at the school, contact the head SPED teacher and ask the name of the SLP. Send that person a note introducing yourself, asking when speech will start and attach the most recent progress report you have from any private SLP you may see.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

original poster here...

My daughter currently has an IEP with MCPS and she is in their special ed preschool class. Very small class with less than 10 students. She goes to daycare half a day with at least 15-20 other kids. We will be moving to PG county by the time she goes to kindergarten. At this point, I'm not sure if she will be in a "regular class" and will get pulled for speech or if she will be in a full day special education classroom. I guess I'm asking what kind of classroom and/or services your kids receive with PGCPS.

Also, thank you for the suggestion of visiting the school and talking to the principal before hand. When I know what area I will move to, I will definitely do that

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:original poster here...

My daughter currently has an IEP with MCPS and she is in their special ed preschool class. Very small class with less than 10 students. She goes to daycare half a day with at least 15-20 other kids. We will be moving to PG county by the time she goes to kindergarten. At this point, I'm not sure if she will be in a "regular class" and will get pulled for speech or if she will be in a full day special education classroom. I guess I'm asking what kind of classroom and/or services your kids receive with PGCPS.

Also, thank you for the suggestion of visiting the school and talking to the principal before hand. When I know what area I will move to, I will definitely do that

Pre-K 3 classes at the Early Childhood Centers are mixed between special needs kids, with various disabilities, and neighborhood kids. There are like 10-12 in a class.
I'm not sure what Pre-K 4 classes look like at the ECCs/

Pre-K4 at neighborhood schools are 18-20 kids with 2 teachers

Kindergarten enrollment can be all over the place. I know schools where there are 16 kids in a class and schools that have 26 kids in a class.

I've not been to a school that has special education classrooms so I can't speak to that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:original poster here...

My daughter currently has an IEP with MCPS and she is in their special ed preschool class. Very small class with less than 10 students. She goes to daycare half a day with at least 15-20 other kids. We will be moving to PG county by the time she goes to kindergarten. At this point, I'm not sure if she will be in a "regular class" and will get pulled for speech or if she will be in a full day special education classroom. I guess I'm asking what kind of classroom and/or services your kids receive with PGCPS.

Also, thank you for the suggestion of visiting the school and talking to the principal before hand. When I know what area I will move to, I will definitely do that

We ended up doing a small private as my child still really struggled with speech at age 5/K. It worked well and child could transfer to a regular classroom a few years later/no issues. We got some speech but it was a waste of time as it was group speech for 30 minutes with 6 unrelated needs/kids. We continued with private. Its really hard to say what they will need in a few years as kids can change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:original poster here...

My daughter currently has an IEP with MCPS and she is in their special ed preschool class. Very small class with less than 10 students. She goes to daycare half a day with at least 15-20 other kids. We will be moving to PG county by the time she goes to kindergarten. At this point, I'm not sure if she will be in a "regular class" and will get pulled for speech or if she will be in a full day special education classroom. I guess I'm asking what kind of classroom and/or services your kids receive with PGCPS.

Also, thank you for the suggestion of visiting the school and talking to the principal before hand. When I know what area I will move to, I will definitely do that

We ended up doing a small private as my child still really struggled with speech at age 5/K. It worked well and child could transfer to a regular classroom a few years later/no issues. We got some speech but it was a waste of time as it was group speech for 30 minutes with 6 unrelated needs/kids. We continued with private. Its really hard to say what they will need in a few years as kids can change.

I agree. I have made arrangements just for the 3 days of 2 hours of speech. It’s almost better to just do regular pre school part time. At least they get 3 full days of interaction with other talking children versus 2 hours of therapy for 3 days. The hours are 9-11:30 so it’s almost a hassle to work it out. After the new year. I’m just going to do 2 full days of pre school. I think that has helped them more than the 2 hours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:original poster here...

My daughter currently has an IEP with MCPS and she is in their special ed preschool class. Very small class with less than 10 students. She goes to daycare half a day with at least 15-20 other kids. We will be moving to PG county by the time she goes to kindergarten. At this point, I'm not sure if she will be in a "regular class" and will get pulled for speech or if she will be in a full day special education classroom. I guess I'm asking what kind of classroom and/or services your kids receive with PGCPS.

Also, thank you for the suggestion of visiting the school and talking to the principal before hand. When I know what area I will move to, I will definitely do that

We ended up doing a small private as my child still really struggled with speech at age 5/K. It worked well and child could transfer to a regular classroom a few years later/no issues. We got some speech but it was a waste of time as it was group speech for 30 minutes with 6 unrelated needs/kids. We continued with private. Its really hard to say what they will need in a few years as kids can change.

Small private is OK if speech is the only issue. If there are other issues PGCPS are probably the better option because they have can have the staff onsite to deal with that, especially if there is are behavioral issues.

My son is at the Pre-K at our local ES and will go there for K and beyond. The speech is good, but we take him to private speech once a week on top of what he gets at the school. We would have to do that at a private school too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:original poster here...

My daughter currently has an IEP with MCPS and she is in their special ed preschool class. Very small class with less than 10 students. She goes to daycare half a day with at least 15-20 other kids. We will be moving to PG county by the time she goes to kindergarten. At this point, I'm not sure if she will be in a "regular class" and will get pulled for speech or if she will be in a full day special education classroom. I guess I'm asking what kind of classroom and/or services your kids receive with PGCPS.

Also, thank you for the suggestion of visiting the school and talking to the principal before hand. When I know what area I will move to, I will definitely do that

PGCPS offers all types of services.... I don’t understand your question. We can’t say how inclusive your child will be without knowing her and her needs. Regardless, PGCPS is equipped.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:original poster here...

My daughter currently has an IEP with MCPS and she is in their special ed preschool class. Very small class with less than 10 students. She goes to daycare half a day with at least 15-20 other kids. We will be moving to PG county by the time she goes to kindergarten. At this point, I'm not sure if she will be in a "regular class" and will get pulled for speech or if she will be in a full day special education classroom. I guess I'm asking what kind of classroom and/or services your kids receive with PGCPS.

Also, thank you for the suggestion of visiting the school and talking to the principal before hand. When I know what area I will move to, I will definitely do that

We ended up doing a small private as my child still really struggled with speech at age 5/K. It worked well and child could transfer to a regular classroom a few years later/no issues. We got some speech but it was a waste of time as it was group speech for 30 minutes with 6 unrelated needs/kids. We continued with private. Its really hard to say what they will need in a few years as kids can change.

Small private is OK if speech is the only issue. If there are other issues PGCPS are probably the better option because they have can have the staff onsite to deal with that, especially if there is are behavioral issues.

My son is at the Pre-K at our local ES and will go there for K and beyond. The speech is good, but we take him to private speech once a week on top of what he gets at the school. We would have to do that at a private school too.

We transferred to public after the private and it has not been a good experience for help with speech. The speech therapy at school is useless and the teachers refuse to provide any supports. Your child is very young and what is offered at Pre-K is very different than later years. My child got much more attention/support without an IEP at a private.