Best Route for Bright Child with Mild Speech/Social Issues

[Anonymous]

Has anyone made a choice between public and private for a young child who is very bright but may have some delays? Are you happy with your choice?

[Anonymous]

We chose private for our DC ... academics are going really well thanks to small class size and individual attention. Socially, there are more difficulties than we would like ... but we anticipated that there would be given mild social delays and pragmatic speech issues. When something unpleasant occurs, we have to remind ourselves that DC would have these same challenges in the public school too, and possibly worse, since the teachers in public are stretched thinner and have less time to help a child navigate socially.

Bottom line is that private seems to have helped but it doesn't make the issues just vanish! And it is expensive!

[Anonymous]

Are there delays? If your child has delays, a PDD diagnosis, etc, you might want to look at The Maddux School.

[Anonymous]

Our first grade has some delays which we knew about going into kindergarten but he appears to be above average cognitively (of course, aren't all children of DCUMs?) We've got him in FCPS and are very happy with it. The key has been to get a good IEP which he didn't have for most of kindergarten. For that, we hired an educational consultant - Dr. Ruth Heitin and the difference has been amazing. Hiring Dr. Heitin was a lot cheaper than private school tuition and our DS is thriving. We also have a 3 year old with developmental delays who appears to be at least of normal intelligence who is currently in a FCPS special ed preschool. His delays appear to be primarily speech/motor planning. We also plan work with Dr. Heitin and an IEP when the time comes for him to enter kindergarten.

[Anonymous]

I think that in the right circumstance (e.g. good local school or charter) public can be a great option for kids like this. Public schools generally have more structure, which can be helpful. They also have a wider range of academic and developmental skills in the classrooms -- which means that teachers are skilled at differentiating instruction, and that your child will be able to really shine in the areas in which they are strong, and be supported in areas in which they need support.

At the same time, there is wide variation in the quality of public schools. If you're in DC I'd suggest Haynes, Cap City, Janney, and Key as schools that are particularly strong. If you're in suburbia then I can't help because I don't live there!