We started preschool just shy of age 3, and it was a disaster. It was a nice program through a JCC in Florida, but the teachers *maybe* had AA degrees and it felt more like a daycare/babysitter situation. They had zero tolerance for our son, wanted a shadow, and called me three times a week exasperated and how exhausting it was to deal with him. They used to send pictures every day to all the parents, and my son was often in the background of the picture where the teachers had removed him for the activity while all the other kids played. it was really sad. The teachers weren't nasty, but way out of their element.

Moved states midway through that year so my son started at a private in DC and he's still got all his issues but they are super supportive now. At the 3 month parent teacher conference, we braced for them saying that he needed a shadow, or an evaluation or whatever, and the teachers and administrator were like "no way, he's totally in the realm of "normal" development issues and we can figure this out." We regularly talked, they appreciated that we were obviously very involved, flexible parents, so they were always very kind. We ultimately pursued our own eval and he's got hyperactive ADHD. And it's kind of frustrating that the first school acted like they've never seen a kid with his issues ever. Frankly, there is a girl in my son's current 4 year old class who is almost identical to him, and another boy in the 5 year old group who is just aging out of this behavior. So maybe not one kid like this in every class, but certain a handful in every school. Now that his school is so welcoming (and made it clear we were welcome to reenroll the next year), it takes so much stress off me and I think we're all happier. He is aging out of many of his worst issues now.

That totally makes sense. We recently did a social skills class where all of the other child did not want to interact and my son agressively wants to interact and it was a waste of time. I think we need a shadow to facilitate his social skills.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They had a meeting, and appointed a shadow. We are now seeking ABA and trying to get into the Child Find preschool to supplement. They have been helpful but it is disruptive and distressing. FWIW, we have an ADHD diagnosis.

Will you be moving your child out of the private preschool to ChildFind preschool?

hoping to do both. We shall see.

We did both.. PEP in the mornings and private preschool in the afternoons with the shadow we provided. It was very useful to have the time in a traditional setting.

Can you tell me why it was useful? We are trying to decide. Did PEP help?

It was helpful for my child because he had his shadow who constantly reinforced the appropriate behavior which was being modeled by the students in the traditional preschool. It also gave him an opportunity to work on social skills and language skills with the kids in the traditional class. His shadow would help facilitate the development of social skills with the neuro typical peers.

PEP was very good for teaching behaviors, language and he received OT but we felt like PEP did not offer a great opportunity to develop social skills (this is obviously different for each child and each classroom). My son was in PEP Inc (5 mornings a week) so the majority of kids in the class did not have social skills or a real desire to develop social skills... I hope that makes sense.

I am out of state, but we moved our child to a therapeutic preschool that has special ed teachers and understands our sons challenges. The Early Childhood program was useless.

My child did both PEP (2 half-days) and private pre-school the rest of the time.

My child's behavior was much better in the PEP classroom. The class had more structure and the teachers were better versed in handling children with special needs.

"Regular" pre-school was very caring and worked with me as much as they could. But they were also a bit exasperated with a child who had social communication issues: trouble with transitions/lining up, trouble sitting at circle time, delay with handwriting, etc.

PEP had built-in strategies for handling each of these issues. So, his issues were basically non-existent in PEP.

Do yourself a favor and pursue help through ChildFind. If you qualify for services, they are invaluable.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They had a meeting, and appointed a shadow. We are now seeking ABA and trying to get into the Child Find preschool to supplement. They have been helpful but it is disruptive and distressing. FWIW, we have an ADHD diagnosis.

Will you be moving your child out of the private preschool to ChildFind preschool?

hoping to do both. We shall see.

We did both.. PEP in the mornings and private preschool in the afternoons with the shadow we provided. It was very useful to have the time in a traditional setting.

Can you tell me why it was useful? We are trying to decide. Did PEP help?

Not the same behaviors you are describing but close. Switched schools and the behaviors went away immediately and by that I mean day 1 at new school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They had a meeting, and appointed a shadow. We are now seeking ABA and trying to get into the Child Find preschool to supplement. They have been helpful but it is disruptive and distressing. FWIW, we have an ADHD diagnosis.

Will you be moving your child out of the private preschool to ChildFind preschool?

hoping to do both. We shall see.

We did both.. PEP in the mornings and private preschool in the afternoons with the shadow we provided. It was very useful to have the time in a traditional setting.

Anonymous wrote:Our child has language delays and this behavior has recently emerged and seems to be now getting in the way.
How do you get a shadow assigned in a private preschool?

my child also has a receptive language delay. No ASD diagnosis. But we are pursuing an ABA shadow - right now ours is just provided by the school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They had a meeting, and appointed a shadow. We are now seeking ABA and trying to get into the Child Find preschool to supplement. They have been helpful but it is disruptive and distressing. FWIW, we have an ADHD diagnosis.

Will you be moving your child out of the private preschool to ChildFind preschool?

hoping to do both. We shall see.

Anonymous wrote:Our child has language delays and this behavior has recently emerged and seems to be now getting in the way.
How do you get a shadow assigned in a private preschool?

We provide our own shadow who is trained by our ABA therapist.

Anonymous wrote:They had a meeting, and appointed a shadow. We are now seeking ABA and trying to get into the Child Find preschool to supplement. They have been helpful but it is disruptive and distressing. FWIW, we have an ADHD diagnosis.

Will you be moving your child out of the private preschool to ChildFind preschool?

Our child has language delays and this behavior has recently emerged and seems to be now getting in the way.
How do you get a shadow assigned in a private preschool?

They had a meeting, and appointed a shadow. We are now seeking ABA and trying to get into the Child Find preschool to supplement. They have been helpful but it is disruptive and distressing. FWIW, we have an ADHD diagnosis.

For those whose young ones (4 year old) went to regular private preschools (no special ed county preschool), how did the teachers handle the defiant and attention-seeking behavior? The impulsiveness to run away at circle time, etc.? Did you get negative feedback about your child's behavior? How did you and the teachers handle it when the behavior became disruptive?