Welcome to Preschool~Special Education Edition

At 2 1/2 we would be lucky to have him enrolled in Preschool. Luckily the school system has an Early Childhood Special Education Program {which delivers services to preschool aged children (2 1/2 to age 5)who experiences a disability and requires special education services. Educators, along with the child's family develop an IEP (Individualized Education Program) with goals and objective to meet the child's developmental needs. The goals and objectives include variety of skills and/or activities for the child to learn and use consistently. The long term goal for preschool aged children is for them to be as ready as possible to enter kindergarten. The earlier services are provided for children with disabilities, the better the long term prognosis. Children with special needs who have experienced support early in life do better in future settings.} that is being offered to us. This is a public school setting so all the services are free of charge. Our first step is to formulate an IEP for him. Seems simple enough, at this point he is still being diagnosed as developmentally delayed and speech this time around is the main objective. He will receive a certain number of hours of therapy in addition to instruction in the "classroom". The goals and objectives are pretty straight forward and we all are looking forward to having him meet the goals within the time frame set forth in the IEP. Well then we hit a snag........he doesn't want to cooperate. He is placed in a classroom with other children who have a variety of special needs. He needs constant instruction, constant attention and when he doesn't have it a wicked temper tantrum rears its ugly head. They chalk it up to him being 2 and never been away from his parent. We manage to work on some of the goals in the IEP. As the year goes on it gets pretty interesting. He becomes more inventive with getting attention. There is this little girl in his classroom and she is in a wheelchair. She is one of his friends, he decides though that he now cannot walk and needs a wheelchair. Here is this little boy who is only 2 1/2 and is trying to convince his teacher that he cannot walk. It was quite maddening at first. Just how much attention could one little boy need? At home he got attention. At school he was receiving as much attention as he could. We set up another IEP meeting to discuss what was going on. The solution was to (next school year)place him in an Inclusion Classroom (an inclusion classroom is where there is a mix of special education students and general education students)this way he will have the opportunity to model a general education student vs. modeling after a special needs student. In the meantime they would have him assist his friend in the wheelchair by being her helper. By becoming her "assistant" it gave him the opportunity to receive the attention that he needed not only from the teachers and therapists but from his friends as well. He became a super helper to at least 2 classmates. He had a job, he had purpose. As much purpose as a 2 1/2 year old can have. It was important to him to help his friends. Since he exhibited signs or regression during Spring Break it was decided that he would attend school year round. No summer break for him, which would be a good thing for him to continue the goals of the IEP throughout the summer. He was still reserved, still quiet and some days little black rain clouds would loom overhead for no reason but just to be there and make his day awkward and awful. Nothing in particular would be wrong but things would just feel wrong. We had little faces that we put up on the wall at home to tell us what he was feeling when he woke up. He couldn't choose. You would ask if you are happy? No he would say. Are you sad? No he would say. Are you angry? No he would say. He would always see to choose the OK face. I made sure that he was put on the school bus in a good mood to help insure that he arrived at school in a good mood which helped to make sure that he would have a good day at school. If he was in a mood, then his day at school would be a difficult one. He had routine and if you broke routine it would have dire consequences (which was another reason to extend his school year). He was a creature of habit and certain things had to be a certain way. The first year of preschool proved to have a different roller coaster ride all of its own. Buckle up.....it's not over yet. For additional information on the Virginia Early Childhood Special Education Program please visit this website for more information http://www.doe.virginia.gov/special_ed/early_childhood/index.shtml