Preschool questions
supermom83
member
Hi all, I had posted my question in the preschool section and auntie recommended I ask here too. Here is a link to my previous post. https://community.thebump.com/cs/ks/forums/thread/68960149.aspx
Basically, DS has Apraxia and an auditory processing disorder and is in therapy for both. He has an IEP but did not qualify for the special ed preschool offered through the county since he was deemed too high functioning. He qualified for the resource program (teacher comes to our house once a week and works with him). I enrolled him in a church based preschool but I'm finding that communication with the teacher is very lacking and she has only reported negative things to me about his behavior, if interested you can read more detail in my original post.
Other posters suggested that maybe the preschool was not a right fit and I need to find something that would cater to his special needs (which I think I agree with). How would one find such a place? I have been googling private special needs preschools in my area (northern Virginia) and nothing is coming up. I will be asking his therapists on Monday when I see them, but I was just wondering what other special needs moms are doing to find a good preschool for kids with Apraxia and general communication based special needs. Thanks!
Re: Preschool questions
Another Nova mommy recommended Old Bridge Preschool which I think is in Woodbridge, they take special needs children. We are farther south from you but we are in the same boat . We have only come up with 2 options that are willing to work with Peyton, but she has other medical issues. However, I am almost positive if we put out the registration fees/supply fees they would ask her to leave the school quickly because of her emotional and social instability.
Hi! I've never actually posted before, though I've lurked for a while. I just had to let you know that we had a very similar situation in NoVA. My DS is 3.5 and started preschool last year at 2.5. He had been in EI for some early gross motor stuff and then finished EI in speech, though we wound that up a few months before he turned three. He didn't qualify for an IEP under either speech or developmental delay...though he doesn't have apraxia; his speech issues are more pragmatic and didn't rise to the level of a significant delay. Anyway, his original preschool at a church didn't go well for the same reasons you outlined. I am a special ed teacher (which made me even more frustrated with the situation) and DS stays with my inlaws during the day - they live near Tysons. I cannot speak highly enough about Dolley Madison Preschool on 123 near the CIA. He receives speech services at the preschool, they have an OT on staff for services/support, and they are just all-around wonderful. I will say that this summer was stressful when he attended camp there four days a week - we live way out 66 and I lost a little of my soul doing that four days a week - but he has come such an incredible way from Feb-July and again since school started. I don't know where you live, but it is definitely worth checking out!
Our school system has special Ed preschool but they also have preschool for NT kids on a tuition basis. Does your public school offer something like this?
My son has apraxia and SPD. He was denied services through the school system until we got a private assessment which recommended speech therapy and OT. I then had our pedi write a prescription for those services and gave it to the school system so they could have a justification for accepting him into the special needs preschool. So he does SN preschool 3 mornings a week and gets ST and OT there. We also pay tuition so he goes to the same school the other two days of the week for NT preschool.
we also just finished a year and a half of really good private therapy followed by an intensive summer camp program where DS got three hours of speech and OT three times a week all summer long. He came out of that in really great shape so At this point, I think the NT preschool through the public school system is actually more beneficial to him than the SN preschool.
So I guess that would be my recommendation...if your son is not in need of special services then tuition based preschool through your public school system might be your best bet since the teachers still have access to all the supports on a consultative basis.
I'm on NoVA, too. My DD goes to pre-school at our local community center. It's run by the county, and the teachers are fantastic. My DD has SPD, and we're still in the evaluation process. I doubt we'll qualify for any services, but our Childfind coordinator is going to do a classroom observation before meeting with us again to talk about things. DD's teacher told me that a few of the kids in DD's class were scheduled for observations. I would definitely request a classroom evaluation of your DS given everything that you mentioned in your OP.