Lily has her preschool evaluation coming up in September. Then, shortly afterwards, she'll have her airway reconstruction.
My guess is that she'll qualify for preschool simply because of her language delay (it is my understanding that fine and gross motor delays don't automatically qualify a child). However, barring any catastrophic surgery errors, I am also guessing she'll pick up speech rather quickly, as the only thing holding her back now is her trach.
So, my question is this... If Lily's speech rapidly develop over the next year, will district preschool kick her out?
Re: Question about preschool
Fine and gross motor delays aren't automatic qualifiers, but with Lily's challenges, I don't think you will have any challenge demonstrating that her delays affect her educationally. Fine motor delays are pretty easy to show she will need OT to...draw, color, write, stack, build, etc. Gross motor delays - she may be getting a wheelchair, but...does she need some assistance to navigate the halls, learn to move around the room, will she get a stander, gait trainer that she may need work to learn to use? How does she play with peers? Is she ready to catch a ball, roll a ball, etc? What help might she need to access the class from an adaptive perspective. How will you/they get her ready to wash her hands by herself, put on her backpack (hat, coat), etc. Some of those may seem really out of reach, others she may already do. But they are all educational. DS's PT goals are all directed at recess basically. But that is a very important part (to me) of preschool and even K/1. At least DS's school district agreed.