Re: 1st posting - your insight is appreciated!

September 15, 2004

My daughter Hope is in a preschool program run by the Intermediate Unit and

school districts. For her it's the best course of action. In a regular

preschool she wouldnt get the amount of therapy and help she gets at the IU

preschool. Even with bringing in therapists to a regular school. The teachers

in a regular preschool I dont think are trained to handle her. Hope was in a

general class with kids with delays for a while and did ok, but not great. She

was bored out of her mind. A lot of the kids in her class not only had speech

delays, but quite a few had physical delays and most had cognative delays as

well. That " class " was more like a playgroup than a preschool IMO. Once they

started getting a large influx of kids who were just turning 3 and starting the

program, they looked more closely at who was in that class and could be moved

elsewhere. Hope was one of the ones moved. She went into an all day (8:30 -

2:30) class for hearing impaired kids. It's a very speech intensive class

taught by an SLP, and she's pulled out twice a week for speech therapy and once

a week for either physical or occupational therapy (they alternate weeks). Now

in that class she's done extreamly well. None of the kids in that class have

delays other than speech. Well at least they didnt until Hope came along. They

were able to see delays (physical and behavioral) we werent' aware of once she

was with kids her age who weren't delayed other than speech. They had her

evaluated for those, I set up an appointment with the Children's Developmental

Unit at Children's Hospital. After it was said and done, we found out what

exactly was going on. Hope is autistic. So now she goes to the same class, but

has her TSS with her to help with some of the behavioral things and teach her

how to cope without throwing a tantrum. So far so good. Hope likes her TSS a

lot. After spending a couple of weeks with Hope before school started her TSS

found out what Hope responds to, how to talk to her so she'll listen, and what

calms her down.

If you think your daughter is doing well in the regular preschool class, then

when they bring up their class tell them she's already in a class and doing fine

there. But get them to send a speech therapist to her class. Or hold your

ground and get them to continue the way things are. If she's doing well and

progressing, why mess with a good thing.

It may not be wishful thinking about your daughter's speech. A few weeks after

starting ProEFA with Hope she started saying more. She picked up more and more

words, but still no 2 syllables or word combinations. She just started using

word combinations recently. We still have to prompt her for a lot of 2 syllable

words, but she's getting better at remembering there is more to the word and

getting it out on her own. Some of her sentences need some translation and

words filled in since as yet she only says what she thinks are the important

words.

Like last week at school they had summer surprise day where all the kids were to

bring in something that represented what they did over the summer and tell about

it. We sent a toy strawberry to school and I wrote a note for the teacher

telling her why Hope had a strawberry. (she helped in the garden and we picked

berries). Then her teacher asked her questions about picking berries and helped

her along so she could tell about them, and had to fill in some words for her

to explain what Hope meant when she said " easy. squeeze, mess, hand. ow. "

(that's you have to be easy picking berries. If you squeeze you get messy

hands. or get scratched and get an ouch). When (her TSS) helped

translate that one Hope smiled, yelled " right! " and gave her a big hug. Hope

has gone without people understanding what she says for so long, when you

understand her she gets really excited.

Toni Wells

http://designs.merlins-avalon.com

September 15, 2004

Hi ,

i am like you i've been comming to this site for almost 5 years or so my son is

almost 10 and was diagnosed at 3. Like you we also live in florida, Port

Charlotte on thw water so we took a direct hit and are now temporarily displaced

from our home but enough of that. My advice to you is this Florida does not have

the strongest of school systems so you must really advocate for your daughter

let them know what you expect how much therepy how often. When my son was in the

pre-school system he had a wonderful therepist who sent homw many activities for

us to do we also kept a communication log of what was going on in school and at

home it worked really well. This website is a wonderful tool for you to get

information and be prepeared for the meeting. I often offer this website to the

teachers and therepists to look at themselves andget ideas and also to learn

things about Apraxia. so just be firm and advocate I cant say that enough

because it is so important dont be afraid to step on

toes. Your child deserves the best and only you can make that happen. I hope

this was helpful and good luck let us know how it went. Jenn

mjlogan1961@... wrote:

I've been a member for a while but never posted - just soaking up your

insight! (and dodging hurricanes - we're in FL too!).

However, next week we have our first " placement " meeting with our public

school for our soon-to-be 3 year old's IEP, and would Iove anyone's advice of

what

we should keep in mind (especially if anyone has experience with Duval county

schools).

has been in what they call the Early Intervention Program which

will end at her birthday in Oct. She's been getting Speech Therapy 3x/wk for 30

min. since early this year for verbal apraxia with a great SLP at Nemours

Children's Clinic. She has been really making great progress over the past few

months and we don't want to interrupt that (btw - we started her almost 3 weeks

ago on the ProEFA and, not sure if it's just wishful thinking, but we swear

she's been even more vocal. It may be a combination of everything!). She's now

up to about 50 words - no multi-words yet but she's close!.

Now I think what they are going to offer is to no longer pay for the sessions

with her current SLP...... instead put her in an 8:30am - 3:30p 5x/wk general

developmental delayed preschool class (with 15 students!) and then pull her

out for a few (number TBD) speech classes per week with a roving SLP. I've

been given the impression from a few of the preliminary interviews that the

discrepancy between her receptive and expressive speech is not great enough to

warrant her being in the severely speech delayed class, which is taught by an

SLP.

This is their way of making sure she is prepared for kindergarten in 2

years.

She's already in a great preschool 2x/wk so isn't that enough socialization?

(as well as the time she spends with her 4 year-old brother).

I really want what's best for her, but not sure what that is...... do people

want in these public school system preschool programs because they are the

best course or just for the childcare? I truly believe that if we stay the

current course, she'd be ready for kindergarten just fine (I pray!), but would I

be

foolish to not accept the program's recommendation?

Sorry to ramble.... thanks for any suggestions.....you guys are a Godsend!

September 15, 2004

I am in the prcoess as well as transitioning from early intervention

to CPSE. Callie is 2.8 yrs old, she'll be 3 at the end of Jan.

Last week i had her yearly evaluation & was told that she would

continue getting her same early intervention services even though she

will switch to CPSE. It is after than that it all changes ( 1 st

meeting on Sept. 23rd w/ cpse school admin.)

I am telling you this in case you can the same services extended for

. This was offered, I didn't even have to ask.

I am very confused as to what lies ahead as far as cpse, services

etc...

Good Luck & keep us posted.

> I've been a member for a while but never posted - just soaking up

your

> insight! (and dodging hurricanes - we're in FL too!).

> However, next week we have our first " placement " meeting with our

public

> school for our soon-to-be 3 year old's IEP, and would Iove anyone's

advice of what

> we should keep in mind (especially if anyone has experience with

Duval county

> schools).

> has been in what they call the Early Intervention Program

which

> will end at her birthday in Oct. She's been getting Speech Therapy

3x/wk for 30

> min. since early this year for verbal apraxia with a great SLP at

Nemours

> Children's Clinic. She has been really making great progress over

the past few

> months and we don't want to interrupt that (btw - we started her

almost 3 weeks

> ago on the ProEFA and, not sure if it's just wishful thinking, but

we swear

> she's been even more vocal. It may be a combination of

everything!). She's now

> up to about 50 words - no multi-words yet but she's close!.

> Now I think what they are going to offer is to no longer pay for

the sessions

> with her current SLP...... instead put her in an 8:30am - 3:30p

5x/wk general

> developmental delayed preschool class (with 15 students!) and then

pull her

> out for a few (number TBD) speech classes per week with a roving

SLP. I've

> been given the impression from a few of the preliminary interviews

that the

> discrepancy between her receptive and expressive speech is not

great enough to

> warrant her being in the severely speech delayed class, which is

taught by an SLP.

> This is their way of making sure she is prepared for kindergarten

in 2

> years.

> She's already in a great preschool 2x/wk so isn't that enough

socialization?

> (as well as the time she spends with her 4 year-old brother).

> I really want what's best for her, but not sure what that is......

do people

> want in these public school system preschool programs because they

are the

> best course or just for the childcare? I truly believe that if we

stay the

> current course, she'd be ready for kindergarten just fine (I

pray!), but would I be

> foolish to not accept the program's recommendation?

> Sorry to ramble.... thanks for any suggestions.....you guys are a

Godsend!

>

September 16, 2004

totally understand about the our children's excitment when people understand.

is talking more lately and I'm understnading he's talking even more hey.

just a tidbit that I understand the excitment

chris

Toni Wells <mommybizz@...> wrote: