Preschool
At the end of last school year, Nicole’s Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP) suggested that we consider having her re-tested to see if she would qualify for the special ed preschool. Nicole’s testing began the second week of October. She was given a “non-verbal†IQ test and she was evaluated for adaptive/social/emotional skills through ratings forms and observations. Although she didn’t understand some of the requirements of the IQ test, she received a score in the normal range. Her scores in the adaptive and social/emotional evaluations were low enough to qualify her for services under the educational classification of developmental delay* and she was recommended for preschool.
The next step after reviewing her test results was to hold an IEP (Individual Education Plan) and set goals. Here is a short form summary of her new goals:
Adaptive:
1. follow directions given to the group
2. follow if….then…. directions
3. participate in large and small group activities for at least 15 minutes
4. answer questions about herself such as her birthday, where she lives, family names
Social:
1. respond to and initiate greetings to others
2. verbally exchange toys and classroom materials
3. verbally exchange ideas in group discussions and play time
4. recognize her own name in print for turn taking and locating work
She will also continue to receive speech services. As soon as we were finished with the IEP, she was invited to start preschool. Since we held her IEP on Thursday morning (11/1/12), that day was her first official day of preschool, but her teacher invited her to come to school the day before so that she could attend their costume party.
Nicole was very excited to go to school. We gave her a new purple backpack which she loves (even though it’s way too big for her). Her first day went well. Her teacher, who had met her a year before, was excited and impressed with the amount of progress she has made in the last year and said that she thought Nicole fit into the class well. Ila was a little worried about not having Nicole with us. She kept saying “oh, no! We forgot Nicole!†After school Nicole told me that “Mrs. Abby had to stay at school so she didn’t get lost.â€
We had Nicole’s IEP on the morning of her second day of school in her classroom. After our meeting, we walked to the bus stop to wait for her classmates. When I told Nicole I was going to go home, she panicked and started crying and trying to climb up me. I promised to wait with her and tried to distract her from being worried. As soon as the class started walking to the preschool room, she joined the group and was fine. She had a second melt-down at the end of the day when she was not allowed to get on the bus with her classmates. Luckily, she gets to start riding the bus to school on Monday. As soon as we sat down to dinner that night, she proudly told her dad “I went to preschool today!â€
*Developmental Delay is a generic classification that is used for young children who test low in one or more area.