Special Ed Preschool: Part Two

In my last post, I wrote about some of the complications we were dealing with in the public school special ed preschool setting. After a full school year and a couple weeks, we decided to pull Bot out of the public school system. What would I do? I had a few option which consisted of putting him in a private mother's day out and hoping they would understand Bot's needs or I could  keep him at home. Several of you kept mentioning the wonders that ABA had done for your child. I agreed that it could be good for Bot but I had three large barriers in my way. First, I didn't have any interest in the time commitment that would be required for a good ABA program. Second, our insurance doesn't cover a drop of ABA and there is no way we could afford it. Third, I wasn't aware of an ABA program even existing in our town. I began to dig a little more into local resources and lo and behold, I found a local Autism center that specializes in ABA. And when I say local, I'm not exaggerating. It turns out the center is next door to my husband's work and just a few miles from our home. I knew it wouldn't hurt to call them and set up a time to talk though I assumed we would most likely not be using their services because of finances.

I went into the meeting with an open mind even though I had already written it off. During our interview, it came up that the center had just began a pilot preschool program using ABA and that it sounded like it might be a good fit for Bot. Wait...what? A preschool program? I didn't come here for an ABA preschool program because I didn't know such a thing existed but my dream had just come true. That's what we needed! I asked if we could see the classroom and we were happily led back to the cutest little preschool room I've ever seen complete with the sunniest teacher I've ever met. There were letters and number and schedules all over the walls and teeny tiny little table for students. Next to the classroom was an OT room with balls, trampolines, a little slide and all that other fun stuff that makes OT a blast. I was sold and so were the grandparents who offered to make it happen if the center was what Bot needed (we are blessed!).

Bot was evaluated a few days after that meeting to see if the preschool program would indeed be a good fit. When I picked him up after a couple hours, he was mad that he had to leave. When I took him back for the second part of the evaluation, he still didn't want to leave! He never did that at his old school.

Bot was accepted into the program the same day as his final evaluation. On his first day, he did some showing off for his new teacher whom we'll just refer to as Ms. M. She checked his preschool skills but didn't stop there and gave him a sight word test which he got a 100% on. A few weeks after that, she gave him a reading comprehension test on which he scored into elementary school level. We know that his decoding is through the roof and into high school levels but we had absolutely no idea that he was beginning to comprehend and read so fluently. Even though his comprehension is years ahead of his actual age, he still keeps the Hyperlexia diagnosis because of his high decoding ability. After talking with Ms. M, she made it clear that the work Bot would be doing in preschool would be tailored to his abilities. Oh, how I love her!

In the classroom, it's just Bot and one other student and sometimes the employee's preschoolers who serve as peers. It's very structured with the day broken down into activities ranging from Yoga to academic skills. The center accumulates data on Bot throughout the day then they file it into a folder which comes home with him everyday. Also in the folder are worksheets he did as well as a detailed sheet documenting his behaviors and what choices he made and whether or not her earned his end of day reward. The folder is awesome and exactly the type of communication I was looking for!

Since Bot's first week, we have seen tremendous changes in him. He loves his classmate and teacher and tells me about what he did and if he got in trouble and why. We are having REAL conversations about his day! He's starting to go potty by himself (I have to give all the credit to Ms. M) and is beginning to talk to us about feelings and has even given me a genuine "I'm sorry" on a few occasions. Sure, he still has many struggles but that's to be expected. His triumphs however, far outweigh the struggles.

Did I mention we are blessed?