speech..after early steps

My little ones will be turning 3 and will still need speech, the case manager recommened
the pre-k program from the public school system
anyone else went through this program? what is it like? should I sign them up for
regular pre-k classes too?

 

I'd get the testing done. I don't know how it works with every state, here there is a meeting with the coordinator and a public school representative to sign some paperwork, then they call you and you go for pre-evaluation (here it took a month). If they think that they might qualify, they'll do more extensive evaluation then. I think that if they qualify classes are every day (either just mornings or full day) so you don't have to sign them up elsewhere...

Of course I'm just assuming that there is some evaluation process... it really depends on the state. Your case manager should be able to help with the transition. In our case we went ahead with the pre-eval but DS didn't qualify, so we just signed up both for private preschool because I didn't want both in two different places at the same time.

 

I teach prek special ed (program) It is awesome...kids make much more progress than they do in a home setting...Take it!! U won't be sorry.

 

Both of my boys still needed speech at 3. On their 3rd birthday, they began preschool. I live in Illinois and they attend regular preschool 4 days a week from 12:00-2:30. Once a week they get speech therapy which is done in the classroom. My one son is a little further behind and gets 50 minutes per week and the other gets 40 minutes per week.

They were evaluated for about 90 minutes per child on different days. About a month later I had a 2 hour meeting with all the therapists, principal and school nurse and that is when I found out they qualified.

I believe every state and even city is different but in our city, each classroom has 15 kids. 5 are Special Ed kids, 5 are At Risk and the other 5 are regular tuition paying students. My boys were labled "At Risk" because of their speech delay and home environment(DH passed away when they were 8 months old).

I was told there was a chance that my one son would only quality for speech and if that were the case, each week he would recieve 25 minutes of speech therapy in an office environment. In the event I could not take him, a school bus would pick him up and take him home.

That was a huge issue for me because I could not imagine sending one to preschool and having the other one home with me since regular tuition students need to be 3 by August.

I am so glad it worked out the way it did. They are making such great progress and it's only been two months. Another great thing with their preschool is that each classroom has kids from 3-5 so the older kids help out the younger ones and I feel it is also helping with their speech.

Lastly, I know a lot of parents don't want to seperate, but I insisted they be. I have a very dominant twin who takes over and always needs to be in charge. I really wanted his brother to be able to come into his own and interact with other kids without having his brother around. There really was not a seperation problem and when they get home from school they seem to play a lot nicer since they are not with each other 24/7.

 

My kids got evaluated at 2 and qualified. Because they qualified, they got free preschool. I think that you should evaluate how much preschool they will get because of the speech. My 2 year old (current) is in one day a week preschool and will go to 2 days a week next school year. Before age 3 it is generally one home visit every week or two. Talk to the school. My kids really excelled in this program.

 

The general evaluation is the same no matter where you live. They start the eval when the kids are around 2 years 9 months, when they are already in an early intervention program. To qualify for the preschool program, they will first have a meeting to discuss what evaluations are needed and for you to give permission to evaluate. They will do IQ testing, academic readiness testing, speech testing, (and any other testing that may be needed). They will also do a social work evaluation. This usually is spread out over the course of a month. Then you have another meeting, if they qualify, an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) is then written. If they qualify, preschool is provided for free. Depending on their needs (and what your school offers), they could be in an inclusion class, which is mixed with kids who have special needs and kids who are considered "typical". Or they could be placed in a self-contained class, usually smaller and only includes special needs kids. They start on their third birthday.

In our case, Jonathan qualified at 3 1/2 (no early intervention here). He qualified for a combination of a severe expressive speech delay, and acting out behaviors which were the result of his speech delay. Until then he attended a regular nursery school. Jon was placed in the self-contained class. At my request (a number of factors which I won't go into here) he stayed in that class until K. He received speech therapy as a pull out once a week, but the speech teacher came into their class daily and worked with all the kids. He was dismissed from all special ed services when he went into K, and has thrived ever since!