We started nursery school this week. From what I was told, DS did well both days.
However, my ILs noticed that both days in the afternoon, when he returned to their care, he had issues. He was having inconsolable meltdowns, and even moreso, he is fighting again about wearing clothes.
I don't know if it has to do with holding in anxiety at school to "be good", a change in routine, or something else.........
In addition, we also started the district based evaluations this week.
We met with the child psych today. She was very honest that they can't really diagnosis a child with anything until around 7 or 8 because each day they are seen at this age, they can present differently.
She did however say that from the start, she noticed he has a lot of problems focusing and sitting still. The speech therapist who saw him the other day said the same thing. In both sessions, he could not remain seated, was crawling and rolling all over the floor, going from toy to toy, etc.
While she has to score the evaluation still, she feels he does have some sensory issues which are contributing to this.
Apparently the good thing is a lot of regular teachers are aware of this stuff and know how to handle it so it does not have to become a disruption and escalate into bad behavior in class.
The child psych said it could go either way at the meeting in a couple weeks when they decide if he is eligible for services. Best case scenario, they will send a special ed teacher to work with him for a couple hours each week in his nursery school class. Worst, they look to see if he "grows out of this" and will ask him to come back in 6 months for another eval.
He also met with the OT today who said he has a few "borderline" issues with his fine motor skills, but honestly, I think that's BS because 1.) he's not in school enough yet really and has not used scissors and pencils that much and as DH pointed out 2.) he uses a hammer and other tools at this age. (DH is in construction so he follows him all around, wanting to do what he does).
DS also is advanced in terms of being able to do sports kinds of activities, and both the speech therapist and psychologist said his hand/eye coordination is excellent.
It was also pointed out that he appears very intelligent and does do things to kind of "manipulate" people. My family has ALWAYS said this about him. Throughout both sessions this week, when the person would ask him something, he would answer with the wrong thing, and then smile or laugh so they knew he was just being silly about it. It was also said that cognitively, there's absolutely nothing wrong with him.
On Tuesday, they are sending a special educator to the nursery school for about 45 minutes to observe him.
Both the psychologist and the speech therapist are going to call me next week to discuss their final conclusions before we attend the CPSE meeting at the school, at the end of the month.
So that's the latest.
It has been a very busy week, between all this and the craziness of work and I am so looking forward to the weekend to just relax, with no major plans.
I just want to wish you the best of luck with you son at school. It's not easy when you have a child who is a little different from the traditional mold.
ReplyDeleteHowever it's so wonderful that you are aware and proactive about these issues so early... you are and will be providing your child with the best help/support possible :)
Wow, you have had a busy time. It's so stressful when your kids start school, for them and you!
ReplyDeleteI really admire you for being so on top on this with your son and trying to get a handle on it early on, rather than going the "wait and see if he grows out of it" option. (I've been awful about commenting but I've been reading your posts on this.) It is really hard to tell with kids that young, they all develop so differently but there's so much pressure of everyone to be the same, hit the same goals and on and on. Gunnar would hardly even talk until he hit four, but as soon as he did he spoke in compete, complex sentences.
Good luck, I hope everything settles down in the next couple of weeks for you. :)