The New Preschool

A couple days after I took Damien out of preschool at the local university, I looked into an elementary school that my daughter had gone to. They help kids with special needs. My kids had to take the PLS 5 test and if they were under the 7%, then they qualified to go to school for free and were able to have a bus pick them up and bring them home.

We scheduled Damien to take the test 3 weeks ago and he qualified for his speech and language. He's at 3% for his expressive language, or equivilant to a 1 year 11 month old. 

While this may be surprising to you, I wasn't surprised at all.

 

Once his teacher called us, we needed to have him observed. She told us she has him come preschool for two weeks so she can see what he needs help with. He did great the first week and loved going to school! His class size was half the size, and it was structured. The second day he went, he had a short tantrum, but the teachers had him calmed down within two minutes and he was even sitting during story time. I was so happy! 

The next week he did okay. The parents have to wait in the lobby for the teachers to bring the students out. I was sitting there, not paying attention, and all of a sudden Damien was in front of me with his teacher. I was surprised, and then noticed his eyes were red. My heart hurt for him. You could tell he was sad and having a hard time. His teacher quietly said,"Could you come with me?"

As I followed her to a more private spot, she simply said, "I now know what you mean about his meltdowns."  In a way I was glad she saw one. But at the same time, I was sad that something happened to cause this. She told me that he was having a hard day and things just escalated when it got noisy during clean up. She took him out in the hall to get him to calm down. He sat in the hall with her for 20 minutes. She asked him if he wanted a snack. He said no. She asked him if he wanted to go back into the classroom. He said no. She accidently touched him to sooth him, and he didn't like that. Finally he said, "I want my mom."

We had our IEP meeting later that afternoon and I was worried he wouldn't want to go to the school, or see his teacher. But he was excited. We talked about what to do and the goals he was going to work on. I truly feel like this is the best thing for him, and that he'll get the help he needs. He'll be going to this school for two more years and I'm even thinking about requesting the same teacher. 

One day, we'll figure him out.