Two days, I went in for an observation at my son's preschool. This is the public special education preschool. He has been here since he turned three and aged out of early intervention. However, I am thinking of taking him out of the school from what I saw. I remember preschool as being fun but what I observed was just the opposite. It caused me great anxiety and still does.
In total, there are six kids including my son. He is a smart cookie but just needs a little push in speech therapy. He talks like a two year old. This is why he is here. When I was there, I saw two teachers trying to get the kids to cooperate. Four kids were crying their dear hearts out ( one almost puked). The other one was hitting the one who almost puked and nothing was done other than a "uh uh...don't do that." He still hits. I remember my son got bit on the head couple weeks ago. Transitioning from one activity to the next was awful. My son was confused and to be quite honest I didn't know what was going on until they did a taste testing activity.
So the kids had two minutes to look at a book, speech therapist gave intro to what was coming up, and then they transitioned back to the snack table for the activity. The kids are still crying constantly and I can see my son hates it. (He hates it when his sister cries too). But he complies and sits down at the table. They cut each vegetable for the kids and make the kids touch it, smell it, and eat it. The kids there hates vegetables but my son loves them except avocado. And there was an avocado on the plate. The main teacher comes up behind and makes him touch it when clearly he said "no, no, no! Stop!" And tries to wiggle out of her grasp but she forces him anyway. If this is normal, then I think I am doing something wrong here. I don't force my kids to do something they don't want to do. He was following directions up until that point. I just wanted to hug him and take him home.
I don't remember that much crying in a preschool setting either. My son has high anxiety and I know in this environment, it is not working for him.
However, the school wants to keep him there for the summer and next school year to better his iep but my heart is now telling me to keep him home until he transitions to private prekindergarten this fall. (We took the tour of the school and he loved it. He didn't want to leave.)
In total, there are six kids including my son. He is a smart cookie but just needs a little push in speech therapy. He talks like a two year old. This is why he is here. When I was there, I saw two teachers trying to get the kids to cooperate. Four kids were crying their dear hearts out ( one almost puked). The other one was hitting the one who almost puked and nothing was done other than a "uh uh...don't do that." He still hits. I remember my son got bit on the head couple weeks ago. Transitioning from one activity to the next was awful. My son was confused and to be quite honest I didn't know what was going on until they did a taste testing activity.
So the kids had two minutes to look at a book, speech therapist gave intro to what was coming up, and then they transitioned back to the snack table for the activity. The kids are still crying constantly and I can see my son hates it. (He hates it when his sister cries too). But he complies and sits down at the table. They cut each vegetable for the kids and make the kids touch it, smell it, and eat it. The kids there hates vegetables but my son loves them except avocado. And there was an avocado on the plate. The main teacher comes up behind and makes him touch it when clearly he said "no, no, no! Stop!" And tries to wiggle out of her grasp but she forces him anyway. If this is normal, then I think I am doing something wrong here. I don't force my kids to do something they don't want to do. He was following directions up until that point. I just wanted to hug him and take him home.
I don't remember that much crying in a preschool setting either. My son has high anxiety and I know in this environment, it is not working for him.
However, the school wants to keep him there for the summer and next school year to better his iep but my heart is now telling me to keep him home until he transitions to private prekindergarten this fall. (We took the tour of the school and he loved it. He didn't want to leave.)