Monday, March 5, 2012

KinderKids

That’s the way we’ve decided to go for Olivia’s continued education. She’s four days too old to go to preschool next year. So Kinderkids it is.

This is a program that is similar to kindergarten in that it is a bit more academic than preschool but the classes are smaller, still only about six kids to each adult in the room and the kids only attend half a day like preschool. She will go five days a week, though, so this feels like a step up and in the right direction.

During the meeting we had this morning to discuss this transition, O’s preschool teacher gave her thoughts and opinions on O’s development.

None of it was surprising. She is behind her peers in a lot of ways. Socially, I’d put her on par with a typical three year old these days. She’s still more into parallel play than actually interacting with her peers, she loves to play with her cousin but she’s known him since she was a year old, she’s used to him. She doesn’t accept new people all that quickly. She needs to take her time and settle in before she’ll show them what she can really do.

She likes routine. She likes knowing what’s coming next. Her teacher said that Olivia shows some hesitance about the bus if her friend K isn’t there right next to her.

She needs a lot of help transitioning from one activity to the next and her low muscle tone interferes with her independence as far as using the restroom, putting on her coat, ect.

Like I said, not surprising.

The teacher did say that Olivia displays an excellent vocabulary and the ability to vocalize her wants and needs when I or my mom are in the classroom with her. But if neither of us is there? She doesn’t speak.

Sigh…

So we always seem come back to figuring out how to get Olivia to do at school what she so happily does at home.

There was a surprising moment during this meeting. The speech therapist got her turn to speak and she declares that Olivia is perfectly average when it comes to vocabulary, pronunciation and even volume. I asked if she was comparing Olivia to typical five year olds or if she was comparing her to other kids with speech issues.

The ST assured me that she was comparing Olivia to your typical five year old. My girl speaks as well as any other five year old out there. When she wants to.

The school principal is trying to decide if she wants me to go with Olivia to the kindergarten testing that has to take place even though we’ve decided to send her to kinderkids.

Mrs. F, the preschool teacher pointed out that if I was there, Olivia’s scores would be higher than if I’m not present.

The principal said she doesn’t care if they’re higher, she wants to see what Olivia is capable of and if that means I need to be there, so be it. She said it won’t affect her placement in Kinderkids. The principal just wants it noted how well Olivia CAN do if the situations is perfect (meaning I’m present. In Olivia’s world, all is perfect is Mom can be right next to her.)

I’m okay with that too. I did say at the onset of this meeting that I could go on and on about what Olivia can and does do at home but we weren’t there for that. We were there to discuss what she can and does do at school and that is very different from how things are at home. And we have to grade her on her in-school performance because I don’t see that changing anytime soon. We all have to work together toward that change but Olivia is obviously the boss of all of us when it comes to her own behavior in school.

So…all that angst about preschool versus Kinderkids versus kindergarten and in the end, Olivia is going to be just fine because we all want the same thing. We all want her to succeed and we all want her to be happy and we’ll all do whatever it takes to make those things happen. We’re incredibly lucky to have such a dedicated team working with our girl.

1 comment:

Tiffany said...

She is doing so, so awesome!