OT: Waiting a year b4 Kindergarten

[Guest guest]

Hi Folks,

I posted this to my PDD support list and I wanted to send it to you too.

I just want to run this by you all and see if anyone has had similar

experience. We are currently working on ie's IEP for Kindergarten

next year. He just turned 5 in April and he is transitioning from

Preschool to K. They want to put him in an Autism program that doesn't

have enough mainstreaming for my comfort. I really feel he needs more

chance to play and learn from his typical peers. He just started really

talking in sentences and using his imaginary play in the last few months.

Now he is ready for regular preschool!

The spec ed program just wants him to go in and " visit " the regular

kindergarten and not really be a part of the class. Plus the Autism

program is all day so it knocks out all my time for private ST,OT and VT

(vision therapy) that he is currently getting. And frankly, the school

ST has stunk. So basically he would be spending all day with 3-4 other

Autistic kids and going in and out of the K for special activities. They

also pull in a small group of gen-ed Kindergarteners into the Autism room

for activities. I don't feel this is going to meet his needs. I feel he

needs to be a part of the K from beginning to end and not a " visitor from

Miss 's class " .

Soooo....... my husband and I have decided a good option would be to put

him in a small morning Pre-K where he went to preschool last year (he did

2 days in regular preschool and 3 days in Spec Ed preschool). The class

size is 15 which is great. Whereas the public gen-ed K is 28-30. Part

of the reason they don't want him in the gen-ed class the whole afternoon

is because of the size. He would then have the whole afternoon to get

his private therapies in and be able to relax, have fun, learn, and be a

" regular " kid for once. He really seems to need more time to catch up

and we feel holding him out of K for one more year would not be too

devestating to him later on. He his language has developed a lot from

being in that regular Pres class. And he LOVED it. He does have a twin

who would be moving on to K next year without him. :-(. She is WAYahead

of her peers too.

But it wouldn't be great for him to be in the same grade as his sister if

she is in GT program and he is in a Spec Ed one either!

Has anyone held their kids from starting school an extra year for

catching up? I heard a lot of our PDD kids end up repeating

Kindergarten - is that true? I hate the thought of holding him out for

an extra year and then have him have to repeat a grade too. Yikes.

Thanks for listening.

BTW, I hired a Parent Advocate! Hurray!!! I am soooo much more relaxed

about this now. IEP is next Friday, wish me luck!

Hugs,

Charlene