Appropriate Preschool Setting for Apraxic Child

[Guest guest]

We are new to the board and have a son who will be 3 in April recently diagnosed

with Verbal/Oral Apraxia. He also presents with overall fine motor planning

issues and demonstrates some sensory seeking behaviors. His cognitive skills

are average. We are in the midst of his IEP meetings and are looking for

information on appropriate preschool settings for. We feel confident that we are

able to support our requests for his speech therapy (3x weekly) and OT (1x

weekly) to include summer session, but have not been able to find much

information on appropriate preschool. From what I can gather from families who

share their stories many children are attending preschool programs through their

public school system that include children with IEP's and their typically

developing peers, while some have found private preschool providing speech

services. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? We have not yet formalized

our son's IEP services, but it has been suggested that he will be offered speech

and OT at our local public school and the assistance of an itinerant special

education teacher to visit him in a private preschool program. The suggestion

has been that our land county only has 4 mixed (IEP/typically dev.)

classrooms (no summer sessions) and that our son will not qualify. My concern

is twofold, how to find the time to deliver the intensive therapy he requires if

not in this setting? How do you manage a child's schedule to include naps,

preschool and therapy? As separate entities he will have little time to play

and do regular kid stuff! My other concern is how a child with almost no

functional speech will do without special education support in a 3 year old

classroom full of talkers. Granted, we have just begun aggressive public and

private speech and he will not attend preschool until the fall, so his abilities

may improve, but the IEP planning must happen now. We don't have any specialty

private preschool options for speech in our land area. As a fallback

position, I have secured a private preschool for the fall which includes a small

class size and a willingness to work with our son and the itinerant teacher,

they don't however have any special education experience. We'd appreciate any

experience or thoughts you have on either preschool route. Additionally any

information or resources that would support our efforts to lobby the county for

the inclusive preschool program would be helpful.

Thanks this board has been a lifesaver!