My son started EI preschool at age 3 1/2. The bus picked him up at 7:50 am, school day was 8:30 - 2:30 and the bus brought him back at 3:10. He did fine with these hours, though he often slept on the bus home. If he didn't wake up when the bus pulled in the driveway, we (either me or my nanny) would get on the bus and carry him off asleep and put him on the couch for 30 minutes before slowly waking him up.
The structure of the longer day was great for C.
Tony is a bit older, but he was in a full day program at about Daniel's age. At the time, it was the best thing for him as it gave him a lot of structure. At home, he refused to follow structure and would not even try to interact with the family. He was pretty resistive at the beginning, because he could not get away with separating himself at school. The teachers were good about balancing it though.
MamaKat has a good point about the naptime. That much has not changed since Tony was that young. But the school programs have, and you know your son best. I'm sure its a hard decision to make!
Mary
Well, our school district is going to test him in Sept. for at-home services, but I know a couple of boys who do this: 5 days a week for spec. ed. preschool morning session :9:00 - 12:00, which includes 3 hours of embedded ABA. They also stay and extra hour and a half twice a week for a social group ABA where it is the child, an NT child and the therapist. And they get the in home services 3 days a week... It depends really. I also know the one of the moms is adding a little more ABA on the side "under the table" if u know what I mean..
I would push for all and ABA in the afternoon:) Our schools dont do it so you are fortunate:)
Best of luck!
D isn't having as hard a time now, but I'm beginning to think more and more about the fall. I want to get some input from you that have/had toddlers that did a full day preschool.
We've decided that we can no longer deal with the school district alone and are working towards getting an advocate. Since we will have an advocate, I have strong faith that we can get what we feel is appropriate for D. That being said, I have been tossing the idea around in my head of HOW to get them to implement ABA into his IEP.
At first, we were thinking of doing 5 hrs at home ABA/RDI mix and request for 5 hrs at school a week, but have come to the realization that there is no way we can afford it right now. Maybe in another year, but not right now. So now I'm toying with the idea of requesting the school to do the full 10 hours a week. I don't see this as being unreasonable, but the problem lies in when they would do 2 hrs a day.
We've got to get them to even increase to 5 days a week (and as signs from summer school now, there should be no reason they should deny this to him). He's only scheduled to be at school 3 hrs a day. I do not see them allowing him to have 2 of his 3 hrs a day in ABA alone and another 1 hr a day with individualized therapies (ST, OT and PT). So my next thought is requesting a full day schedule. Sp.Ed. preschool in the morning, and then 2 hrs of ABA in the afternoon. (I'm not sure they will argue with this. They had asked at his original IEP meeting if he could handle a full day. I didn't feel he could then, but seeing how he's progressed feel he can now.)
So I again say, to those with/that had toddlers in a full day setting how did they do? How early did you have them full day? Did you eventually cut back or keep going forward? And how did you finally determine giving your child a full day outweighed taking away their afternoon? Last question because I believe all our children are children first and ASD second.. So I don't want to take away the child in him unless the ASD is hurting the child he is.
You should check, because full-day around here usually has naptime
involved. J doesn't always nap, so I had no problem allowing them to do
some of his pull-out services then (more time in class!) But 2 hrs a day is A
LOT. Not all of the therapists are on campus later.
I do think however you should always ask for EVERYTHING YOU NEED AND
MORE!!! Truly. Go for it, but find out what the full day schedule is like first
and how many of the supportive staff are around to do late 1:1.