Caroline has been attending a Fantastic preschool called Renfrew Educational Services. This is a specialized school where they mix children with special needs with regular children. Because of this there are 6 childcare workers in each class, along with a teacher, a physio therapist, a speech therapist, and a child pschylogist. There are also 15 kids in the class. So the child to adult ratio is awesome. We had put our kids in this preschool because we wanted them to always be comfortable around people who may be disabled in some way, whether it was physical or mental.
Anne went through this program and one of her best friends was born without legs. By the end of the school year, Anne kinda wished that she didn't have legs and she loved playing with Hailey. Our goal was achieved because Anne doesn't even notice when people around her have disabilities. She is able to see past that and see the real person inside of them.
Because Anne did so well at that school, we decided to put Caroline in the same program. Caroline is extremely shy and so last year it was so incredible to watch her blossom and learn to interact with other children. One of the reasons I believe that Caroline is so shy is because when she speaks it is really hard to understand her. I am her mother and I rarely understand what Caroline is trying to say. Well, they also noticed this at the school and so they asked me if Susan, the speech pathologist could assess her. I, of course, gave my consent and so they assessed her several times. It turns out that Caroline is severely underdeveloped in her announciation of words and that her vocabulary is moderately undeveloped. Because of this she now qualifies to be put into their special needs program. This means that Susan will work with her every day, at school, to help her with her speech. She will also be assigned her own personal child development specialist who will come to the house every other week to help me work with her at home and her schooling will be subsidized by the government, so that will save us about $200/month.
It was hard for me to hear that my little Caroline was a special needs student, but it means that she will be getting extra help. I think that this will be good for her and in a couple of years no one will ever remember that she had problems with her speech.
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3 comments:
You know, Megan, it's actually really fortunate you had her in a school where the "disability radar" is so high to begin with. I work at a high school and see kids all the time who have serious learning disabilities that are only now being noticed...they tended to slip through the cracks before, especially when they are not behavior problem students.
Anyway, I'm sure with a little extra work, it will all turn out fine. The earlier the intervention, the better the prognosis. :)
I'm glad that you have someone that Caroline already knows and likes to work with her :)
I think it is always a bit sad when your child gets diagnosed with something that the world perceives as "wrong" or "defective".
But, I decided a long time ago that we all have weaknesses, we all have "special needs", some are just more obvious than others. Some can be fixed, and some can't.
Caroline is a doll, and I bet you will see huge improvements in her speech with just a little intervention, and Michelle is right - early intervention makes all the difference :)
We love your sweet girl, and I'm sure that her "special needs' tag is only temporary - but even if it wasn't, she is special in her own way all the time :)
Monster what??
thats good that they can help her though! remember when kristin had speach therapy, i'm sure it's a little different though, you should ask kristin about her expereince though, now her and caroline can relate on a a whole different level
-Jenna
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