Starting Kindergarten?
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| Tue, 01-16-2007 - 7:17pm |
I've only posted here a couple times, but I'm hoping to get some feedback on whether I should send my four year old PDD-NOS daughter to kindergarten next year. She's in her second year of an integrated preschool, enrolled as a typical student! She has never qualified for any services through the school district, but she is currently being tested again. According to the teachers, they are seeing fine motor delays, difficulty following instructions, and "shutting down". Her speech is now at age level and they say her social skills are not significantly behind the typical students in the class. We don't have the results of the tests yet, but the only thing her teacher feels she is far enough behind on is fine motor. So, there is a doubt as to whether she will get an IEP for next year. Still, the special ed teacher and the social worker believe that she should attend kindergarten next year whether she has supports or not. Her current classroom has the regular teacher, the special ed teacher, and two aids for fifteen kids. In kindergarten there will be only one teacher for more kids. I'm not sure how that's going to work for dd if she doesn't have extra support.
Adding to my worries is the fact that I know two little girls with PDD-NOS (husband's niece, and daughter of a friend) who both had to repeat kindergarten because they were so overwhelmed in kindergarten the first year. Both sets of parents were told their daughters were ready and neither one of them had any special services.
I'm considering another year of preschool. Anyone have thoughts/experiences?

It is funyn you shoudl post this today.
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I just went through this last year.
Hi,
welcome back.
We were never offered the option to hold off for
visit my blog at www.onesickmother.com
We didn't hold our son back from kindergarten. He could have gone to Jr. Kindergarten. I often regret that decision. I'd follow your instincts.
Samantha
Hi and Welcome!
You don't mention when your daughter turns 5, whether it's soon, or more toward the start of school, and that might be a factor.
Here's our story. My son got an AS dx at 4, and has a Feb birthday, but we still opted to wait until he was 6 for kindy. There were a couple of things to consider. He was receiving adequate services as a pre-schooler, 1 hour OT and PT, 1/2 hour ST and 45 minutes Developmental (i.e. social skills) per week. He was in a situation where he hadn't met all his goals, so his services would continue as is until he went to kindy, at 5 or 6 or whenever. But he had progressed enough so that when they reevaluated for kindy, he would probably not be eligible for some of those services (like OT and PT). We loved his therapists, and decided to hold him back until 6. It's all day kindy, and a big school (~700 kids), and there is a lot of writing in kindy (and even more in 1st grade, where we are now). We wanted that extra year of OT and PT. Since your daughter isn't really receiving services it may not be a factor.
In our area, ALOT of people hold back boys until they are 6, it's really the norm not the exception. People say they are holding the kids back for sports opportunities in high school or some such thing. That wasn't a concern for us, but I think it's really that people realize their kids aren't ready. It's not usually done with a Feb bday, and it does make him one of the oldest kids in the class (and the tallest), but that is not necessarily a bad thing for a boy. This isn't as common a practice with girls.
Another reason was ds was socially more like kids a year younger. We had tried some kids sports, soccer and T-ball, which are grouped by age. He just couldn't keep up, not just physically, but socially. At preschool, however, he did ok, not great, but ok, playing with kids a year or so younger. Now we are in cub scouts, which goes by grade. Most of the kids in our den our a year younger that ds, but he does ok. His shares the same interests.
Most of the doctors (dev ped, reg ped) were against us waiting. The therapists didn't comment initially, but agreed after we told them the decision.
As it worked out, the transition to kindy went pretty smooth, so we're comfortable with our decision. That extra OT/PT almost caught him up in fine/gross motor skills.
Another poster(Tina?) had a good point. Will they let you go ahead with the paperwork, but make the decision later in the year.. like summer? I know alot of parents of NT kids that "play it by ear". Sign the kid up, then don't send them if you think they won't be ready. Not sure how that works if you have an IEP. They kind of discouraged that for us, but I don't know if that is just how they do it in our county and school district.
HTH - good luck
Kate