Preschool Challenges

A friend of mine, who is studying Early Childhood Education, sent me the following message:

I'd like to tap into your experience and expertise in having children with what is now called "diverse needs." For my studies I'm writing a paper on inclusive practice in early childhood education. I was wondering if I could ask you to reply to me and tell me what you've found to be challenging or beneficial in your experiences with your little ones in preschool.

Any info you can give me would be great! Even if it's just a quick reply, I would be appreciative of any insight you can share with me!!

This got me thinking, and her a more detailed response than I think she was anticipating!  It's also given me the content for another post...

We had issues at the very beginning with Isaac's enrollment, due to him having had seizures when he was in the NICU. I went back to work when he was just over 4 months old. Was very upsetting, since they knew exactly what had been going on since the day of his birth, and Reuben had been there for the previous 2 years. Anyway Isaac hadn't had a seizure since the NICU, but they had to sort out their procedures for what to do in the event that he did have a seizure.

Fire engine at Kids Karnival

About a month after he started he had a cold, and started to refuse his bottle. This was expressed milk, so exactly what he was used to. I always joked about my boys having Tui on tap! (the beer..). It got to the point where he was going for his full 6 hours without any food/fluids. In the end the SLT at the hospital suggested using a sippy cup, because she didn't want him to continue getting feed via a syringe (I told preschool to get the food into him any way they could and I suggested a syringe, because I knew he was fine taking his meds via a syringe).

Apart from that, Under2s at preschool was fairly good.

Fishing from the balance board - making great progress!

 I think that I really noticed the differences, etc when he moved through to the preschool. He was moving about by bum shuffling and crawling. Which in itself wasn't too big of a problem, but when he was out in the playground, the teachers would get him to head instead about 5 or 10 mins before kai time, etc so that he had time to get in there before all the other kids came in.

I'm trying to make this as useful as I can for you, but I think it's going to make me cry. I'll try to keep it to preschool, because there were downfalls in early intervention, and it was only because I kept pushing and advocating for him that he finally got the additional support of his walking frame.

And the rolling walkie thingie...

Now that he is walking independently (Yay, Isaac!!!!) I'm noticing other things. Although cognitively he is at or ahead of his age, physically he is still struggling. The other week they had some mini balance beams (that's the best way I know how to describe them) in the classroom, and had the children running and jumping over these. For Isaac to step over these by himself would be a struggle. He can manage the tracks of a ranchslider, or small steps without having to hold on. But these were a good 10cm off the floor, probably 10cm wide, and in the middle of the room with no support for him to hold on to.

Another day they had the obstacle course outside. Isaac is a determined wee boy, and I would consider myself a fairly tough mum, in that I get him to do as much as possible for himself. But when there are things like obstacle courses and the like, I'm not sure what kind of affect it has on Isaac and his self confidence. He knows that he has a disability, and that he's not the same as other kids his age.

When he was about 18 months old there was an article on Campbell live one night, about a baby that had been in NICU, intubated, etc. And Phil said to Isaac, that he used to be sick like that when he was a little baby, but he's not sick any more. Isaac, with sad puppy dog eyes, said "But I still sick, I fall down all the time." It made my heart break. But it also told us that he knew what was going on, and that he wasn't the same as other kids.

Now that Isaac has turned three, he will qualify for an ESW at preschool, one morning/afternoon per week. Just waiting for that to get sorted, hopefully not much longer.

The current challenge is toilet training. I know this can be a challenge for lots of parents, but when the boy is wobbly on his feet, this provides added challenges. Guess I'm going to need to work more with his therapists, to get the information and strategies, and then pass those on to preschool.

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Isaac's ESW (Education Support Worker) starts on Tuesday, I'm really excited as she is someone who spent time working with Isaac last year.  The ESW is assigned by Champion Centre and reports back to Isaac's therapists and us on a regular basis.

Champion Centre has to fund raise large amounts of money each year to continue providing the fabulous service that they do.  Last weekend was their annual fair where my boys had heaps of fun: ice creams, bouncy castle, face painting.  Afterwards, I had heaps of fun playing with photos editing apps on my phone.

same photo

different looks

layered looks

all at the click of a couple of buttons

We're in!!!!

It has been an agonising month of waiting to find out if Isaac has been accepted into the Champion Centre.  The first meeting of the early intervention co-ordinators was cancelled, then the next meeting wasn't held due to school holidays.  Finally they had the meeting yesterday.  The result?  Yes, he's been accepted.  Isaac will now get regular physio therapy, Early Intervention, speech language therapy, music/computer therapy and some occupational therapy through the champion centre.

This is such a great opportunity for Isaac.  We've been waiting for over two years for this.  Now that he is that little bit older, I've started noticing more things that "aren't quite right", so have been advocating to get him transferred to there.  Bring on the next stage in Isaac's journey.  Can you tell how excited I am?  This is a really BIG DEAL.  He has an assessment next week and starts the following week.  Now all I have to do is rearrange my work schedule to fit it in.

Something else that I'm going to try, is a regular Wordless Wednesday post.  I've seen this on quite a few other blogs.  Often I struggle for inspiration when taking photos, and don't take nearly as many as I should. But I'm thinking I've got a clever way to "cheat".  I'm going to use the #photoadayMay challenge list. 

This will of course end up being another moving, evolving project but I'm hoping that I will be able to commit to it.  There are quite a few people out there in the blogisphere who are using instagram for their photos, but I prefer to only publish certain photos.  You will most likely end up seeing the photos either individually or as a collage.  But then who knows just how creative I may get.

Don't you hate it when you're writing, and your mind suddenly goes blank, and you have no idea of what you were going to write next, even though it should have just flowed and followed on from what was previously written.  That has just happened.  Arrrrgh!

I thought of this on Wednesday, so I'm actually going to begin next week, and am using the last few days of April's challenge list to get started.  I'm not going to post every day.  There's way too much going on in our lives to be able to do that, and if I was to do it monthly, it wouldn't be often enough and I'd lose interest and probably wouldn't accountable to do it regularly.  You like my thinking?  Not too much to be a burden, not too little to get forgotten.

Hasn't the way we communicate and share our lives with loved ones changed so much, particularly over the last decade?  Hmmm, I can see another post coming from this, LOL.

What a great day

It's been a really good day today, and the boys have been fabulous.  I've been having issues with Reuben getting ready in the mornings.  Occassionally he behaves, but more times than not, it is a huge drama just to get out the door  to get to school on time.  Phil leaves for work before any of the rest of us get up, so I'm basically a solo parent in the mornings.

Not sure where I found this, hopefully I'm not breaching a copyright!

This morning Reuben was super good, got himself dressed, had breakfast, etc no problems, no disagreements.  Then tonight when we got home, I had a terrible headache.  Although I hadn't said anything to Reuben, he was being really helpful.  Then we sat on the sofa and practised the sign alphabet.  His class have been learning a bit at school.  After we'd done that for a bit, and spelt out all of our names, he said to me right out of the blue, "Would you like me to brush your hair mum?"  Not something I'd normally go for, but why not it might help my head feel better, and it'll be relaxing anyway.  It was soooo nice and very relaxing.

After both boys eating all of their dinner (doesn't happen very often), I got Isaac through the bath and Reuben had a quick shower.  It was a reward for him since he'd been really good, but only on the condition that it was quick.  Now, yours and my idea of quick, and that of an almost 6 year old boy, are two totally different things.  For a while he has had to have baths because he was taking over 20 minutes to shower.  Tonight he was nice and quick, and both boys were in bed on time!  Again another rareity in our house.

Sometimes it just a combination of small things, that make it feel like a big deal.  Let's hope that this behaviour continues.  What have your little rascals done lately that makes you feel really good?

  

Creative Images

I haven't heard from the Champion Centre yet, so I'll be phoning tomorrow to see if I can get things moving along.  It's over six weeks since Isaac's appointment with the consultant, and we still haven't had an apointment with Speech Language.  I think it's time for me to get that moving along too.

I've added a couple of You Tube songs to the sidebar of my blog.  They have been a source of hope and comfort during some of the most challenging times in my life.  Take a listen, and see what you think of them.