Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Pre-school putting a gifted child into Special Ed preschool?

My older son just turned 4 two weeks ago and while he will not be on the highest end of the gifted spectrum, I'm pretty sure he'll be one of those top of the class kind of kids. He's great with math, I do think he'll have some sort of learning disability when it comes to reading / writing (he knows all the letters but gets things mixed up ... even when talking sometimes he switches syllables, etc.) ... he has been in all kinds of therapies since he was a baby (PT for tortcollis and muscle weakness, OT for severe Sensory problems, ST for being a very late talker ... the talking is no longer an issue as he won't keep his mouth shut! lol).

He's currently being evaluated by a pedi psychiatrist for possible ADHD/ADD/Asperger's but many of the behaviors we're concerned with could just as well be those often times mistaken for ADHD, Autism, etc. (can't sit still, can't focus, extreme sleep problems ... he is a much better child in terms of behavior with 6hrs of sleep or less, always asking questions, and on and on) ... but all these behaviors seem to come and go with no apparent cause.

now I'm getting to the point. He'll most likely be recommended a Special Ed pre-school class 2.5hrs / day .. 5 days a week because of the behavior and concerns over how he'll handle school in later years (no way you'd get him to sit in a circle of any kind or anything similar to that). Now, my question is ... knowing he's either gifted or way above average ... do I send him to Special Ed where he'll be learning colors, numbers, letters with kids who're in most cases behind academically, knowing he won't be challenged in that area at all just so he can learn to behave well at a school setting (and to work on his fine motor skills where he lacks) or do I forget about it and keep him home till it's time for K next year?

He's never been to preschool before, Montessori and like kind are out of our budget, park district pre-school are a waste of time/money (at least in our area) plus they wouldn't take him as we're still working on potty training and that's one of their major rules that a child has to be 100% potty trained and he has a severe allergy to eggs so we'd have to make sure he's really in a pre-school where they can keep him from any contact with eggs (kids' snacks, etc).

My gut tells me to stay away from Special Ed since after the first couple of weeks that will satisfy his curiosity he'll just get bored there and will act up even more! ... BUT he's basically BEGGING me to go to school! Every time we pass by any of the local schools he's asking if he can go, when can he go, I just feel bad for keeping him home when he wants school so much!

So, special ed for gifted (or possibly 2E ... won't know the diagnosis till later this month) or not?

NO way would I put a child with a severe food allergy into a school environment (of any kind) without having a 504 plan in place to address it.

If you've not had much experience with kid's programming, er, that allergy thing can really be a hassle. If your child has anaphylaxis history from really small exposures, this is not something to approach lightly. There are other ways of (more safely, if you'll pardon my bluntness here) getting that social experience. While a SpEd classroom might be a good fit for some reasons, it may well be a nightmare on the food front.


And really, there seems to be little point in doing that until you know more about what sort of second e you're dealing with.

I'd look at what it would take to get early interventions rolling in other ways, given that your child already has two exceptionalities that will be quite difficult to manage well even in a standard PreK setting, nevermind a SpEd one.

Basically, you have a 3e child, in all probability. Begin looking at "least worst" in terms of fit, because things are likely to be a series of compromises.

Full-time attendance at this point doesn't seem like a good way to do that. Not unless that third exceptionality is such that it needs VERY intensive, aggressive intervention, in which case that might take precedence. But you don't have that info yet, so no, I wouldn't enroll anyway until you have more info.

Maybe he's expressing a desire for more novel experiences when he's talking about going to school? Might be time for some enrichment options that you have a little more control over, I'm thinking. While pre-school through your parks dept might not be worth it, maybe they have other opportunities for preK enrichment? Dance class, art classes, that kind of thing? Those provide that formal sort of environment, but in smaller doses and with less food.

ETA:
ask how I know all of this... go ahead. Yeah. My daughter had a boatload of food allergies at this age, and we opted to avoid preschool entirely since our applications kept magically staying "on the waiting list" and equally magically, apparently we were always LAST on those waiting lists, since there were never-- and I do mean never-- any openings... SIGH. Almost all of her "school" experiences until she was about eight were Parks and Rec classes or enrichment via our public library, and mostly those required me to be in the room at all times. It doesn't seem to have hurt her any that I can see. Then again, she very definitely does not have ADD/ADHD/ASD, though at four, that picture was very much less clear. She did seem to have some unusual quirks that pointed in those directions at times, but they were always situational and transient. She also has sleep issues and always has, but we've finally come to realize that this is partly GT, and partly genetics "other." At four, though, we were worried about her; I do understand that.

Just know that "can't sit still" and "sleep problems" aren't necessarily pathology. Some of that is being four and being gifted.

I am getting all his allergies retested later this week and really hoping the egg allergy is going away but have nothing to support that hope other than in most children it does go away by the time they go to school. But his was getting worse as of last year. The last episode was last fall when he started getting all puffy just from breathing the air in the house on the second floor when on the first floor I made scrambled eggs for my husband! We never had to use the epi-pen but that's probably only because I have been very strict with him have absolutely zero contact with eggs in any shape and form or anyone who had eggs prior to contact. I know the public school is really the only place with procedures in place for allergic reactions but even there the system is so messed up (from what I've read in all the paperwork that we'd have to sign) that who knows how long it would be till someone would actually administer the shot should he have a reaction.

Allergies aside though ... right now he's getting OT and PT at a local therapy place and should be getting a 1hr ST through the school district (if we don't go with the pre-school plan). If he did go to the pre-school, he'd be getting all these services there, which is the only thing I like about it. Going to all these therapies means I have to take my 2-year old with us and keep him occupied the whole time while the 4-year old is getting his therapy. And he's not an easy child to keep entertained. He doesn't like being around other kids so in the waiting room for the most part I have to keep him in the stroller so he wouldn't keep pushing and grabbing everyone else (he's a very sweet kid but can't stand anyone in the radius of about 10 feet ... talk about sensory issues!). So while one kid is getting what he needs (and does he really???) the other kid is suffering through it. So the pre-school at first sounded good to me since it would had been a one-on-one time for me and my younger one while older son would get his needs met.

but the more I think about it, the more I realize that it really is probably a bad idea. I do take both boys to a local Stay2Play cafe / kids gym where they get plenty of socialization with other kids so I don't really need school for that but just can't figure out what's the right answer here. I guess both have it's good and bad but the allergy issues is probably the most determining factor

Mk13, have you gone to look? I would definitely not reject the SpEd preschool without serious consideration. The SpEd preschool by us is a dream school that does things regular preschools don't do (e.g. they have farmer-led gardening classes and horseback riding and a real gym teacher and art teacher).

Even if your kid is the brightest kid in the room, if he needs help learning to sit at circle, share, all of that, this sort of preschool can be a wonderful place to do that, with teachers who are specifically trained to not be frustrated or punitive with a child who's not naturally compliant. (As opposed to regular preschool, where they will not know what to do with such a child and are likely to throw up their hands in frustration.) They are likely to be able to work with both the food allergies and the potty training, which a regular preschool may not. Their teachers are likely to be far better trained than most preschool teachers. And you don't need academic content taught in preschool, anyway-- you need social skills, play skills, and classroom participation behaviors. Half days sound about right for this.

I would consider it far more important for long-term success to get the circle time behavior and that sort of thing in place before kindergarten, than to teach academic skills in preschool. He sounds like the kind of kid who will learn academics no matter where you put him. And sending a kid to kindergarten without that skill set makes everything harder.

DeeDee

DeeDee ... I haven't seen the pre-school yet but am planning on taking a look first. But we're just a relatively small school district so there is I believe only two morning classes of about 10 kids maximum and one afternoon class of max 10 kids and some years they open another afternoon class for kids who age out of Early Intervention by January for the second semester. It's at two of the local elementary schools so basically looks like a kindergarten class but will a lower student vs. teacher ratio.

Friend of mine has her daughter in the class and they both love it but I'm pretty sure my friend loves it mainly for the fact she gets 3 hours with only one crazy kid rather than two! lol

But now when I think about it, maybe since it IS in the actual school building, the teacher might be willing to give my son something more difficult to work on to keep him focused rather than the basic that he will refuse to do? I guess that's something worth asking about too!

oh and just to clarify ... it's not that I'm worried about the academics part of it because I'd expect them to teach him something new ... at this age I take it as my responsibility to give him the opportunity to learn and explore ... my worry is that unless he's challenged, he won't cooperate with them at all and will just run around trying to find something that would entertain him (like taking whatever mechanical thing he can find apart).

the friend whose daughter goes in showed me a picture ... a traced letter that the kids worked on for 30 minutes ... that's great but it will only entertain him the first 2 minutes he'll work on it and then he'll be off to find something "better" to do. Which is why I wonder if it wouldn't be counter-productive?

Have you have an IQ test done? I would want the preschool to know that he is gifted otherwise they may attribute some gifted behaviors to other diagnoses. I also would go and observe the preschool before considering letting your kid walk through the door. Ask yourself if this is an atmosphere where your child would thrive. Make sure that you ask how they would work with your kid on the issues that resulted in the placement/referral.

I agree with HK that preschool is a minefield for food-allergic kids. It seemed like every week there was at least one birthday party, one food-based school activity or some other "holiday" party that included food. My DS's preschool worked hard to make it a safe environment but even then, things fell through the cracks. For example, my DS ended up with red, swollen eczema-ridden hands from an egg carton caterpillar project. Obviously, there was some residual protein on the carton and it never occurred to the staff that this could be an issue. Thankfully, it did not trigger anaphylaxis.

You have a better shot at getting differentiation with that low student-teacher ratio than anywhere else, including kindergarten; they are likely to be able to adapt what books are available and so forth, and the business of SpEd is meeting individual needs.

In my experience, no matter how bright a kid is, if he can't pay attention to instruction, he is going to struggle mightily in the early grades; it is that kind of skill that they'd work on at the SpEd school. From your earlier post it sounds like that's what he might need, no matter what content he's ready for. If you understand the *skills* as the content he'd be learning, not the facts or materials, it may change your idea of what's happening in that environment. Only close observation will tell.

DeeDee

no IQ testing done yet. Honestly, until couple months ago, I didn't even think about him possibly being gifted until I realized our younger one is and then it hit me ... the whole time I had been thinking our friends' kids were behind when in fact DS4 was ahead! lol ... he did a lot of things differently since he was a baby but I just didn't think much of it until recently. We were on a 6 months waiting list (due to our insurance) to be seen by the psychiatrist and finally got in 2 weeks ago. He's had two sessions so far and will have at least one more next week and I am hoping I can get an IQ test at least basic one done by them. But if we have to go the private route, I'd wait till the spring to get a better picture. We're doing two languages at home and there are some thing that he does in one language or the other and it could influence the test so I want to give him more time to differentiate between the languages.

Not sure though if the school could maybe do testing? Can't really mention the gifted part to the school at this point because they give priority to the kids with major academic risk (mainly those behind in basic knowledge) so they would just say we'll worry about him when he goes to K next year. ... which is what they did last year when I wanted him in that same pre-school and after their evaluation they just said he's way ahead and they'll deal with the hyperactivity issue when he goes to school. But this time we might be going in with a diagnosis of some sort(or not)

good point to consider! ... I think this is something that was greatly overlooked with my step son when he was in elementary (he moved in with us when he was about 12) and no matter how hard I tried with him, we were never able to get him over that (he's 19 now). He turned into the very bright kid almost failing high school (and labeled lazy by most of his teachers).

I knew this would be the perfect place to ask about this!