I'm a poster who has either mentioned or eluded to the fact that my daughter had a terrible time in an academic-based preschool, especially the writing. It caused "confusion and delay" especially the writing because I didn't realize they were going to be doing the writing sheets (I didn't even learn to write my name until age 6 in 1st grade and turned out fine academically!) For a while I didn't know if she just continued to HATE writing because of the too-early intro or if she had some sort of issue. She still hates writing, both the act of forming letters and just creating a piece.
And anyway the worst part was probably just the intensity or the competitiveness of a preschool environment like that. IMHO children that age aren't neurologically designed to learn that way...they're supposed to be playing playing playing and asking questions.
When I switched her to a fewer-hours per week play-based preschool where they didn't even look at letters (the teacher did read nursery rhymes and they talked about it, they painted and played with sand) my DD was much happier. It was full inclusion also, which she enjoyed alot because she loved to talk about what was very different about all the different kids, even her differences and challenges.
