Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Okay. I'm new. Help!

Thanks everybody!
I am so glad I found this place! This has all been so helpful. The only reason I'm looking for something "official" is to advocate for my daughter. She really wants to participate in some kind of school setting.
Our pediatrician has referred us to a developmental specialist. I don't really think this will do us much good except that maybe we'll have some sort of official diagnosis (???) to use for advocacy when she goes to pre-school... that could be in a couple months... or not for a year or so...
In the meantime though, I think this tutoring center will meet our needs. We met with them on Saturday. Everything in their Kindergarten CAT as well as the curriculum she'd learn looks just right for her. They are excited to work with her and BEST of all it's very flexible.
My only concern with it is that she wouldn't really be around other kids much. Not as much as I thought anyway. If at some point the tutoring is not enough (because it looks like there won't be that much social stuff) and we chose pre-school instead then the results from the developmental specialist may come in handy.
I guess we'll do both the CAT and see the specialist (insurance should cover it because our pedi did the referral) and probably do tutoring until it doesn't work anymore then try to do pre-school.. ???
I guess we'll be hammering that all out in the next couple weeks. I really like the tutoring center curriculum tho!!

Best of luck, your daughter is lucky she has such a caring mom!

Best Wishes Brittany,

Remember that social needs can be met in so many different ways. If you don't have to put her in daycare to earn money, then you can set up playdates, and do other Adult-led enrichment activites for a many hours each day. Just going to the playground for one hour a day probably allows for more social interaction than most kids get during a 6 hour school day.

Seems to me that you can do 'both' in small doses, as your daughter's needs make themselves known. I'm going to guess that because so many families need daycare, that we are starting to appreciate the good points of having one's child with other children and non-parent adults for long hours more than ever before - but that's a long way from saying that this lifestyle is a nescessity to good development....

My son was in preschool from 7 weeks, out of nescessity. He gained a lot and lost a lot. ((shrug))

Smiles,
Grinity