CHIME Time Year 1

In the summer of 2006, we had our first IEP meeting.  This initial meeting would tell us where Kyle would spend his preschool years.  In preparation for this meeting I visited several local special day preschool programs.  Our home preschool was awful.  The teacher sat the 6 kids in a circle, showed them a card and said “Buh. Now repeat buh…buh.”  I looked around the sterile room and imagined my son here and I couldn’t.  The room was dull, lacked posters, and had few toys.  I spent the next several weeks visiting schools and I finally found one that was adequate.  The general education teacher was wonderful while the special education teacher spent most of the lesson speaking to me and my brother-in-law. Despite my first impression of the special education teacher, I could picture Kyle at this school.

Read the Post CHIME Infant-Toddler Program for how I prepared for the meeting and the outcome of that first IEP meeting. 

Our first day at CHIME was shaky but Kyle was supported the entire time.  I was able to watch him from a one-way mirror.  Chime was a safe place where he grew and thrived.  He did stop speaking for a few months but that behavior is typical of selectively mute kids.  His teacher, Teacher Connie, was wonderful with him.  She cared about him and his development. 

For the first time, we received some positive reports. 

 

Summary from November 2006

. Demonstrates age appropriate development in self-help, social-emotional, cognitive, and

psychomotor skills

. Eats, dresses, toilets with minimal adult assistance

. Seeks out music and movement activities and progressing in exploration of art materials

. Strong emergent reading and writing skills: able to recognize and verbally identify letters

and numbers

. Categorizes an discriminates objects and recognizes primary and secondary colors as

demonstrated through teacher structured activities

. Understands one-to-one correspondence of numbers

. Age-appropriate receptive language skills

. Adeptly uses body to climb outside equipment, ride bikes, and throw, bounce, and catch

balls

. Effective fine motor skills to utilize variety of manipulatives, art materials, and puzzles

He continued to grow, make friends and learn.  He enjoyed going to school and I never worried about him.  Due to this loving educational environment, Kyle was trying more things at school, in therapy and at home.

Summary from May 2006

·         Age appropriate behavior across all domains

·         Can eat, dress, and clean up after himself

·         Self-regulate toileting needs

·         Transitions easily between activities and will usually try new activities with minimal prompting

·         Growth in expressive language has lead to increased interaction with peers, conveying emotions, engaging in creative activities

·         More willing to try wet, messy textures, especially with modeling

·         Strong emergent reading and writing skills-comments on books, reads them back to teachers

·         Recognizes on name in print, sign, and when spelled verbally.  Can verbally spell own name

·         Understands one-to-one correspondence and basic addition/subtraction (through calendar, board games, music activities)

·         Challenges gross motor skills on trike and using climbing apparatuses

·         Age-appropriate fine motor skills allows him to manipulate a variety of manipulatives, puzzles, and art materials

As our first year drew to a close, I was looking forward to another year of preschool within this loving supportive environment. 

Our year in pictures.