what to look for in ECE

My son was initially identified in daycare at age 4. He didn’t follow directions, didn’t understand concepts (up, down, ) that other children did.

I don’t have a broad range of experience to draw as far as what to look for in evaluating but did want to tell you that I will always be grateful to the head teacher who pushed us to get him evaluated. She went as far as to set up tasks that every other child but mine could do when the district person came to observe her class. She had a LD child herself who wasn’t identified until 4th grade. She saw the signs in my son and was right. He is now 9 and classified as having a specific language disability.
We had tried having him evaluated a year earlier but were basically told it was a parenting problem (he was a difficult child as are many children with language delays). We would have never gone back and had him reevaluated if she had not held our hand (she even told us where to go). Don’t under estimate the influence you can have!!!

Beth

Slightly off the subject, but….my son’s hearing loss was discovered because his private preschool had an SLP come in once a year for speech and hearing screenings. (Our pediatrician attributed his repeated failures on hearing tests to his young age, inattention, and ear infections and I was to naive to question the “expert”.)

This early knowledge has aided us tremendously in meeting my son’s needs. The SLP is the one who pointed out that my son had failed the hearing test at age 2 and again at age 3. If your center is not doing (and tracking!) speech, vision and hearing, it might be something you want to consider.

Karyn

Karyn,
Thank you so much for your reply. I am so glad to hear from a parent who is greatful to hear concerns from a preschool teacher. Too often, we are chalked up as babysitters and not the educators that we strive to be.

Thanks, again. -Robin

Thank you, Karyn. This is a service that we bring into our school.Karyn wrote:
>
> Slightly off the subject, but….my son’s hearing loss was
> discovered because his private preschool had an SLP come in
> once a year for speech and hearing screenings. (Our
> pediatrician attributed his repeated failures on hearing
> tests to his young age, inattention, and ear infections and I
> was to naive to question the “expert”.)
>
> This early knowledge has aided us tremendously in meeting my
> son’s needs. The SLP is the one who pointed out that my son
> had failed the hearing test at age 2 and again at age 3. If
> your center is not doing (and tracking!) speech, vision and
> hearing, it might be something you want to consider.
>
> Karyn

I have to correct myself and thank Beth for her note. (Sorry!)

Hi Robin. I am also a early childhood educator and was a center director for 16 years. We served children age 2 through kindergarten. I was a strong advocate for early intervention and had referred many children who were diagnosed and served.
What usually would tip me off to the need for evaluation
1. behavior- if the child acted out frequently, withdrew from activities or avoided certain activities on a consistent basis. Then I would perform specific observations to try and determine a pattern. I once had a child that would not play. He would just sit for hours on a bean bag if I let him.
2. memory-if the child had trouble following daily routines or did not retain information. (other then alphabet recognition or numeral recognition. I would look for being able to retell a story they heard a million times)
3. language- is the child lagging in developing vocabulary and language skills. Can they answer simple questions (3 years). Can they ask questions? Do they seem to understand what is being said?
4. Play-what is thier play like? Do they seek others to play with? Are they rigid and unflexible or able to adjust to the play of the group?

Sometimes, I made referrals on gut instinct. I would know something was not right but could not put my finger on it. And most of the time, my gut was right.
Hope this helps.
Jean

Jean,
Thanks so much for your input. I’m writing my first term paper in 22 years (scary!) and everyone’s help has been appreciated.

-Robin