Today marks Vivian’s (unofficial) first day of the third year of preschool. She is supposed to be starting Kindergarten this year, but us and her teachers decided it would be best to hold her back. We are all hoping this extra time makes the rest of her school years easier. Vivian has been in a special education preschool class for the last two years, the first year going 2 days a week and last year going 4 days a week. This year she will go 5 days a week and be in a “hybrid” pre-k class, with up to 5 students with IEPs (Individualized Education Programs) and up to 10 general education students. Her class will have one special education teacher, one general education teacher and two classroom aides.
Before surgery in March, we had a neuropsychological evaluation at Kennedy Krieger Institute, along with a psychological assessment completed by the school psychologist. The results are what spurred our decision to keep her in preschool this year. Although she gained a year in a year in terms of cognitive abilities, she is still behind in many areas and also has severe ADHD, which we are trying to treat.
Her “official” first day was Thursday, but the night before she had a bad allergic reaction to a bug bite that landed her in the urgent care, then after that got a second degree burn on her hand. Vivi did go to school for a short time, but I had to pick her up early and kept her home on Friday. We decided to start fresh this morning!