The first day of preschool for Noah is next tues!

I can't believe it's here...all the fighting and then finally a move to make it happen! BUT IT'S HERE.

Now that it is here, I'm not sure how I feel about it LOL. I'm happy but at the same time he's quite a bit behind his peers and I'm not sure how they will react to him. They said his worker will encourage others to play with him, but that doesn't neccessarily mean they will.

I dunno, I guess it's sort of a blessing that he won't really care.

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Mom to: Nicholas (May/02), Nathan (April/04), Charlene (June/06), Noah (DS) (May/07), Jesse Lynn (July/08 ), Tessa (Apr/10)

Aww I'm sure Noah will love it there! Hopefully when he see's other kids doing things it'll help him along with his developments too. Good luck and well done for fighting for his place.

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Karen- Mum to the world's cutest baby!! Ben

As a long-term substitute Head Start teacher I've had a lot of opportunity to see how kids that age interact with both their typically developing peers and with differently abled kids and I've really seen no difference in the two. In my experience, pre-school age children don't care about, if they even notice, differences such as down syndrome in other kids. You can be pretty sure if a kid that age says "I don't like you" it has nothing to do with a disability and to do with something like the other kid is playing with a toy they want to play with; and the whole thing is more often than not long forgotten by the next day.

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http://www.carepages.com/carepages/DavidLucas

I don't think the kids will notice "down syndrome"...but they'll likely notice that he's a baby in a preschool class...that's sort of what I'm worried about. He doesn't just have different features, he doesn't talk, walk, or interact in any way they do. He's just growing out of 18mth clothing and into 24 mth, just to give you an idea how small he is. I guess that is more what I'm worried about.

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Mom to: Nicholas (May/02), Nathan (April/04), Charlene (June/06), Noah (DS) (May/07), Jesse Lynn (July/08 ), Tessa (Apr/10)

Most of our kids are very small for their age. Angela, when she started preschool at 3, was 18 lbs and wearing 18 -24 month clothes. When she started kindergarten, was barely wearing 3t clothes. She wasn't talking at all. She was walking but she was still very much a toddler compared to the other kids. They still played with her, although they really wanted to carry her around a lot! The staff spent a lot of time at the beginning of the year reminding the kids that even though she LOOKED small, she was still older than some of them, and wanted to play the same games they did!

Yes, he may be behind were a lot our kids were when they started school, but your anxiety is the same. We have all been there. We all worried!

Even now, at 14 Angela stands out as VERY short! She is only 4 ft 9. I have yet to meet another girl in her grade who is as short as she is. In her huge school I'm sure there must be one or two, but I haven't seen one.

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~Leah~

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mom to Noah 23, Tyler 21, Angela 14 (DS)

TheBradyBunch wrote:

I don't think the kids will notice "down syndrome"...but they'll likely notice that he's a baby in a preschool class...that's sort of what I'm worried about. He doesn't just have different features, he doesn't talk, walk, or interact in any way they do. He's just growing out of 18mth clothing and into 24 mth, just to give you an idea how small he is. I guess that is more what I'm worried about.

Other than the size, David's in the same boat. Of course, he's in a special needs preschool, but as a Head Start teacher we did have kids like David and Noah in some of our classes and there was still really no difference in their treatment by the other kids.

What you DO need to watch out for is babying by the teachers. Don't let them get away with doing his tasks for him instead of helping him to do them or he will never learn how. Yes, he probably WILL need some degree of help with everything, but to make the other kids participate in clean-up time while Noah sits there will not teach him appropriate behavior. They should be helping him (by hand-over hand, and mobility assistance) to participate.

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http://www.carepages.com/carepages/DavidLucas

Oh I totally didn't even think of that. Thank you! My mom is guilty of this lol. When I meet with his worker I will make sure she doesn't do any of the babying, since it's so easy lol

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Mom to: Nicholas (May/02), Nathan (April/04), Charlene (June/06), Noah (DS) (May/07), Jesse Lynn (July/08 ), Tessa (Apr/10)

He really is not that small....when I was moving clothes for Emerson Friday.... I realized that COlin was wearing 18 -24 month / 2T items when he started preschool too (they all had been labeled with his name...... nothing before that was and I remeber frantically labeling all his clothes the night before he started school....NOV 18 2003...... cause I did not sleep and paniced and was a basket case of worry!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Second the baby thing..... it is so easy...... even for me at home sometime to do stuff than have them!

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Jane
mom to
Colin Miguel (11/19/00) DS
Devon Richard(4/13/01) DS & Autism
Melea Isabelle(2/13/02) DS
Adrian Elliott (7/04/03)
Eliza Marisol (5/15/04) DS
Miranda Olivia (2/1/05) DS & Partial Complex Seisure Disorder & iratractable epilepsy
Jordan Alexander(3/17/2007)
Emerson James (1/08/2009) 33 week preemie


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Don't worry too much about the peer interaction. It seams like Nate has always had a few students that really liked him and interacted with him on a daily basis. His teachers were very good at guiding the relationship and letting it develop.

This year in Kindergarten it seams like the same thing is happening. Several boys are already greeting him when he arrives to school for the lineup and sharring with him some fact or tidbit. A boy named Nathan has been playing with him in choice time and helping him build structures. Nice when the teacher lets me know as I can comment to the boys in the morning on how helpful they were with Nate or how Nate talked about how he played with them. I also have been helping Nate to share his interests with his classmates which really gets the boys chatting and excited.

You may be surprised as I thought Nate would be the smallest in his classes and he has not been. There really is a range.

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Sherry
Evan 10, Olivia 9, and Nate 6*

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