Hillard Preschool Evaluation

I feel like I have been on a whirl wind tour of early childhood special needs education. Yesterday we had the Preschool Itinerant Teacher do an assessment of Natalee to see if she might qualify for services. At the end of their play time Linda decided it would be a good idea to bring Natalee in to meet the team and seek further evaluation. Luckily for us they had an opening today. There were only about 3 or 4 other kids there. We got in the building no problem, walking to the classroom was another situation. Kathleen the Special Education Supervisor for the Preschool program introduced herself to us and asked us to come to the classroom. Nat did not want anything to do with that. But luckily for us - Linda left her book from yesterday for us to return to her today. I reminded Natalee that Miss Linda need her book back. So she was a little more willing to go to the class room. When we enter she did not want to take off her jacket or go with Miss Karen the speech therapist. But if I came along she would. She kinda enter her room, but mainly was stuck to me like glue during the whole evaluation. Nat has some speech problems but nothing significant. She has the sounds for the beginning of words or ending of words - on first review it seems pretty much on course. But we'll find out more information later. Then Miss Krissy the preschool teacher came to play with Natalee - Nat was not eager to play with her too much but she saw the doll house and was okay with it then. Once she was playing - Miss Kathleen came to interview me - we went into another room so as not to have to walk with in Nat's line of vision. We got through most of the interview before Nat had a melt down. When Miss Krissy push her buttons. Such as making her try to do a task that was she was not successful on the first try or second try, she'll have a major meltdown and only want me. Which is what happened. Then she wouldn't leave me alone for almost the rest of the morning.

At this point this is what we're thinking: Social-Emotional Delay. She wouldn't make eye contact with grown ups when talking to them - this is true alot of the time - even with me. She get's unusually frustrated when trying to complete a task and wouldn't ask for help. She has almost a major tantrum.

So we have an appointment on April 3rd with the team for the results of our evaluation and to determine where we need to go from here. Wow this is alot to take in at this time.

Note: You may be wondering what we are thinking with pursuing this line of testing. She is a very intelligent child but she needs the social skills to help her be successful and that is what we want for her.