EARLY INTERVENTION AND PRESCHOOL SPECIAL EDUCATION SERVICES
Presented by Paola Jordan:
March 13, 2015
I am the mother of twins: Maya and Thomas. They’re going to be seven in four days. They were preemies, and because of that they were at risk.
At birth Thomas’s head was oddly shaped and it was tilted to the left, completely like it was glued to his shoulder. It was so tight that you couldn’t even put your finger between his neck and his shoulder. He was having a hard time repositioning himself. He was also very slow and lethargic and was not meeting his milestones. Through Early Intervention (EI), which provides therapeutic services to infants and toddlers with disabilities, ages birth to three, Thomas started receiving physical therapy when he was just 6 weeks old!
When Thomas aged out of EI and went into his new integrated special education preschool program, he was struggling academically, and was having a hard time expressing his needs. He was very passive: If a child took away one of his toys, he would do absolutely nothing. At the preschool he began receiving special education services in addition to his therapies.
Thomas is now a first grade student. He is at academic level in reading and math. He continues to receive his therapies. But he is no longer a special education student, and we’re very happy for him. All the intervention that he received in the last 6 years is finally paying off!
Maya’s been a worry of mine since the day she was born. She was tiny and really slow, with a poor sucking reflex. Maya cried a lot. She did not want to be touched: If you tried to pick her up to comfort her, she’d arch her back, and the screaming and yelling was really bad. By age one, Maya was not using words at all. When she started walking, her hands were up in the air and her fists were closed. Through EI, she began receiving physical, occupational, and speech therapies, feeding therapy, and special education.
Because both children were getting all these services at home, I had to take a leave of absence from work for 18 months to stay home with the kids and work with the providers. When my leave ended and I had to return to work, we tried to arrange for most of the services to be when either my husband or I were present because we needed to be trained in order to help the kids. For example, we had to learn Thomas’s physical therapy exercises so we could incorporate them into his regular activities.
It was really hard for my husband and me. We are first-time parents. For us it was unknown territory. My husband was a little bit in denial in the beginning. We were so close to ending up in a divorce because we had so much stress and tension, and we were exhausted because in addition we had work.
After EI, Maya needed a more intensive preschool setting than Thomas. Maya’s meltdowns were memorable. She had sensory issues, too. And she would sit by herself in a corner playing with the same toy all the time. I have to tell you that her special education preschool was the best thing that could ever happen to us. The school really understood her needs and how to help her, and they worked as a team. The communication with the family was priceless.
Now that Maya is in first grade, all this intervention has allowed her to be in an integrated program in a public school that is specifically for kids with autism. She is at grade level in math and writing, and she is part of her school community. That is a huge reward!
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EI providers should be recognized for the very excellent job that they do. Unfortunately, EI providers have received only one increase in twenty years with several cuts in the last few years. Many EI providers have closed and more are considering it. Legislators should work together to get more funding, and the insurance companies must pay their fair share.
I’m also concerned about the special education preschools. Kids like mine need high-quality therapeutic services that are not really available in most public preschool settings. That’s why these non-public special education preschools are so important. The public sector contracts with these preschools, called the 4410 schools, because most public preschools do not provide the services these children need. The 4410 preschools haven’t received an increase in six years. Some have already closed; others are on the brink.
Please save these EI and 4410 preschools programs: Provide the funding increases they need. It’s a good investment for the state: they’re going to save more money because the kids may not need as many services in the future. As an example, look at my kids. Look at the outcome. Every day they are surprising us doing things we never expected. For us, this is a success story in the making.