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My son is almost 2.5 and has a speech delay. He's been in a daycare for the last 8 months. 2 months ago he was diagnosed with mild autism, although we are still not 100% sure that he has it. We found a speech therapist who works with him 8 hours a week. The 4 hours (3-5) in the daycare have become an issue. In the home she is wonderful, and our son always responds to her. The daycare is highly regarded and we know people personally who had all of their kids attend. Yet there is a constant battle between her and the daycare. She complains about how they are not in control of the kids, and they complain how she is disruptive for the classroom. She cant pullout our son away from the group because its 2 full hours and he gets upset if he cant be with the group. For a classroom of 12 is it normal to have only 2 teachers, how can they potty train all 12 kids? Is it not normal to have a therapist in a classroom for 2 hours?
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Welcome to the forum. My son was gifted and at that age he was in daycare and was very disruptive. A child like yours and mine are considered handicapped in that kind of regamentated setting. I eventually had to find him my son a school that could handle gifted children. Even then he was still disruptive. We ended up homeschooling because our home was the best setting for him to learn.
The school your child is in may not be equipped to handle your son’s needs. While he may have mild autism, he’s struggle there may be more of an indication of their inability to help him. I would seek out a better solution for him in a school that can give him the attention he needs.
BTW, we have a new forum here: https://forum.daycare.com -
Thank you. I don't think that's the case as he is not struggling, its more of issue of arguments between therapist and daycare. He has an older brother who we knew right away had autism even at 12 months. We never sent the older one to daycare, we started directly in EI. The younger one does well in daycare, listens to directions, participates in circle time, and plays with other kids. For these reasons we are actually not sure if the diagnosis is correct. If he was disruptive and this was not the right classroom for him, having went through this previously I wouldn't hesitate to pull him out.Comment
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You are his best advocate. Trust your gut.Comment
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I'm licensed to care for 6 children at any given time so 2 teachers for 12 kids seems more than adequate to me. I'm not sure if it's normal or not to have a therapist in a classroom for 2 hours at a time but I know in my day care, it would make things difficult. I've been doing day care for 25 years and it doesn't matter which group of kids I've been caring for....Whenever another adult joins us, the kids, as a whole, tend to lose their minds. Even the usually well behaved kids seem to act out. This happens whether it's a parent who comes in off-schedule to pick up their own child, a licensor who comes in to inspect or a therapist who comes in to observe a specific child. The kids seem to morph into little beings I've never met before!
Based on that, it wouldn't surprise me to hear that the therapist's presence in the classroom is disruptive and that it looks to the therapist that the teachers in the classroom have no control. Has the therapist just started going to the classroom to work with your son? If so, maybe the kids just need to get used to her presence there? Have the teachers explained how the therapist is being disruptive? Is she talking too loud when working with your son? Does she plan activities with him that seem fun to the other kids? Are the other kids allowed to join in the therapy sessions at all? Is there a more private area in the school or day care where she can go to work with your son if she can't include his classmates? Although I wouldn't refuse to have a therapist come in to my day care to work with a child who needed that extra help, I have asked parents to consider alternatives because of how disruptive it can be to my program. So far, they've been able to schedule therapy on their own time and not during the time their children are in my care.Comment
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If she is coming to the daycare from 3 to 5 pm, she is setting herself up for failure and I would expect her to know that. No way would I allow those hours in group daycare. :hug: I have owned/operated my daycare since 1994, not one therapist has been so thoughtless to even ask for those hours.
By that time of day the kids are tired, hungry and ready to go home. They have listened to at least 8 hours of non-stop noise and have dealt with just as much touching and invasion of personal space. 10-12 hour days in daycare are hard hours.
That is why 3pm is usually afternoon snack time, after that is outdoor free play sometimes followed by video time on the circle rug so the staff can clean the room/linens/toys for that day and have prep time for morning circle time activities/preschool. The kids and the teachers are DONE with educational interaction for the day by then. That is the kids free exploration time.
No wonder the staff dislikes this therapist, 3pm, in daycare, is very unprofessional. If they are coming here, I expect them to arrive before 10 am, take the child to another area away from staff/students or the child can be picked up for offsite therapy.- Unless otherwise stated, all my posts are personal opinion and worth what you paid for them.
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Oh, and any structured activity lasting 2 hours is inappropriate for a 2.5 years old. It is simply not developmentally appropriate and that would have me questioning her qualifications. Maybe doing some bill padding? IDK, but I would not allow it, here.- Unless otherwise stated, all my posts are personal opinion and worth what you paid for them.Comment
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We have had therapists come before in the past and what they usually do is get the child and go into a separate area away from the other children so that it's not a distraction and they can focus on what needs to be accomplished for that day's therapy session and weve even had the parent make the therapy sessions so that it's on their watch and not ours! We had a trainer come out to our center and do a class with the teacher's and we all found out that the therapists coming out and separating the child from the group was actually "illegal" and invaded the child's "rights" according to the "ADA" and that we should have been rethinking this idea plus we also found out that the therapist needed to have a file within our center that states they are licensed where they were from and had a completed background check.Comment
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yeah, I've had physical and speech therapists come into my FCCH over the last 32 years and the physical therapist always involved and interacted with all of the children. She helped me to understand certain things about physical development in all children and specifically in the one receiving therapy. She showed all the children games to play with the child receiving therapy that would help her develop skills she struggled with. We had back and forth discussions and bounced ideas off one another as she helped the child. It was no longer than 45min at a time scheduled to be conducive to my program (mid-morning after snack once a week at most). The speech therapist was less pleasant to work with as she needed to work directly with and only with the child receiving therapy. I understand that. She decided to provide the therapy in the child's home. I agree that 2 hours at a time is too much in a daycare setting and that 3-5 is the worst time to do it. Also, unless she can involve the other children, she needs to work in a private room. Undoubtedly, being removed from a classroom and from children and activities he is enjoying is hard for the child receiving therapy. Trying to work with your son alongside the other children can be chaotic and frustrating especially if she doesn't have experience or an interest in working with groups of kids.Comment
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