I know folks will be surprised to hear that Bruce is in preschool but .... It was the next best affordable way to get him his occupational and speech therapy. We did the 2x a week cotherapy at the Aztec center last year and the gals there recommended the center based program for this year and we agreed that the social setting would probably help Bruce the most. Wow ... it sure has. In the 1st 2 weeks his language skills improved 10 fold and we're almost having real conversations with him now. Enunciation is still an issue. I really think he either has his own "twin" language or doesn't process certain sounds well and so sometimes doesn't use all the letters in a word when speaking it (and yet other times he pronounces them perfectly). I fluctuate on which hypothesis is most 'sound.'
Bruce absolutely loves going to the Zia preschool. He likes all his "friends." He has improved greatly in understanding how to play with other kids. Superboy is still he "best" friend but he does well with the children in his class. The daily, supervised, organized activities seem to have helped him get past his sensory seeking and overstimulation issues long enough to figure out how to interact with others his age. Last year, even with Sam, it could take an hour before he was comfortable enough to interact with Sam and he would still have to take a lot of breaks. Now he jumps right in and takes only occassional breaks. I'm sure some of this is due to him maturing but my instincts tell me that aging isn't enough to explain all the improvements.
Bruce started taking the schoolbus home from preschool. He was having a terrible fit after school everyday when I tried to pick him up cuz he didn't want to leave. Bit traumatic for me because I expected him to run up and give me kisses everyday. He was wanting to ride the bus and his OT suggested we let him so he could transition better from school to home. Juney likes to stand on the kiddie chair by the front window and watch for the bus.
The bus has helped Bruce with the transitions. He's usually cheerful and happy to be home and he typically demands a snack and some TV time. We're pretty sure he'll go to kindergarten next year and we'll see after that. As long as he likes and wants to go to school and it is helping him develop socially then I think we should respect his wants.
