I am in need of some advice, guidance, suggestions, etc… regarding social development and developmental milestones for 3-4 year olds.
My husband and I have 3 years-5 month old twins and are in a private preschool that is affiliated with our synagogue. Their 3-year old class meets three mornings a week from 9am-12:45pm. We had our mid-year parent-teacher conference last week. Miranda is doing wonderfully! However, Liam on the other hand, the teacher and school director have multiple concerns about -- transition issues, larger group activity aclamation and participation, social 'maladjustment', sharing, getting frustrated easily, self discipline, attention span difficulties. Please note these are my 'labels' of the issues, as the school director and teacher had difficulty labelling and providing concrete examples, but rather more generalities.
The largest issue with Liam is his biting. He bites other children (boys, not girls) not out of meanness or maliciousness, but because he is frustrated with sharing a toy or cannot communicate his need or desire to the other child. To date this has happened about 3 or 4 times. None of which has gone through the skin, or even close thankfully! (It should be noted that he was a late talker - he did have early intervention services for speech, but tested out of receiving services at the 3 year old evaluation.)
The interesting thing is that Liam is a very different child in small individual settings versus in a classroom environment apparently. At home he attends to task, follows directions, shares with his sister, has a long attention span for his toys and games. When we go out and see other family and friends he is a very social, loveable child - always cooperative and plays nicely without much discipline needed.
Back to preschool thing - the director and teacher recommended that Liam be developmentalally evaluated. I am in the process of arranging that with the child study team in our school district. They want to plan a formal meeting with the team, parents, and teacher/director in the next couple of weeks, then do a formal observation of Liam in the classroom environment, and then recommend from there (additional testing or evaluation and/or feedback/guidance for learning/development strategies in the classroom).
My husband and I are scared to death that Liam will bite once more and be expelled from the preschool. Additionally, we love him VERY much and only want to see him excel and succeed in the preschool environment, without labelling him as the 'biter' or 'bad boy' in the class. We feel like we are up a creek without a paddle, and have no idea what to do.
I hope that my explanation was clear and succint. Thank you in advance for any professional guidance you can give me. It will be greatly appreciated!!
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I have been babysitting my grandson since he was three months old. Now his mother wants to put him in a child care centre two mornings a week so he can socialize with other kids. I feel, at just 35 months, it would be traumatic to drop him off in an unfamiliar place with strangers. Am I correct?
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