Sara started her new special needs preschool this week. As much as I fretted and worried, it was all for not. She is doing fantastic!
We L-O-V-E her teacher. We spent about an hour the night before school started visiting with her while Sara checked out the classroom. She remembered that Sara loves all things music from our email conversations and had a tub of musical instruments out where Sara could find them. Sara took to her right away and we were super comfortable with Ms. Mairi, as well.
Sara's goals the next couple weeks are just to get comfortable with the classroom and her new teachers. Ms. Mairi is the teacher and there are 4 aides who assist her. In all, there are 9 kids in the class...3 girls which is unheard of in an autism classroom.....so nice that Sara isn't the only girl!
Since she is doing so well, Ms. Mairi started Sara on her TEACCH method schedule. The TEACCH method is not considered an actual therapy but rather a therapeutic tool to help autistic individuals understand their surroundings.
Sara will be introduced to The Picture Exchange Communication System, or PECS, starting next week. PECS allows children with autism who have little or no communication abilities, a means of communicating non-verbally. Children using PECS are taught to approach another person and give them a picture of a desired item in exchange for that item. Ms. Mairi will start this in the classroom and then do home visits every couple of months to help us learn more about using it as Sara's skills increase.
Sara will start seeing all her therapist on the week of 9/9. She will have speech twice a week, as well as physical therapy and occupational therapy once a week. We are excited to watch her progress. We are so thankful that Sara is getting all the help and support through this awesome program.
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