Early Numeracy in Pre-Schoolers

Recent article in the New York Times (Brain Power - Studying Young Minds, and How to Teach Them - Series - NYTimes.com http://bit.ly/4oKBPX) looks at different ways to teach preschool children. I thought this was going to be another article that focused on reading. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it focused on math. Educators need to realize that math skills can be taught at an earlier age. We need to think about how children should be taught math basics including one-to-one correspondence. Lots of good info in this article.

BBC

That Look

"He just had that look in his eyes." The words from my principal as we debriefed on what had been an absolutely crazy 2 hours.

It all began innocently when a new student began his first day of school. What began innocently as a chld with some social anxiety saying he didn't want to eat lunch in the cafeteria, quickly turned into me slow-chasing this child around my building, while preventing him from climbing over the stair railings.

First, he refused to leave his classroom because he didn't want to eat lunch. The social worker convinced him to come to her office. He then ate lunch in the main office, which seemed to be working. I was in meetings all day so I didn't know that he spent a part of that lunch period roaming the hallway in front of the office. Someone asked me who his teacher was, because he was a new student, no one recognized him and, oh yes, he was refusing to talk. I jumped in and tried to talk to him, but that didn't work. That's when my adventure began.

I'm in an elementary school that has 3 floors. I never really thought having 3 floors in an elementary school would be cause for alarm. That is until I met this kid, Elijah (name changed for anonymity). So I was in slow pursuit up the stairs, because I knew that he had some anxiety issues, and I didn't want to make him more anxious. But he was raising my anxiety level by trying to climb onto the railings. To make matters worse, when I told him to get down, he refused, and he wasn't talking-just grunting and gesturing. The only time he spoke was when he told me he wanted to play the drums. I followed this kid around from about 20 minutes. When he tried to squeeze in between the railings that's when my principal stepped in (a little bit scared at this point) and told him he had to go downstairs. After a few minutes of "chasing" him around the office, he finally settled in the copy room. Of course to get there he had to break the sanctity of the teachers lounge. The teachers that were in there were alarmed and flabbergasted to see a kid traipse through the lounge. When he found the piano, it had a soothing effect and it pacified him. And that's where he stayed until his mother arrived to pick him up. He was immediately suspended.

The next day, his mother provided a stack of paperwork from his psychiatric intake, hospitalizations, school suspensions, and other mental health matters that occurred since last April. This would have been handy to know the day before. I immediately set up a PPT because this kid came with mental diagnosis and had a full evaluation. The report was pending at the time of our meeting.

My director did not like the idea of this student being in my building. He is too much of a risk, especially to himself. My director immediately suggested outplacement into a therapeutic school, that specializes in problem behaviors and emotionally disturbed children. I was shocked because this happened so quickly, usually this kind of outplacement takes months. It's not cheap. But I guess it's cheaper than having a possible suicide on your hands. The mom agreed to having her son attend the school while we complete an evaluation. The child has not enrolled yet, nor has the mom gone to the school for the intake interview. The child has been on homebound (receiving lessons at home) in the meantime. It will be interesting to see where this ends.

BBC

Bearer of Bad News

I had a PPT where I had to tell the parents that their son has significant issues and needs to attend a program in another school. Fortunately, the son was previously identified. It's hard being the bearer of bad news. Most parents don't take that kind of news too well, and who can blame them? There is no way around it, but as a member of the PPT I have to give the information as honest as possible. I think that some people find it easier to sugarcoat their news, or downplay the seriousness of their information. Unfortunately, the parents leave these meetings not understanding how limited their children are.

My most recent case involved a student that if he was a year younger (4 years old) he would have qualified under the disability of Developmental Delay. But since he was already 5 years old, no one wanted to revisit this case in less than a year to give him a new label. He entered my school as a kindergartner with a disability of Speech (Language) Impairment. Obviously to us he had more issues. These issues came to light during our evaluation. The good news was that the mother was aware that he had some limitations. n her words, she "hoped the news would have been better." The good part of the job is that we usually offer great recommendations to help the child. In this case, the child needed to be placed in a different school with a smaller, more intense kindergarten program. The parents agreed that it was a good recommendation and he entered the program today.

BBC