for those of you with children on the autism spectrum....how many hours per week do they attend school? my bailey has been in a special education preschool since february! he and i both LOVED it! however, i only had him in there three half days because i wanted to make the transition easy for him. also, because i was not ready to see him gone for so long each day. he was still napping then and i wanted him to be able to come home, eat lunch and nap with his same age siblings. this worked out well, but now that summer is here i am strongly considering more of a full time program when school goes back in the fall. the developmental pediatrician that we saw the other day strongly encouraged me to have him in a full time program....monday-friday, from 8-2:30. im not sure what to do....
do you have your special needs children in full time programs? if so, what are the hours/days? why did you choose a full time program?
btw, bailey will be three years 8 months when we return to school in late august.
julia, gbb, 3.5 years and g, 17 years

julia, gbb, 19 months and g, 16 years

My kids have been in special day preschool class since age 3. They go from 830am to 230pm accept on Thursdays its early day at 130pm. They did fine. I do think its a long day but they needed. Now they will be in regular kindergarden classes and its the same time. The kids M-F its on the same campus as the regular classes so now this fall they will be familiar with the school already, lunch and recess etc... so its really nice and worked out well. Right now they are in summer preschool class for 4 weeks from 8-12:20p. They love it, its good for them. Remember during those hours, they also get pulled for their therapies, so for us no running around. He got ABA in class, OT, ST it was great. Good luck, Bailey will be fine, he needs that amount of time.
Danielle

Danielle
Easton, Blake & Hunter
1-24-99

Julia:

Emma is not on the autism spectrum, but, for what its worth, one of the reasons we chose the program she is in is because it was a full day program, and we felt that she would not accomplish much in a half day program once you factored in drop off/pick up time at the beginning and end, and all of the pull-outs for OT, PT and ST. She started out at a half day program for a month because there was no room in the full day program, and I think that was a good transition for her and us, but since switching to the full day program, her progress has been tremendous. She is tired when she comes home from school and takes a late nap on most days, but, as I said, she has adapted well and is doing great. BTW, full day is 9-2:30 during the school year and 9-2 in the summer.

HTH,
Sharon

Julia,
DD started special ed pre-school at 33 months and only did the half-day, 3x per week program. We will be doing the same program again starting in August basically because we have no choice (no full day program available). She turns 4 in December. However, we also substitute with therapy at home (OT 1x/week, ST 2x/week, PT 1x/week, Music Therapy 1x/week, and ABA 15 hours per week). If she wasn't getting so much therapy at home I would definately want her in a longer program at school. The total hours of therapy + school have been crucial to her improvement IMO. Good luck whatever you decide.
-Karen

thanks for your responses....i know you all are right. bailey really does need the full time program. i am just struggling with letting him go completely. i need to though, cause i really think he will make alot more progress.
we went and had our 6 month follow up appt with the developmental pediatrician that diagnosed him as autistic on monday. i told him how i noted alot of progress with social skills while in school and now that school is out for the summer, he seems to have regressed a little bit in that area. he went on to tell me that if we we noticed that much progress with just 3 half days, think about how much progress he would make with 5 full days. he is right! im kinda excited about the idea...school started august 19th!

julia, gbb, 3.5 years and g, 17 years

julia, gbb, 19 months and g, 16 years