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Wariness or hypervigilance?

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Gamera3000

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I'm going to post about this here because I think it's hypervigilance.

My son is three and is starting at a new preschool next week. I stay home with him because of a physical disability and frankly also PTSD. So he's only going because he wants to, not because we need him to. It's just two days a week. And he's an only child because we are unable to have more children.

He went to a different preschool last year, for about a year, from 1 1/2 to 2 1/2. After a few months in the 2s class he became quiet and reverted on potty training. But said he liked it there and had many friends. I was called in one day because he refused to leave the playground and when they tried to carry him in they dropped him on his head. He's a large kid. When I got the incident report a few days later it said nothing about dropping him on his head and a lot about "misbehavior" on his part that they'd never mentioned before. Meanwhile, that same weekend, we ran into the assistant teacher at the mall and my son had a startling, very negative reaction to her. She was a young pretty girl, usually his "type", but he was clearly afraid of her. To this day, a year later, he will not walk past the store we saw her in. My husband and I did have a bad feeling about her the first time we saw her. We didn't talk about it at the time and had no reason for this. Like I said, she was young and pretty, did everything right (in front of us). The preschool offered no explanation or apology. So we took him out.

This new school is more of a "hippy" atmosphere. While I was there I observed an autistic kid having a meltdown and I saw how they dealt with him. He was about the same size (but a year older) than my son. They picked him up, moved him to a quiet area, then walked away from him and let him calm down on his own. Didn't make a big deal about it. I toured several other preschools and when I asked them what they do with that kind of thing, they said it "didn't happen." I'm not sure what kind of three year old doesn't have temper tantrums. I'm pretty sure they all do.

So my husband went with me last night. We met everyone and dropped off the school supplies. My husband was very put off by everyone's "fake" smiles and wanted to know what they were "really like." I would like to know that too, but I think the plastic smile is usual for child care workers. I am filling out all the paperwork to parent volunteer and to be as involved as I can. My husband and I are going to some church seminars this week. I figured the more we are involved and the more we know about all this the better we will feel, right?

This is hypervigilance, isn't it? I know I have to let my son go to school and do regular life things, but I can't forget that he was mistreated the last time I told myself I was crazy and didn't involve myself.
 
No this is not undue hypervigilence, but it is totally justified. Research the heck out of the school. Spend time there. Volunteer to read or help in the classroom on a reg basis. If they discourage this, red flag. Some schools wont let you come in the first few mos so kids can get used to it, that is not a red flag.

I have an ECE license and an MA in education. I have been teaching for 20 yrs including childcare.
There are many centers that are terrible and many providers that are terrible (many wonderful centers and wonderful teachers) That last teacher may have been punitive with your son.
Go into the school, ask questions.
1. What are the qualifications of the teachers?
2. Do they follow ratios, what are they?
3. What is their philosophy of learning?
4. Do they have a qualistar rating?
5. What is their approach to discipline?
6. Do they believe in a play based curriculum?

You did very well to follow your gut instinct before. Keep doing that.
Look at things when you visit. Do they do art projects? Is it clean? Do the teachers seem to know the kids? Are they focused on the kids (not gossiping, not texting)?
This is an appropriate time for hypervigilence. You have to be with childcare, children need that from their moms.
If it doesn't work out, I like Reggio and Montessori approaches.
 
It is totally normal from my perception. I wouldn't call it hypervigilance. I have a son with a severe peanut and pea allergy. Legumes, not nuts, and I was beside myself constantly. It was 15 years ago that he started school and the wars began. I never asked the school to be peanut free, and I knew there would be exposures, and there were. I feel I overreacted many times, but my son is still alive at 20 years old. Overreacted by taking him to the hospital when the rash started instead of waiting until it got worse. Well, maybe that's not overreacting, but since I was a nurse at the hospital, they would send him home. I would have to stay awake for 24 hours watching him.
 
Go into the school, ask questions.
1. What are the qualifications of the teachers?
2. Do they follow ratios, what are they?
3. What is their philosophy of learning?
4. Do they have a qualistar rating?
5. What is their approach to discipline?
6. Do they believe in a play based curriculum?

You did very well to follow your gut instinct before. Keep doing that.
Look at things when you visit. Do they do art projects? Is it clean? Do the teachers seem to know the kids? Are they focused on the kids (not gossiping, not texting)?

What a great reply! I did not think to ask about the ratios. I will. My observation is that they are low, with an assistant teacher always in the bigger classes. I'm glad you said that about the star rating. They do have a 4/5 star rating in our state, but to be honest I wasn't sure if that was saying anything. I did think to ask about the other things you mentioned and I liked their answers on everything. Mostly it came down to their philosophy that you can't expect adult behavior from toddlers. And it is play based, which I like. So yeah, I guess it is just wariness from the other incident, but I WILL follow my gut this time.

I have taken the suggestion of volunteering and have made myself available to do pretty much anything. They haven't found anything for me to do yet, but the school year just started. I'll ask if I don't hear anything for awhile.

So far, my son has only seemed to have a problem leaving- he wants to stay and keep playing. That made me feel much better about it all. I'm so relieved to hear from you all that this is normal. Somehow it seems like the other parents of kids my son's age just don't think about things like safety.

Thank you all!
 
In case anyone was interested, we ended up pulling our 3 1/2 year old son out of the second preschool. Long story short, he had a fit there for what I felt were rational reasons. The teacher first mishandled the fit, then waited until I picked him up hours later to tell me about it, then gave me a red letter documenting his fit. I felt the whole time that she didn't want me to participate in the conversation she was having with (at) me.

My husband and I didn't feel that any response from us would be correct. We did not trust that he would not be framed as a "bully" or "bad kid" because of his strength, size, and willfulness. Our son is also very smart, but a little behind other kids in clarity of speech. Not badly, but the mispronunciations, with the added verbosity, and then added to THAT the odd thoughts he has can make him pretty hard to understand.

An example is while riding in the car yesterday, the moon was visible in the sky during the daytime. He said, with copious stuttering as he was thinking, "[His own name] walk...moon...uh...uh...uh...shoot shoot shoot up up up into the sky...spaceship...eh-end eh-end eh-end...fly...SPACE???" Which meant that he wondered if he could walk on the moon if he got into a spaceship and shot up into the sky and flew around in space. "Eh-end" is his own word from when he was a baby that means both "around" and "over there".

So anyway, we sent a short email to the school saying we were taking him out and giving no reason. They said okay, they would issue a refund. They shorted us about $50, which we did not pursue. When they gave my husband the final check and our son's things, they just said "Thanks." No one tried to get us to stay or asked our reasoning. Like they didn't want us there. Really troubling.

For the first couple of days, my son had several wetting and aggression incidents that were way out of the ordinary for him. He seemed very concerned about the aggression, even while he was doing it. I just kept explaining to him that it was okay, everyone got angry and he just needed to calm down and we could go resume the activity later, no big deal. When he calmed down I told him that when I was little I also fought, often when I was irritated or people would not leave me alone. I told him that over time I was able to control myself. That it takes practice and I would help him. Again, no big deal. He appeared to be listening and appreciating what I was saying, but it's hard to tell.

I have been taking him to playgrounds and to do activities more often and am starting to teach him at a more advanced level here at home. I started teaching him some simple sight words and playing number games. He seems to like that. I have noticed before that when people recognize how smart he is they are nicer to him. A trick I have used in my own life over the years, frankly. I would like to make things as easy for him as I can. I can't make him any less strong or smart, and wouldn't want to. If you can't blend in, all you can do is put your differences to your advantage.

So that's it. He seems okay now.
 
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