A Peek Into Pre-School
The Berlin School System offers a variety of preschool programs for children who are 3.0 years old or older. These offerings range from itinerant therapy services provided by a speech/language clinician, physical therapist or occupational therapist to full day programming for our most significantly disabled preschoolers.
Currently, we have three preschool classrooms all housed at Willard School. The program for our most disabled students includes typically developing peers. Children with special needs in this classroom may participate in an extended day program that includes not only a typical preschool routine and curriculum but also lunch, direct teaching instruction, and work with various therapists. This school year, our second preschool classroom includes children with special needs as well as typically developing peers and meets four afternoons a week. This program includes a typical preschool routine and curriculum and therapists may provide services to the whole group as well as work with individual students. Our third preschool classroom, typically referred to as PEP (Preschool Education Program) meets both mornings and afternoons with children attending for varying days of the week dependent on their needs. This classroom includes children who are at risk for school difficulties as well as students with identified special needs. This may include children with speech/language weaknesses, fine/gross motor weaknesses, physical limitations and/ or behavioral challenges. This classroom also provides an enriching preschool program for our ELL students (English Language Learners). Therapists may also provide services to the whole group and/or work with individual students in this classroom as well. The configuration of our preschool offerings may change on a yearly basis dependent on the population of children that have been identified for programming.
Children become eligible to participate in our preschool programs in several different ways. In January of every year the Berlin Schools offers a town-wide preschool screening program and children who are identified with mild delays or as being bi-lingual may be eligible for the PEP program. Through this screening process another group of children may be identified who school staff feel they wish to further assess individually. Recommendations from this assessment may include participation in one of our preschool programs. In addition to this process, parents can refer their preschooler at any time should they have concerns. Subsequent evaluations and possible placement might then occur in a preschool program. Lastly, a number of our preschoolers have been identified with special needs before their third birthday through the Birth-to-Three System and are automatically referred to the public school as they approach their third birthday.
Our community volunteers, or typically developing peers, are chosen through a lottery system. Parents who wish to have their children be part of the lottery indicate their interest at the time of preschool screening in January. Children are chosen early in the summer before the start of the next school year and parents are notified by telephone.
The special education preschool program is based on the premise that individuals with disabilities expected to function within a typical world, must first learn to do so when they are children. We also believe that typically-developing individuals must develop appreciation and acceptance of individual differences in all people.
The program strives to “live” this philosophy by its commitment to providing services to children with disabilities and typically developing preschoolers in an integrated setting. This philosophy incorporates the physical, instructional and social integration of all youngsters as the fundamental goal of the program.
