First Day at Callier

Today was Truman's first day at the Callier SmILE program. It's the speech disorder program I wrote about a month or so ago. It's basically group speech therapy with a pre-school structure to it. There was the SLP who directed it, and a graduate student instructing as well, so a 2:1 student-teacher ratio. I was able to be there for the first 25 minutes or so, and Ben stayed the whole time and observed through a two-way mirror.

In Truman's class of four, he was the only one who did not cry or get upset. He was clearly the most independent and social of the group .... But, he was also the one hardest to corral since he flits about from activity to activity like crazy. I think not only will this be good for him from the speech therapy perspective, but also from the structure. They had circle time, story time, snack time, gym time, and so on with a clear break between each activity and an expectation of participation. They also had a theme to the day's lessons.

During snack time, not only did he dump out his cup of water, he did the same for the other children as well. Hey, it could be worse. He could be inattentive and grumpy and tantrum-prone. At least he's a happy and sweet distractor.