Hello, I started a thread previously on this board about our daughter's VB programme back in October last year and got some really helpful advice. Since the start of this year, she's had ABA-trained shadows at her (fairly small, Montessori) preschool, 5 mornings a week, and a few hours of 1:1 VB sessions at home in the afternoons. (In hindsight, we should probably have gone for fewer hours at preschool and more time doing 1:1 stuff...)
She's made some progress - with imitation, making requests, parallel play, sitting still for group activities, etc - but in the last term or so, it became obvious that she finds the environment a bit frustrating and that lots of the stuff is over her head in terms of ability to concentrate and comprehend. We think she needs somewhere with a small number of children in the classroom at any time and lots of structure to the morning.
None of the state or private mainstream nursery/preschool options nearby seems like the right setting. So we looked around BH Christopher Place, went through the assessments and were recently offered a place. We are leaning strongly towards accepting it. Thoughts (in no particular order)...
On the positive side:
- I like the feel of the classrooms (bright, airy, not too cluttered visually) and structure of the nursery day (lots of adult-led activities, movement breaks mid-morning and group OT)
- I can see my daughter responding well to the teaching style I saw there (teachers modelling simple, clear sentences; repetition of key concepts)
- I really like the fact that it is group learning, without 1:1s (albeit v small and high ratio!). Learning "how to learn" in a group is such an important skill and I think my daughter will need a lot of support to get it.
- The staff were all friendly and Juliette (who heads Christopher Place) seemed lovely: very approachable and down-to-each.
On the minus side:
- Bit of a "rabbit warren" feel to the premises and not a lot of outdoor space.
- Having said that limited numbers are what our daughter needs to be able to learn, I worry about the very small peer group - fewer than 10 other children in nursery. Maybe not ideal for practising social skills...?
- Oddly, for a school that has a pretty high % of pupils on the spectrum and employs what look (well, to my untrained eyes!) like behavioural learning-based approaches, BH does not seem that clued up about ABA/VB. We'd like to carry on the afternoon ABA sessions and I'm concerned about the need for consistency of approaches. (And selfishly, I was hoping that the work of making sure that all the professionals are doing something sensible, each knows what he/she is supposed to be doing, each knows what the others are doing - which largely falls on me - would be lower with a specialist nursery. Maybe a pipe dream!)
- I have a niggling doubt about whether, at this stage, a move to BH is compromising academics too much in the interests of the SEN/therapy side. I know that the therapy is the most acute need but I am ambitious for my daughter and would like to transition over the course of primary school into a mainstream setting. I want her to be challenged, not just to sit at the middle/upper end of the group ability range.
Sorry, this is all turning into rather a long ramble! Does anyone have recent-ish experience of Blossom House for nursery (either the new Christopher Place site or the main one near Wimbledon)? Any thoughts on their provision for children with speech & language issues who are also at the high/moderate end of the spectrum? Any suggestions for other places?
Thank you very much!