My passion

I may have started a little side academic project recently that will be taking up some time....here is how I kicked it off....
My passion and reason for further pursuing this academic project was to learn all that I could about various disabilities, eventually obtain my Diagnostician Certification, and be qualified to visit private preschools, diagnosing children with disabilities in these private preschools and providing support for both the schools and their parents on what the best plan of action is for that particular child. Unfortunately, many small private preschools have an abundance of special needs children that they are not equipped to access or assist in meeting developmental milestones. Often, children who do not have obvious severe disabilities are "hidden" in these private sectors by parents who are in denial about their children's needs. Often, these children have been shuffled from one daycare/preschool to another because they are removed due to behaviors, and rather than seeing that there may be a psychological or otherwise diagnosable disorder—they simply take them to a different preschool or chose to keep them at home. Our window of opportunity for diagnosing and providing therapy for these children is ideally before the age of five. Children in these preschool programs are often not reached until they are enrolled in a public kindergarten. There are several issues that could be addressed and resolutions sought for. One, the emphasis of early education in our country and secondly, what tools and education we should be providing so that more of these children are recognized and diagnosed.
I have worked in the private sector on and off for six years. Currently, I am working at a private preschool in Houston, TX. Big, Little school serves children from six weeks to age five. I teach in the Pre-Kindergarten program. This year alone, we diagnosed two children in the school with disabilities through a local specialized school that provides diagnostic services to the community. Big, Little School is in a very affluent part of Houston and therefore has such resources to spend on diagnostic services. Unfortunately, in many schools this is not an available resource due to financial restrictions. Public schools should, by law, be providing diagnostic services to children in their community but often this is not the case. It is almost always a struggle to have a child tested who is not enrolled in school. Furthermore, many local pediatricians brush off a mother's concerns. The medical community does not seem to know or understand in detail what different disabilities look like. If it is not in the medical spectrum they are used to identifying, it often goes unrecognized. Developmental delays are seen in many different ways. Too many times, we speak to parents about our concerns with their child and the mother says, "We talked to the pediatrician when he was younger, but he told us that he was just a little behind and to wait and see." Wait and see are infamous words of the medical community and yet another significant roadblock in diagnosing a child. A mother's first line of defense when questioning if her child is "okay" is her pediatrician. Sadly, the doctor does not always know best. This misinformation in the medical community only serves to delay even further the early diagnosis of a child. In my personal experience, there was a mother who became pregnant with her third child. Her first child had been diagnosed with a severe Pervasive Development Disorder (PDD) and was in our PPCD (Preschool Program for Children with Disabilities) classroom. Her second child, a girl, was completely normal. Upon the birth of her third child, another boy, she was sure there was something wrong. Family and friends assured her she was paranoid because of her first child's disability assuring her hat the young baby was fine. His APGAR test was normal and he was seemingly a perfectly healthy infant. She went to her pediatrician at her three week check up and asked questions about what she was concerned with, and he too brushed off her concern as paranoia. The baby seemed fine, but a Mother always knows. She brought the infant into school, where she knew we would be honest with her. We understood the importance of early detection. Upon holding the infant, and doing simple recognition of voice and sound testing with the Occupational Therapist on staff, we saw something of concern. The mother pursued diagnosis through an ECI (Early Childhood Intervention) program and the infant was diagnosed with a PDD disorder. At his young age, they couldn't put a more specific label on it. He began therapy five days a week, and although his diagnosis is more severe than his older brother's—the young boy is thriving because of early detection. Why did this mother have to go through so much to gain a diagnosis? These are all obstacles we face in early childhood in the early detection of disorders in young children.
The question is then, now what? Well, education is a fundamental tool in any situation where ignorance is prevalent. This is so often the case in early detection. We need to educate the medical community, the early childhood community, and parents in the importance of early detection and diagnosis for children with special needs. My research process will be to obtain substantial evidence of the importance of early detection and diagnosis. It will also include interviews with schools both in the public and private sector and the professionals who handle these children before and after diagnosis. My research will also extend to specialized schools in the area that serve children with special needs and the resources available to their parents and the surrounding community. I will also research ways to educate these three important sectors. How can we stress the importance of listening to a mother and knowing early detection signs of developmental delays and disorders to both the medical and early childhood community? What arenas would best serve to deliver this important message and how do we access these arenas successfully?