Please Help! - Houston,TX

head start is generally a preschool for lower income children, and ppcd is more for children with disabilities or ESL.

You have asked about this more than once. If your son needs to be in ppcd, which he does because he has a delay and his Dr. has already told you he needs to, then you need to put him in there. Do not be afraid of getting a label of a disability, and be afraid that if you do not do all your son needs to learn properly, then you can mess up the rest of his life.

Needing help for speech in not very uncommon either. My daughter has been going to speech therapy for over a year. She is exceptionally bright, has no problem interacting with other people, has advanced comprehension, and is quite happy. Actually she loves going it has helped her very much since we started.

He will get more specific teaching, and therapy for his speech delay in ppcd based on what his needs are. They do not do that in headstart.

I hope you stop worrying so much about how it sounds if he is in there, and just get him the help he needs. Whatever his developement is, it is. It is not going to change without help, and he will not be able to perform to the best of his ability in regular school if he starts out behind, or has trouble communicating effectively.

Please just do what his Dr. has recommended. Your son is beautiful, smart, and perfect no matter what other differences he may have to work with. Having to work on a speech delay or anything else does not mean there is something wrong with him and he is doomed for life.

Take Care

You really do not need to know the difference.

If your son or daughter qualified for PPCD and has been offered these services, they go to PPCD and not Head Start.

If they have not been offerend PPCD, your child must be evaluated by the school district, and thier IEP team, including you, will make the placement decsion. If they do not offer PPCD, you should enrol your child in Head Start.

What ever the outcome of the school evaluation, you should know that it does not matter what your doctor says, they do not make any decisons for school districts. You should know that ESL (english as a second language) is an entirely different program, and while a child could be in PPCD and ESL, they are mutually exclusive and have totally separate funding sources and goals. You should know that once your child is 3, ECI is not part of the equation any more, your school district is the public provider. You should know that no matter what services the school offers, you should have private evaluations and provide private therapy to supplement your child's treament program. No school is going to maximize your child's development or education, you can only count on public services to make your child functional.

Finally, if you child only has a speech delay, the school will probably offer speech therapy, but not a full program. If you have been offered a full program, you have more to worry about than a speech delay, and you should find out exactly why the school would offer you such expensive services when they are in no way required to do so, unless they know something you don't. So find out.

Please PM me, I would really like to help you. I worked many years as a special education advocate in Texas, and I do understand this system and can point you in the right direction.

Nothing is going to change if you ask the question again, this is the answer, but I can tell you more details that will relate to what you need to do for your child.

M.

PPCD is the program that is intended to help children with any developmental delays. My daughter has PDD-NOS and she was in a ppcd class half the day in kindergarten. It helps because they not only show them academics but in a ppcd class they also show them socializing skills and they also play out a lot of typical scenarios for example "what to do/say when you need to...." Also a speech therapist is provided to meet with your child at the school to help them develop better language. My daughter only needed it to be in ppcd one time and then the following year was entered into a mainstream (regular) type of classroom. Head start is the program that lets preschool aged kids enter pre-school early to "get a head start" ( in Texas it's only for children whose parent's income is below a certain amount or whose children meet another special pre-requisite like being bi-lingual) but it does not go into detail on building fine motor, fine gross, and communication details. You can call the school and ask to meet specifically with the PPCD instructors and they can give you a tour and explain what it is all about. I hope this helps.

My son was in PPCD for 2 years, starting at age 3. It is a fantastic program. He went from not talking at all, to whispering single words, in the first 6 weeks. From there, we saw continual improvement.

There is another advantage to PPCD that I have yet to see here. My son started kindergarten already having been at the school for 2 years. He was used to the school, and knew just about everyone there. When I would go visit (for class parties), there would even be 4th & 5th graders who knew him by name. They all loved him. Never has my son been treated differently. Other than the fact that the older kids have been so wonderful about watching over him.

Head Start is a wonderful program. The teachers are dedicated to the wonderful work they do. From the sounds of it, Head Start is not what your son truly needs.

I am not a 100% sure.
My son is in a PPCD class, and I was told by the behavioral specialist that people in a PPCD are better trained dealing with children with autism, speech delays and things like that than Head Start.
I am very happy with the progress my son has made through PPCD, and I will definitely recommend it.
Good Luck!!

I would say PPCD would be more beneficial for a 3 year old with a speech delay but that said, really research your schools in your area. It's a state program and there are many negatives and positives out there and my understanding is that it even varies from school to school and district to district. Is your child too old to qualify for and ECI program where speech therapy is given on a one on one basis? I know they have an age limit but I'm not sure what it is. Head Start is a federally funded preschool program that is designed for low income children and you have to qualify by income in order to be enrolled.

Head start is similar to a pre-K program which can get you speech services. You can also go to your closest public school as an early childhood student and get speech services. PPCD is for students who are handicapped and usually have more than one handicapping condition.