Graduation

Last week Alice had her very last day at her early childhood development program, otherwise known as ECDP or to Alice "big school." A very emotional day for me...it's taken me over a week to be able to get my thoughts together and write a blog post about it.

We called this place big school because when Alice started there she was three years old. She was attending a tiny little daycare centre with only one room and twenty kids, so in comparison it was big. It was also simple for her to say...and back then stringing even two words together was still a bit of a challenge.

Dancing at Big School

I was introduced to the idea of ECDP by a member of an online parenting forum. I had no idea what an ECDP was. It was hard at this time. Alice was three and so obviously behind her peers, but we were hitting stumbling blocks with her diagnosis. Paediatricians couldn't give us a definite answer. We'd had her hearing tested, we'd increased speech therapy to fortnightly sessions we were doing what we could but no label meant no funding and we didn't know what else to do.

The ECDP don't need a diagnosis, children are able to enrol based on speech assessments if they are below are certain standard. So we went through the process of reassessing Alice's speech and applying for the ECDP. I wasn't hopeful about getting in...Alice was constantly put in this grey area where she didn't fit in with the kids that really needed help and she didn't fit in with the kids that didn't need any help at all. It was so frustrating. Amazingly though I got a phone call a couple of weeks later saying that she had been accepted and they wanted to meet with me as soon as possible.

Being treated like a princess.

I'll never forget the first time visiting ECDP. Never. I was so nervous. It was run out of a special school and as much as I knew this didn't mean anything I'll be honest...I was picturing padded cells and straight jackets. Alice at the time was very trying - every where we went I was petrified that she would make a scene. She was going through the terrible two's at three - which is much harder actually because she was a lot heavier. She had just started referring to herself as Alice and it was all about Alice. "Turn Alice's" "DO IT ALICE" were a few of her common sentences. She also had perfected the no bones routine (e.g. going completely limp and me having to drag her along) and was a runner, with no fear of cars or being lost. She'd just bolt. Going out in public was hard.

We arrived about twenty minutes early, because I was so nervous and when I'm nervous I'm early. What greeted us was not a scary, dark asylum but what looked like a beautifully cared for little school. Gorgeous playground out the front, large deck with gorgeous paintings of funny little characters painted along  the wall. Toys were scattered around the grounds and there was even what looked like a little race track.

She loved the computers there. 

In the meeting I met teachers who got it. They got that Alice didn't want to talk to them. They didn't ask her stupid questions "What's your name?" "How old are you?" Instead they told her excitedly about the toys they had for her to play with. They sat and listened to me while I told them about her struggles, her problems with expressing herself. How far she had come. How far she still had to go. They praised her, they pointed out her positives...not many professionals that met Alice had done that.

"A is for Alice!" 

They showed us around the classroom and we met the two little girls Alice would be put in a class with. I was amazed at the gorgeous classrooms, the touch screen computers, the books, the home corner set ups. Alice didn't want to leave. Neither did I. I finally found a place that got it. I finally found somewhere that Alice could blossom, could be herself and be cherished for being that.

ECDP ("big school") continued to make us feel safe and loved for the next two years. I cannot put into words how the teacher's there have helped my little girl. I really feel this place is the reason why Alice is doing so well today.

Saying goodbye last week was the hardest thing I have ever done. To me this was our safe place, our haven. This year especially, Alice's first year of school, she would not have coped without being able to go to "big school" at the end of the week.

Her graduation certificate.

On her final day, at the goodbye party, she ran out of the classroom and told me excitedly "This was the best day ever!" She said goodbye to her friends and teachers and we waved goodbye to the playground, and beeped the horn as we drove down the "big school" driveway for the last time.

Waving goodbye to the playground. 

As I write this she has just finished her first full week of prep. She did great, as I knew she would. We will never forget ECDP and all they have done for us. We'll always have the memories and I'll always be forever grateful to them for helping my little girl.

Running to the car for the last time.