Preschool or Pre-K plus Recognizing a Learning Disability

Learning disabilities aside, I can't think of any reason to send a child to any form of pre-school, pre-K, daycare unless the parent isn't home during the day. It's pretty easy to teach a kid numbers and colors and weather and stuff. When I worked and sent my first child to these programs, I was definitely duped into thinking that there would be some kind of advantage to searching out the right program. But many friends and I eventually figured out that it was all really daycare, so we stopped sending our kids. (Many of them were smart enough to never send them at all, but I was still working at the time and wasn't ready to face the idea of quitting. Quitting work for the kids was as difficult for me as quitting an addiction.)

I taught them to read at ages 3, 4 and 5, but you don't have to teach a child to read prior to kindergarten unless they're ready.

So I would say don't spend too much time analyzing these different programs, unless of course, your child has special needs. Just find a pleasant place for your child to enjoy his day.

On your first two questions, I do not have an answer for you however, on the question regarding learning disabilities, just wait it out for not. Writing backwards is a common Phenom that kids do throughout elementary. You will not be able to recognize if it is truly a problem for a couple of years. You should be very happy that he is writing letters at 4. That is advanced. A lot of kids don't even understand what a letter is when they start kindergarten. So relax and just enjoy who he is, learning problems will surface and you can address them as they are ready to be identified. The most important thing to teach him right now is good learning habits, that is what will pull him through if there are any learning problems in the future.

hi, J.,
pre-k, sometimes known as Early Childhood Education or ECE is often more academic than a typical preschool daycare program. Some of the YMCA preschools have excellent programs.
Was your son in early intervention because of his prematurity? I have a 24 weeker with learning disabilities. You can have a free evaluation done by ChildFind, the state program that evaluates children for special education. Call your school district for a referral. You can find a lot more info on services available in CO on the website of Parent to Parent of CO, our statewide parent support network www.p2p-co.org . An excellent website is LDonline, www.ldonline.com , with tons of info about identifying and treating learning disabilities.
Though under normal circumstances, most people would encourage you to wait and see if your son grows out of his difficulties, because of the prematurity, I wouldn't wait.
take care, S.

Hi, I'm not an expert on the learning disability part of your question - however, I do know that lots of kids write backward...

I do have a suggestion for a great pre-school. My daughter goes to Primrose (in Lone Tree) however, I know there is at least one in Lakewood (Bear Creek area just north of 285 on Kipling I believe). I love the philosophy and the staff at ours. Check it out. They have full time or part time available. It's not cheap, but it's a great program.