Lost time

All too often students come into my classroom and they are delayed in fine or large motor skills, speech and language abilities , cognitive function, and simple life functions such as begin toilet trained or having the ability to feed themselves without getting food all over them.  These students are already 5 years old by the time they enter school.  So much time has already been lost as many of these children have not received early intervention therapies or services.  It is my true belief that early intervention makes a life time of difference.  Research shows that young children that begin receiving language therapy early makes a tremendous amount of difference by the age of 5.  It is my goal to continue to push for children to be identified earlier in life and begin receiving essential services so that they may catch up with other typically developing children.  The way our current system is set up we allow for the gap to become way to great before making the interventions to close it.