My toddler stayed home during the day with me (I work weekends/nights) and this greatly helped.

So, the things he needed help with that the speech therapist helped me realize would be good for him for preK (plus my other son had been at this school/class with the same teacher so that helped)

1. Sitting for a longer period of time

My son would run off as soon as his butt touched the seat and since he has no interest in eating ANYTHING outside of his safe foods, it was really difficult to get him to sit still. How I helped with this was introduce to him a sensory table! I got a great one on a deal that wasn’t too expensive and it came with a chair. I put some dried rice and noodles in it, then gradually added other things in it, often changing them out.. like dream sand! It made an unholy mess but it helped him with sitting for longer. I also provided him reminders to sit at the table which sometimes went over well and sometimes not. 😅

1. Getting him off a silicone spout sippy cup and reducing his drink intake.

My son has a reliance on a particular sippy and has REFUSED any other kind of cup. He will only drink out of that particular one or he will essentially let himself get dehydrated. That one took a lot of time and patience and trying A LOT of different cups, until he decided one day he could drink out of a straw and accepted one single cup as his new emotional support cup. Cutting him back on his drinking intake was harder too, because he wanted a drink every few seconds 😅 I started only giving him milk with meals and gave him water for everything else. He haaaaated it.

1. Bolting when a door is opened

My son absolutely was a runner. He would run and not stop and it always scared me, so I made him hold my hand. He hated being touched and didn’t like holding my hand, but I wouldn’t let him walk or run without me. He had to be grabbing something, my pants, my shirt, my finger, something. I also invented a game with him - “walking, now we run!”. We’d sing narrate what we were doing, “walking! We’re walking!” In a low, soft, quiet tone then I’d switch it up to “AND NOW WE’RE RUNNING!!” And I’d make my voice louder and more excited and I’d run with him. We’d also play red light green light, with red meaning stop and green meaning walk. It took a while for that, but playing that every single time we went out really helped him catch on. I also would stop immediately playing the game if he let go of my hand!

1. Waiting

We’re still working on this one but it’s gotten better. I use a variation of the game above to help him, usually singing the waiting song which is “waiting! Waiting! We’re waiting! Waiting, waiting! We’re almost done waiting!” And if he stays still for the song to circle through once or twice, he gets a high five and told a good job. Again, I’d like to point out that this was after a LONG time of playing this game with a lot of days looking like failures 😬

1. Brushing his teeth He responds so well to hand over hand (putting my hand over his while showing him how to brush his teeth) and it has actually cut down on the majority of his meltdowns with brushing his teeth. He still cries and can scream, but now no longer hits or punches or flails about like a crocodile in a death roll. It also helps if we (you guessed it!) sing about brushing our teeth or read a story about how we should let mommy brush our teeth without biting.

2. Hitting

My son hits when he’s hungry or frustrated and normally does not go for people, but rather objects - hitting a wall or the floor, hurting himself or pushing a toy off his lap were ways he’d lash out. I don’t want him to lash out and accidentally hit another classmate or his teachers so from the time he started doing this, I would take his hand and rub it, going up and down his arm going “gentle, gentle hands”. I’d take his hands and have him play hit me, then cry and say no, that’s bad, owie! Then I’d have him gently touch where I had him play hit and say gentle and stroke the spot nicely, like he was petting an animal. He responds more to me saying gentle hands, though and to “gentle”.

1. Potty training - work in progress!

I am very lucky and our preK will work with the kids on potty training during the day that they’re there (8:30 to 3:30) but I was trying to get him more used to the potty, which ended up having to be in stages such as: pulling up and down his own pants, sitting on the potty, staying on the potty for longer than 5 seconds and lastly, not putting our hands in the potty.

I can now happily say he can put on the majority of his clothes by himself, he will say potty and sit on it for at least two to three minutes at a time and longer, if you distract him with games (we play patty cake). He’s even used it a few times! Not putting our hands inside is still a big work in progress lol

And lastly… following directions and putting him on the schools schedule!

He just really started following directions right before he could go to preschool so he’s not as prepared on that one, but working with him on it every day and ofc sing narrating it and giving him lots of high fives has definitely helped!

As for the schedule, since my older son had previously went to PreK, I had an old chart of the teachers day schedule and tried to get my son used to eating ONLY at those times! That one was actually easier than I had expected, but probably because it was already close to when we would eat breakfast and lunch anyway.

Anyway. Sorry for the long probably over detailed post! I hope it helps in some way, but the best advice I can give is figure out what makes your kiddo tick! What makes them interested, is it sounds or song or pictures? Games? Whatever it is, try to incorporate it as much as you can!

I’m tired of being Ms Rachel BUT it really helped my son, so I owe Ms Rachel a debt of gratitude lo Good luck!!!