Our 4-year-old daughter requires speech therapy and has separation anxiety from us. We enrolled Elaina in speech therapy through Early On when she was between 2-3 years old. We had tried 2 different daycares to acclimate her with other children and work on social skills. Both times we only lasted 2-3 weeks. She would make herself so sick from the separation and would not sleep for weeks.
It wasn’t until she started Head Start in January of 2025 that things changed for her. The first couple weeks were tough. However, we had amazing support and communication through her teachers and speech therapist. It helped that she got to see her speech therapist every Monday and Friday at Head Start. She already felt safe with Miss. Ally so the transition was a little easier. She cried a lot, but her teachers would send me pictures throughout the day. They let Elaina make bracelets and pictures for mommy and daddy which helped her throughout the day. They are gentle, kind, caring and sensitive at head start. They are knowledgeable and well trained to work with children like my daughter.
They have more help with staff support for children who need extra one on one attention than a regular preschool. My 4-year-old is a completely different person today. She is open, talking nonstop, is comfortable taking her nap time, has made friends at Head Start, her teacher even does her crazy hair when I don’t have time in the morning with cute ponytails or braids. If we didn’t have Head Start to transition Elaina before kindergarten it would be a very scary thought for all of us.
