Frances Shefter is an Education Attorney and Advocate who is committed to helping her clients have a Stress-Free IEP experience. In each podcast, Frances interviews inspiring people to share information, educate you, empower you and help you get the knowledge you need.
In this episode of Stress-Free IEP™:
Frances speaks with Beth Hoch, Director of Early Childhood Education at Congregation Har Shalom.
VOICEOVER (⏱ 00:00:01): Welcome to Stress-Free IEP™. You do not need to do it all alone with your host Frances Shefter principle of Schefter law. She streams a show live on facebook on the last Tuesday of every month at noon eastern. Get more details and catch prior episodes at www.ShefterLaw.com. The Stress-Free IEP™ video podcast is also posted on YouTube and LinkedIn and you can listen to episodes through Apple podcasts, Spotify, Google podcasts, Stitcher and more. Now. Here’s the host of Stress-Free IEP™, Frances Shefter.
Frances Shefter (⏱ 00:00:45): Hello everyone and welcome to our show. I am so excited for my guest today Beth Hoch because as you all know, I say, the earlier services get put in place the better and Beth is the director of a preschool. So Beth go ahead and please introduce yourself.
Beth Hoch (⏱ 00:01:04): Absolutely. Thanks for having me. Today Frances. I am Beth Hoch, I’m a director of a small private preschool in Potomac and we have about 60 Children at our school. And one of the values that is most important to me at our school is that we are inclusive and have a diverse population. Um prior to coming to this center, I was a special education teacher in early childhood for 13 years in public schools in Plano, Texas and um Made the leap about 10 years ago when we moved to this area um, into their private preschool world. So at that time it was something that was really important to me to be able to carry my skills and my values into this private organization. Yeah.
Frances Shefter (⏱ 00:01:53): And I love it. You know, I love the preschool because there’s so many preschools that don’t have inclusion and they don’t work with the families and because the teachers don’t know or the teacher, you know, they just don’t know how to do it. And that’s what makes you all so special is that you work with the families and and make it a full inclusive. And I know we talked about this before, but like why is it so important for the family and the outside team to talk with you and the rest of the preschool when you have a child that has some special needs?
Beth Hoch (⏱ 00:02:23): Absolutely. We’re really looking at the whole child and all settings and when we’re collaborating with all the outside services, whether it be private therapy, the school district, um, involving the parents, um, any other character that might be involved when we’re, when we’re involved involving all of the stakeholders. Um, we’re on the same page. It’s so important that we’re all communicating. So we can make sure we’re supporting the child in the best way possible. We know that that early intervention is really key to achieving faster and better things sooner. And so, um, when we can collaborate, work as a team, we can communicate when we can have meetings together, support each other, be there to celebrate the successes and be there for the challenging times. That is when the most progress is going to be made for the child and when everyone on the team is going to feel supported, which is so important.
Frances Shefter (⏱ 00:03:18): That is so important. And then for the child also the consistency doing one form and then the therapist is doing it different and the home is doing different than the child is confused and …
Beth Hoch (⏱ 00:03:31): Absolutely, yeah. Those strategies and interventions need to be consistent, especially for the child to be able to generalize that to different settings. Sometimes something might happen first at home and we found out about the school and can support it. Um, and try to work on that scale at school. Sometimes the child begins doing something here at school that the parent may have not seen at home. So when we are communicating and collaborating and celebrating. Um, and just talking on a regular basis. We can make sure that we are on the same page for the child, which as you said is so important.
Frances Shefter (⏱ 00:04:04): Right? And so, um, do you, how do you, how else do you support Children within the school within your school when they have different, different abilities?
Beth Hoch (⏱ 00:04:16): Sure. So, you know, when parents apply to our program, one of the questions that we ask parents among many is does your child, have they identified special needs or learn differently? Have they ever received any outside services? Maybe through infants and toddlers or maybe through private therapy. And, and so sometimes they’re coming in the door. Um, we then we know that, you know, there might be some needs that we need to make sure we’re communicating and, and that we know about ahead of time, make sure we can serve. Sometimes the child comes in and um, it is not until they begin when we realize, you know what we’re seeing something that we want to explore further and that we want to talk to the parents about to see if they noticed it too. And sometimes it’s holding a parent’s hand through that process, um, together and figuring out what the best next step might be, how we do it in our school is through a supportive approach. You know, I share my background as a special education teacher and I believe that the classroom is made up of all kinds of diverse learners, even those that might not be identified as having um special needs or differing abilities and that the goal of the good teachers to reach the needs of all the Children in that classroom, whether it might be developmental social, emotional, um cognitive behavioral, you know, we have to address all all of the needs. And that’s the job of a good teacher. How do we do that? We do that through knowing the child to building a relationship with the family and the child. Um, and, and the support comes from me to my teachers. Um, the vast majority of my teachers, they’re not special education teachers by training. And so they know that I’m here to support them and give them the tools were very, very lucky in this last year, we’re just celebrating one year of having a new team member and that’s a director of curriculum and support services. And so her job is really to support the teachers and whether that maybe through visual aids, whether maybe it’s set in the classroom up in a different way, um um sitting in parent communication, working with collaborative partners, um observing and being able to give feedback. And so really, um, when all of those things are working together, myself and our support service specialist and the teachers, we really are able to provide that intervention. Sometimes we might say, you know what we, this is not in our skill set or we want to involve some outside therapist, let me make a call and see who else we might be able to to bring into the, to the team. Um, but for the, for the vast majority of situations were able to provide that support and help the family and the child make progress.
Frances Shefter (⏱ 00:06:58): That’s awesome. And so for I know there’s always a lot of um concern with Children with families that don’t have neuro diverse children. And if neuro diverse children are mixed into preschool, will that take away from their Children because of the extra need? How does that work and what do you do in the classroom when you do bring in neuro diverse Children.
Beth Hoch (⏱ 00:07:19): Absolutely. When we have a classroom that’s filled with a diverse group of Children, um, everybody benefits the child who might be neuro diverse or have different abilities, benefits in some ways. And what we might call the typically developing Children or Children who are not identifying some other needs um benefit because they are being brought up in an environment that shows them that the world is different the world, there are all kinds of learners, there are all kinds of people and there are people of all backgrounds, different families. We really look at how, you know, we’re all part of the same community, but more than that, we help the Children identify that we might have differences, but let’s focus on what we have the same. We both love trucks, we both love playing baby dolls or Magnatiles. We both wear glasses. We both, you know, live in Potomac, whatever might be, Let’s focus on those. Um, the things that are the same and that connect us and bring us together. And I’ve noticed, you know, especially in this model and we’ve been this starting my seventh year at, at the school that um, the Children become more caring, more compassionate, they want to be helpers. Um, we’ve had, we had a child in our school with some orthopedic impairments, um, due to a cancer diagnosis. Um, and the Children would rally around, they wanted to be the ones to get the walker to make sure that that child can access different parts of the playground to make sure that child was sitting at their table because they wanted to include him. So it really transforms the environment. Um and I say that those Children go off into the world, they go off into elementary school, being ambassadors for the neuro diverse community and and being more inclusive into the next, in the next place that they go, because they have a sense of comfort and knowledge from having Children of differing abilities in their classrooms here.
Frances Shefter (⏱ 00:9:15): You touched on something that I wanted to talk about also is that one of the things I loved about your school curriculum is that not forcing a child to say, I’m sorry because it’s an I’m sorry and instead teaching the Children of what can I do to make it better talk a little bit more about where that came from and how you use that in the classrooms.
Beth Hoch (⏱ 00:9:37): Absolutely. So I think it goes back from my time learning about love and logic from Drs Jim Fay and Charles Fay and it’s really about teaching the Children empathy and giving them control choices when when we teach the Children um empathy, we’re having them do some perspective taking when I do this, this is how my friend feels or my teacher or my parent, my sibling feels and we want them to be able to have that perspective taking to know that maybe they hurt a friend physically or made someone sad by something they did, or maybe a friend’s going through something that they want to be supportive. So when we help them identify the feelings and a lot of that might come from, just even from the time they’re toddlers looking at a face and what does it look like to be happy or excited or sad or scared and helping giving them the vocabulary of a social emotional vocabulary. And um so then when it’s time to, you know, I say that every um situation that happens as a teachable moment, right? So it’s not that we talk about having gentle hands in a book, that when we’re only talking about that one week of the year, now we talk about gentle hands all the time. You know, if someone’s pushing somebody or knock something down, that’s the teachable moment throughout the course of the day where we’re working on um the empathy, the perspective taking and the how can I make it better? Right? Sometimes it might be if a child is hurt, you know, giving them a band aid, do you want to get the ice pack? Do you want to offer them a hug? Um if they knock the building down, you want to ask them if they want help rebuilding it or maybe they want to be left alone because they’re sad and we have to respect that too. So I’m having them be the helpers um in those situations and being able to turn around what might have been not such a great situation into a more positive one. Um, is really the strategy that we use in all those teachable moments. Now, once they get to be four and five, those Children are understanding more about, I’m sorry. Um, and that sort of comes more organically, but we also want to make sure if they’re expressing that they’re using that word, they’re sorry, that they say why and how it made them feel and then what we wanna do next time to change it because we always have a do over, right, We always have a chance to restart. And that’s the message that we want to teach our Children,
Frances Shefter (⏱ 00:12:04): right? And I love that teaching them so young so that as they grow into adults. Um, and that goes back to like some of the things I talk about often in my videos is that when sometimes doctors or some other educators will say, oh wait and see catch up. Um, and I know, you know, I hate that because the earlier the child is identified that there’s something going on and get services.
Beth Hoch (⏱ 00:12:32): Absolutely. I mean it happens all the time. You know, the pediatrician’s work hard and they have a busy schedule and the day is packed. And so they only have a small snapshot of a child when they’re in that office for a well check or a sick visit. They’re not seeing them in their natural environment at home or in school. And so sometimes they’re not able to identify just because they don’t, they’re not seeing them in those settings or have that opportunity or maybe the child is not feeling well. And so, you know, and so, um, sometimes the, you know, we encourage parents to talk to the pediatrician about what we’re noticing here at school and what next steps can be taken because the earlier that we begin the services that you know, that the better it is for the child. And you know, that can be scary for some parents. You know, a parent might say, oh yeah, I don’t want, they don’t need that. I don’t want that. We don’t want that label or the identification. And I really try to work with the families too, have them set that aside and let’s just focus on what, what’s difficult for your child right now that that and how can we help them do that. And um, sometimes it’s, you know, it can be harder for some parents to um be as agreeable because there, I think there’s a sense of discomfort and they’re scared. They just, it’s unknown. But when we build that trusting relationship with the parent and they know that we care and we’re on their side and their child side. Um, we’re gonna hold their hand through this process, um, that that goes along, that goes a long way.
Frances Shefter (⏱ 00:14:06): Yeah, it is definitely scary And I know for a lot of us of the older generation, you know, back when I went to school, I remember it was like the special ed kids in the back and so, you know, we grew up with like it was a shame to be of, you didn’t want to be labeled and and the kids couldn’t go to college and all of that. But these days, I mean colleges all have disability offices and and there’s ways of getting through and getting um getting the supports that you might need.
Beth Hoch (⏱ 00:14:33): Absolutely. I mean, so many of our Children, I would say they might be dismissed from services before they go to kindergarten or in elementary school. And so by the time they’re in high school doing calculus and physics and, you know, AP english those services so long ago, but having put those, those supports into place helped get them to where they needed to be, where they were, where they were at that time.
Frances Shefter (⏱ 00:14:57): Right? And teach teaching the skills earlier. So they don’t develop the bad habits because I’ve seen that happen also is that Children that don’t get identified early for whatever reason, um have modified their behavior, their, you know, however, it might be to overcome things and then sometimes the bad habits, it’s harder to go back and unti church to teach the right skills.
Beth Hoch (⏱ 00:15:24): Yeah, absolutely. Um right, we’ve been in that situation before. I I think it happened more when I was teaching Children that were a little bit older than our young preschoolers, um, for the vast majority of times when we can get that early intervention in place here. We’re seeing progress, um, pretty pretty quickly. Yeah,
Frances Shefter (⏱ 00:15:47): I know. I mean, my older daughter was speech delayed and I remember, you know, somebody said, oh, she’s still a little young and I’m again, no, I’m getting identified now. And we put, you know, the language because she was expressive language and we put that in place. It’s, you know, through the county plus we did private and then her expressive language just exploded.
Beth Hoch (⏱ 00:16:07): Yeah. Sometimes, you know, they, so a family might be going through infants and toddlers or the county and the child might not qualify for services in the county because they don’t have enough an impact. That doesn’t mean that the family can’t access private services. So sometimes it’s, yeah, they don’t qualify for the county. But you know what, if we can get those private services in place, um, that’s still important. And if it’s doable, let’s, let’s, let’s get that going.
Frances Shefter (⏱ 00:16:36): Yeah, definitely. Because it’s, it’s the education part that is sometimes difficult to get, or to argue the atypicality of it. Um, you know, ineligibility. It can be a challenge. And that’s why I always, I often tell parents to reach out to talk to an advocate or an attorney because there are ways that we can sometimes find Children eligible that um, the schools might not always find, I want to talk more about the curriculum you do at your school. Uh, and why it’s why you feel it’s the best curriculum in the environment.
Beth Hoch (⏱ 00:17:12): Sure. So in a more traditional early childhood setting, uh, a teacher has all the knowledge and they’re imparting it to all of the Children and the Children are receiving all of the information in this more progressive style of education and more of an emergent curriculum. We see the Children as co collaborators in the learning. Um, the environment in the classroom is set up as an invitation for learning. Let me give you an example of what that might look like. Um, perhaps in the classroom, in a, in a two or three classroom, they’re learning about farm animals. And the first day that the child comes in, there might be some small world play, which is maybe a bin filled with some mud and a gate and a little farmhouse and, and um animals and the Children were able to create this farm scene and that’s even before the, the teacher might introduce, you know, we’re learning about farm animals. So the Children are curious where this come from, What’s going on. You know, maybe the teachers planted some books in the library around their classroom on farm animals, maybe farm animals and hay bales were added to the block center. Um, all of this before um, that the teacher might introduce it sparks the learning gets the Children curious and asking questions, we want the child to ask questions. And and sometimes a teacher might have the information or, and they still might say, I don’t know, what do you think about that? Where can we learn more? And so let’s help the child learn that they are an important part of the learning process, whether that’s looking it up together, finding some books, doing some research. Um, and so, you know, the Children, the Children really thrive when the environment is set up in a more emergent way and the Children are co constructors in the knowledge. And so that doesn’t mean the teachers are not going to read a story or introduce a concept, but when we’re thinking about the big picture of all the different activities and learning and experiences, we want that to become in a more constructive emergent way.
Frances Shefter (⏱ 00:19:19): Right? I love that because it’s that curiosity at a young age and love of learning to learn more. And you get that when the child is young, I don’t think it ever goes away.
Beth Hoch (⏱ 00:19:30): Absolutely. This is um there we, we want to create that spark and that joy for learning, whether it’s reading the books are asking questions or discovering things. Um we have an incredible steam program that’s our science technology, engineering, arts and math and we, the teacher of that program says her classroom is all about the forces, collaboration, creativity, critical thinking and communication. Those are life skills. Right? And so the life skills, the social emotional foundation happens in early childhood. If we send a child to kindergarten, they know all the A. B. CS and are doing addition and subtraction, but they can’t sit still or be a good friend or communicator problem solve or persist with a challenging task. Then we were not successful and we’re not, we’re not giving them the right the right foundation. So we really believe our values and the way that we approach education, um, sets the Children up for success now and later in life.
Frances Shefter (⏱ 00:20:27): That’s not true. I love that because I know um, especially here in Maryland in Montgomery county how expectations of Children on the learning, you know, court um, concepts and stuff has gotten a lot, a lot more difficult. So the kids are even younger ages and you know, people are like bye kids in kindergarten and they don’t know their letters yet or they can’t read yet and it’s like, but how are they as a kid? How are they as a human being?
Beth Hoch (⏱ 00:20:56): Absolutely yes. That’s, that’s so important. When I tour family families at our school, I make it very clear that we um, believe that social emotional foundation and communication piece is the most important piece of early childhood and so right. So many parents in the county come in is my child is going to be ready for kindergarten. They’re worried, they know that kindergarten looks so different today than they did when they went to school or even maybe five or 10 years ago. And when they see the Children coming home with these new skills and um, in a more organic way, when they see the Children, um, being able to do so many of the um, kindergarten readiness skills. Um, but all in a play based way they’re amazed and um, time after time they come back and say thank you, my child was ready for kindergarten and you were right. The most important part was that they could sit and attend and focus and communicate and collaborate and still disappointment. There’s so many important social emotional skills that we will work on throughout the course of the day.
Frances Shefter (⏱ 00:21:59): And I say that often is that the social emotional and the, you know, being able to be in a classroom and communicate with friends and have that interaction, it’s not something you can really teach later on, you know, like because you get set in your ways, if you don’t know how to collaborate and then other things get in the way, it’s hard. Whereas when you grow up doing it from the age two or three.
Beth Hoch (⏱ 00:22:24): Absolutely. And that doesn’t still, we see Children who um, might have, you know, difficulty with that, right though, the social emotional skills, maybe we’re in a different timeline in their development than than other Children in the class, but when we look at, you know, the antioxidants for why that’s hap and put, you know, what’s what’s what’s the function of different behaviors and and how how do we meet the needs of the child and how do we give them that skills and unpeeled those layers? Um we can help them make the progress in those social emotional skills and a timeline that um that works for them, right?
Frances Shefter (⏱ 00:23:01): Which is also important with our neuro diverse Children, is it doesn’t matter. I hate a lot of times, and like the parent groups on facebook and stuff, they’re like, my child’s not walking yet, or my child’s not speaking yet, and that’s okay, You know, like relax, let your child develop at your child’s pace. Put supports in place if necessary, but slow down.
Beth Hoch (⏱ 00:23:26): right? Yes. Yes, we do a lot of um talking about that, each child develops in their own time and we want to get them an upward trajectory and as long as we’re moving in and in that direction, um we’re doing the right thing. That doesn’t mean sometimes there might be a little blip and we have to take two steps back to take three steps forward, but what we do is we support the family and the child through that process and um continue to move forward and keep it positive, Keep it positive, there’s gonna be bumps in the road, they’re gonna be things that are really challenging for your child, whether they are neuro diverse or not. But when you lower the pressure, when you put the supports in place and when you love them and believe in them and support them, they’re gonna get there.
Frances Shefter (⏱ 00:24:15): Okay, that’s so true. It’s so important. Um, talk to me a little more about like your teachers and how they support, like I know you said that you are have the special education background, um, how are your teachers, you know, within this environment and knowledge of maybe seeing or identifying issues?
Beth Hoch (⏱ 00:24:38): So I would say that, you know, all of our lead teachers and the vast majority of our associate and assistant teachers have been working with Children for a long time. And so, um, even if they don’t have a degree in special education, they’re able to identify when something looks a little different or when a child might be not quite where they, you know, other Children might be. And so we just do observing, especially at the beginning of the year, that’s the time when everybody’s adjusting to the situation. And there could be bumps in the road, right? We have to develop community. Everyone has to learn the rules and the expectations and the routines of the day. And, you know, after quite a bit of observation, we’re looking at maybe 6 to 8 weeks depending on the child. Um, you know, we’re sort of, if we’re not seeing the progress where the teachers would expect, then we’re gonna start to talk about some interventions and some more communication in place. So, so they’re able to generally identify in those different developmental areas, fine and gross motor skills, the social emotional development though, um self help skills, the cognitive or pre academic skills, they’re really able to see, you know what I think this is an area that they could use more support. And so sometimes the teacher has such a wealth of knowledge and they’re already putting modification that in combination strategies in place. Are there times that might be consulting with our support to? Super first support service specialist myself and say, hey, can you come in and take a look now, my support service specialist and I were in the classrooms every day throughout the course of the day. So we have a good buzz of what’s going on, which is so important for a director. But um really being able to dive a little bit deeper when the Children are around with the teachers about what they’re observing and what strategies they put in place and um is really important and bringing the parents in right openly communicating with parents about something that we’re seeing that we want to make sure that they know we are targeting this area because, you know, we see that they need a little bit more help in this area or perhaps it’s a conversation of, you know, needing those outside services. Um, a lot of times. I use social stories for many of our Children and so myself or my colleague will make social stories not only for Children on the spectrum, but for Children of all abilities, even Children who we might not consider in our divers that are just having difficulty adapting and learning a situation. And so, um, we use a lot of digital books that we customize for Children to help them through difficult situations. So sometimes that help comes naturally through what the teacher’s knowledge, sometimes it comes in with us meeting and providing more support and talked about those visuals or classrooms set up or providing some different breaks or sensory what, you know, what does the child need and how are we going to put that into place? So there’s ongoing communication. Um, an ongoing celebration of the progress and ongoing talk about what’s working and what’s not working and what we need to tweak.
Frances Shefter (⏱ 00:27:48): I love that the social stories I know when my daughter was attending the school that when Covid hit how you wrote those books and did those pictures and did the masks and without the mask, so that, you know, it was so amazing. I was like, wow, school directors do this, which I’m assuming. No,
Beth Hoch (⏱ 00:28:05): I think it’s something, I think it’s something special, but it’s something that really is important to me because it gives the Children and the parents a sense of comfort when they know what’s coming and um, and what the expectations are. So I I really love using them for all Children.
Frances Shefter (⏱ 00:28:23): Yeah. So, um that brings me to, so I know you’re in Potomac in Montgomery county Maryland. What are some things like, do you have some advice for parents when they’re looking for preschool? Sure. What kind of questions should they ask?
Beth Hoch (⏱ 00:28:37): Great question. What kind of question….Talk a little bit about, let’s talk about the teachers first and the director. Um What kind of experience that the teachers have? Um Well, I’m gonna put my hat on as a parent with a child who’s been identified as having being our diverse, having a special lady. I’m gonna put that hat on. So, if I’m that parent and going to tour schools, I’m gonna be saying. Um What kind of experience do you have as a director? What supports do you have in place? What what what is that, what what information do the teachers have about helping support a child who has sensory issues or who might have have some social emotional um delays and finding out what have they had Children in their school who have had delays in this area. Um Can you talk to other parents in the school who have um who can be like recommendations for how that school worked with that family in that child. That’s really important. I always say that the best recommendation I can get is a happy parent who’s referred another parent to our school and who knows about our services. So I think that’s really important observing, um, going to the school and covid were coming out to a place where now parents are getting back to in person tours, um, observing what is the classroom look like? Are their visual aids in the classroom? Is the classroom set up in an organized way? Are things labeled? Um, are their routines in place? Um, are their classroom, are the classroom expectations? Um, known to the Children seem happy? Is their laughter? Um, what’s that affect or in the, the looking at the teacher and their disposition? Right. Happy teacher means happy Children. Um, is it a joyful place? Um, and the Children seem like they want to be there. Those are, I think really all important things. And of course looking at the big picture, if you’re looking for, you know, a school that has, you know, the religious peace or that might have, you know, what other specialty you’re looking for. Um, I think, you know, it’s important to have that discussion, but if I have my hat on as that parent, I want to really be able to see things in action here about the supports and communicate with, uh, with parents who have been through that school. Yeah,
Frances Shefter (⏱ 00:30:54): I love that you focused on the teachers in the school because one of the things I know that’s so important is to talk to the director and so, you know, I know your preschool is so phenomenal because of you, like, you’re behind it because you do the hiring, you do the curriculum, you make sure that everything is the way it’s supposed to be and your hands on, like you said, you’re in the classroom every day. I know there’s other preschools that directors don’t do that.
Beth Hoch (⏱ 00:31:22): and I think that’s something that our teachers really feel good about that. It is supportive place, not only for the child and for the parents, but from myself to them and the child and the parents. Um, and when the teachers feel supported, um, they’re able to do their job better and then there and when they have the knowledge, right. So many of our teachers don’t come with that special education background and they are forthcoming and say that I don’t have the training to, um, you know, I don’t know anything about this need or that need. And a lot of times it’s, let’s sit and talk, let me, let me educate you hear some things we can put in place or you might not even know you’re doing these things already for other Children that can benefit this child. Um, and as I said, sometimes it’s bringing in some outside services, I, you know, we’re a private school setting. And so I really want to continue for our school to be a place that neural diverse learners can be, but I understand that we’re not a public school and that sometimes we’re not the best fit for every family because just because of the support we may or may not be able to provide. But if we can provide it, if we can put those um, supports in place, if the parents are collaborators and if and we can make the magic formula come together, it makes my heart sing for the child and for our school,
Frances Shefter (⏱ 00:32:42): right? And I love that you say that because you’re fabulous, amazing school. Um, but it might not be the right fit for somebody, which doesn’t mean your school’s bad or anything. It’s just not the right fit. And I know that especially, I mean throughout Children’s lives, placement is so important. Um, and the environment they’re in. So tell me more how people can get in touch with you, tell me about your school, if you feel comfortable going, you know, telling the name of your school and everything and
Beth Hoch (⏱ 00:33:11): absolutely thank you. So, so I am the early childhood director, Har Shalom. Our school is the Sherman early childhood center were located inside Har Shalom synagogue here in potomac. Um, if people want to get in touch with me. Um, my email is bhoch@harshalom.org . But also let me give you a website. Um, you can learn all about our school on our website and my contact information is there on our website is www.shermanecc.org. We have a wonderful school community. We welcome Children of all faiths and all backgrounds, all kinds of families and our diverse learners to be part of our school. That’s really important. We celebrate that the diversity in our school. And so if you’re looking for a school and we sound like we might be a match, I encourage you to reach out to me, email me, give me a call and let’s set up a time to talk.
Frances Shefter (⏱ 00:34:06): I love that. Thank you so much. Beth I loved having you on the show. And if you loved hearing Beth you can reach out to her, talk to her about her preschool. And um, don’t forget to subscribe below to my show so that you can see when I have future guests. And if you have any ideas for future guests, please feel free to throw them in the comments and I will see what I can do about getting them. Have a great day, everyone.
VOICEOVER (⏱ 00:34:32): You’ve been listening to Stress-Free IEP™:. With your host Frances Shefter. Remembe,r you do not need to do it all alone. You can reach Frances through ShefterLaw.com. Where prior episodes are also posted. Thank you for your positive reviews, comments and sharing the show with others through YouTube LinkedIn, Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and more
Stress-Free IEP™ with Frances Shefter and Beth Hoch (video podcast)
Stress-Free IEP™:
Frances Shefter is an Education Attorney and Advocate who is committed to helping her clients have a Stress-Free IEP experience. In each podcast, Frances interviews inspiring people to share information, educate you, empower you and help you get the knowledge you need.
In this episode of Stress-Free IEP™:
Frances speaks with Beth Hoch, Director of Early Childhood Education at Congregation Har Shalom.
Connect with and learn more from Beth Hoch:
bhoch@harshalom.org
https://www.linkedin.com/in/bethhoch/
https://www.shermanecc.org/
Watch more episodes of Stress-Free IEP™:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCff0foIeCETrWbtsQSDwckQ
Connect and learn more from your host, Frances Shefter:
shefterlaw.com/#contact-me
Shefterlaw.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/francesshefter/
Read the full transcript:
VOICEOVER (⏱ 00:00:01): Welcome to Stress-Free IEP™. You do not need to do it all alone with your host Frances Shefter principle of Schefter law. She streams a show live on facebook on the last Tuesday of every month at noon eastern. Get more details and catch prior episodes at www.ShefterLaw.com. The Stress-Free IEP™ video podcast is also posted on YouTube and LinkedIn and you can listen to episodes through Apple podcasts, Spotify, Google podcasts, Stitcher and more. Now. Here’s the host of Stress-Free IEP™, Frances Shefter.
Frances Shefter (⏱ 00:00:45): Hello everyone and welcome to our show. I am so excited for my guest today Beth Hoch because as you all know, I say, the earlier services get put in place the better and Beth is the director of a preschool. So Beth go ahead and please introduce yourself.
Beth Hoch (⏱ 00:01:04): Absolutely. Thanks for having me. Today Frances. I am Beth Hoch, I’m a director of a small private preschool in Potomac and we have about 60 Children at our school. And one of the values that is most important to me at our school is that we are inclusive and have a diverse population. Um prior to coming to this center, I was a special education teacher in early childhood for 13 years in public schools in Plano, Texas and um Made the leap about 10 years ago when we moved to this area um, into their private preschool world. So at that time it was something that was really important to me to be able to carry my skills and my values into this private organization. Yeah.
Frances Shefter (⏱ 00:01:53): And I love it. You know, I love the preschool because there’s so many preschools that don’t have inclusion and they don’t work with the families and because the teachers don’t know or the teacher, you know, they just don’t know how to do it. And that’s what makes you all so special is that you work with the families and and make it a full inclusive. And I know we talked about this before, but like why is it so important for the family and the outside team to talk with you and the rest of the preschool when you have a child that has some special needs?
Beth Hoch (⏱ 00:02:23): Absolutely. We’re really looking at the whole child and all settings and when we’re collaborating with all the outside services, whether it be private therapy, the school district, um, involving the parents, um, any other character that might be involved when we’re, when we’re involved involving all of the stakeholders. Um, we’re on the same page. It’s so important that we’re all communicating. So we can make sure we’re supporting the child in the best way possible. We know that that early intervention is really key to achieving faster and better things sooner. And so, um, when we can collaborate, work as a team, we can communicate when we can have meetings together, support each other, be there to celebrate the successes and be there for the challenging times. That is when the most progress is going to be made for the child and when everyone on the team is going to feel supported, which is so important.
Frances Shefter (⏱ 00:03:18): That is so important. And then for the child also the consistency doing one form and then the therapist is doing it different and the home is doing different than the child is confused and …
Beth Hoch (⏱ 00:03:31): Absolutely, yeah. Those strategies and interventions need to be consistent, especially for the child to be able to generalize that to different settings. Sometimes something might happen first at home and we found out about the school and can support it. Um, and try to work on that scale at school. Sometimes the child begins doing something here at school that the parent may have not seen at home. So when we are communicating and collaborating and celebrating. Um, and just talking on a regular basis. We can make sure that we are on the same page for the child, which as you said is so important.
Frances Shefter (⏱ 00:04:04): Right? And so, um, do you, how do you, how else do you support Children within the school within your school when they have different, different abilities?
Beth Hoch (⏱ 00:04:16): Sure. So, you know, when parents apply to our program, one of the questions that we ask parents among many is does your child, have they identified special needs or learn differently? Have they ever received any outside services? Maybe through infants and toddlers or maybe through private therapy. And, and so sometimes they’re coming in the door. Um, we then we know that, you know, there might be some needs that we need to make sure we’re communicating and, and that we know about ahead of time, make sure we can serve. Sometimes the child comes in and um, it is not until they begin when we realize, you know what we’re seeing something that we want to explore further and that we want to talk to the parents about to see if they noticed it too. And sometimes it’s holding a parent’s hand through that process, um, together and figuring out what the best next step might be, how we do it in our school is through a supportive approach. You know, I share my background as a special education teacher and I believe that the classroom is made up of all kinds of diverse learners, even those that might not be identified as having um special needs or differing abilities and that the goal of the good teachers to reach the needs of all the Children in that classroom, whether it might be developmental social, emotional, um cognitive behavioral, you know, we have to address all all of the needs. And that’s the job of a good teacher. How do we do that? We do that through knowing the child to building a relationship with the family and the child. Um, and, and the support comes from me to my teachers. Um, the vast majority of my teachers, they’re not special education teachers by training. And so they know that I’m here to support them and give them the tools were very, very lucky in this last year, we’re just celebrating one year of having a new team member and that’s a director of curriculum and support services. And so her job is really to support the teachers and whether that maybe through visual aids, whether maybe it’s set in the classroom up in a different way, um um sitting in parent communication, working with collaborative partners, um observing and being able to give feedback. And so really, um, when all of those things are working together, myself and our support service specialist and the teachers, we really are able to provide that intervention. Sometimes we might say, you know what we, this is not in our skill set or we want to involve some outside therapist, let me make a call and see who else we might be able to to bring into the, to the team. Um, but for the, for the vast majority of situations were able to provide that support and help the family and the child make progress.
Frances Shefter (⏱ 00:06:58): That’s awesome. And so for I know there’s always a lot of um concern with Children with families that don’t have neuro diverse children. And if neuro diverse children are mixed into preschool, will that take away from their Children because of the extra need? How does that work and what do you do in the classroom when you do bring in neuro diverse Children.
Beth Hoch (⏱ 00:07:19): Absolutely. When we have a classroom that’s filled with a diverse group of Children, um, everybody benefits the child who might be neuro diverse or have different abilities, benefits in some ways. And what we might call the typically developing Children or Children who are not identifying some other needs um benefit because they are being brought up in an environment that shows them that the world is different the world, there are all kinds of learners, there are all kinds of people and there are people of all backgrounds, different families. We really look at how, you know, we’re all part of the same community, but more than that, we help the Children identify that we might have differences, but let’s focus on what we have the same. We both love trucks, we both love playing baby dolls or Magnatiles. We both wear glasses. We both, you know, live in Potomac, whatever might be, Let’s focus on those. Um, the things that are the same and that connect us and bring us together. And I’ve noticed, you know, especially in this model and we’ve been this starting my seventh year at, at the school that um, the Children become more caring, more compassionate, they want to be helpers. Um, we’ve had, we had a child in our school with some orthopedic impairments, um, due to a cancer diagnosis. Um, and the Children would rally around, they wanted to be the ones to get the walker to make sure that that child can access different parts of the playground to make sure that child was sitting at their table because they wanted to include him. So it really transforms the environment. Um and I say that those Children go off into the world, they go off into elementary school, being ambassadors for the neuro diverse community and and being more inclusive into the next, in the next place that they go, because they have a sense of comfort and knowledge from having Children of differing abilities in their classrooms here.
Frances Shefter (⏱ 00:9:15): You touched on something that I wanted to talk about also is that one of the things I loved about your school curriculum is that not forcing a child to say, I’m sorry because it’s an I’m sorry and instead teaching the Children of what can I do to make it better talk a little bit more about where that came from and how you use that in the classrooms.
Beth Hoch (⏱ 00:9:37): Absolutely. So I think it goes back from my time learning about love and logic from Drs Jim Fay and Charles Fay and it’s really about teaching the Children empathy and giving them control choices when when we teach the Children um empathy, we’re having them do some perspective taking when I do this, this is how my friend feels or my teacher or my parent, my sibling feels and we want them to be able to have that perspective taking to know that maybe they hurt a friend physically or made someone sad by something they did, or maybe a friend’s going through something that they want to be supportive. So when we help them identify the feelings and a lot of that might come from, just even from the time they’re toddlers looking at a face and what does it look like to be happy or excited or sad or scared and helping giving them the vocabulary of a social emotional vocabulary. And um so then when it’s time to, you know, I say that every um situation that happens as a teachable moment, right? So it’s not that we talk about having gentle hands in a book, that when we’re only talking about that one week of the year, now we talk about gentle hands all the time. You know, if someone’s pushing somebody or knock something down, that’s the teachable moment throughout the course of the day where we’re working on um the empathy, the perspective taking and the how can I make it better? Right? Sometimes it might be if a child is hurt, you know, giving them a band aid, do you want to get the ice pack? Do you want to offer them a hug? Um if they knock the building down, you want to ask them if they want help rebuilding it or maybe they want to be left alone because they’re sad and we have to respect that too. So I’m having them be the helpers um in those situations and being able to turn around what might have been not such a great situation into a more positive one. Um, is really the strategy that we use in all those teachable moments. Now, once they get to be four and five, those Children are understanding more about, I’m sorry. Um, and that sort of comes more organically, but we also want to make sure if they’re expressing that they’re using that word, they’re sorry, that they say why and how it made them feel and then what we wanna do next time to change it because we always have a do over, right, We always have a chance to restart. And that’s the message that we want to teach our Children,
Frances Shefter (⏱ 00:12:04): right? And I love that teaching them so young so that as they grow into adults. Um, and that goes back to like some of the things I talk about often in my videos is that when sometimes doctors or some other educators will say, oh wait and see catch up. Um, and I know, you know, I hate that because the earlier the child is identified that there’s something going on and get services.
Beth Hoch (⏱ 00:12:32): Absolutely. I mean it happens all the time. You know, the pediatrician’s work hard and they have a busy schedule and the day is packed. And so they only have a small snapshot of a child when they’re in that office for a well check or a sick visit. They’re not seeing them in their natural environment at home or in school. And so sometimes they’re not able to identify just because they don’t, they’re not seeing them in those settings or have that opportunity or maybe the child is not feeling well. And so, you know, and so, um, sometimes the, you know, we encourage parents to talk to the pediatrician about what we’re noticing here at school and what next steps can be taken because the earlier that we begin the services that you know, that the better it is for the child. And you know, that can be scary for some parents. You know, a parent might say, oh yeah, I don’t want, they don’t need that. I don’t want that. We don’t want that label or the identification. And I really try to work with the families too, have them set that aside and let’s just focus on what, what’s difficult for your child right now that that and how can we help them do that. And um, sometimes it’s, you know, it can be harder for some parents to um be as agreeable because there, I think there’s a sense of discomfort and they’re scared. They just, it’s unknown. But when we build that trusting relationship with the parent and they know that we care and we’re on their side and their child side. Um, we’re gonna hold their hand through this process, um, that that goes along, that goes a long way.
Frances Shefter (⏱ 00:14:06): Yeah, it is definitely scary And I know for a lot of us of the older generation, you know, back when I went to school, I remember it was like the special ed kids in the back and so, you know, we grew up with like it was a shame to be of, you didn’t want to be labeled and and the kids couldn’t go to college and all of that. But these days, I mean colleges all have disability offices and and there’s ways of getting through and getting um getting the supports that you might need.
Beth Hoch (⏱ 00:14:33): Absolutely. I mean, so many of our Children, I would say they might be dismissed from services before they go to kindergarten or in elementary school. And so by the time they’re in high school doing calculus and physics and, you know, AP english those services so long ago, but having put those, those supports into place helped get them to where they needed to be, where they were, where they were at that time.
Frances Shefter (⏱ 00:14:57): Right? And teach teaching the skills earlier. So they don’t develop the bad habits because I’ve seen that happen also is that Children that don’t get identified early for whatever reason, um have modified their behavior, their, you know, however, it might be to overcome things and then sometimes the bad habits, it’s harder to go back and unti church to teach the right skills.
Beth Hoch (⏱ 00:15:24): Yeah, absolutely. Um right, we’ve been in that situation before. I I think it happened more when I was teaching Children that were a little bit older than our young preschoolers, um, for the vast majority of times when we can get that early intervention in place here. We’re seeing progress, um, pretty pretty quickly. Yeah,
Frances Shefter (⏱ 00:15:47): I know. I mean, my older daughter was speech delayed and I remember, you know, somebody said, oh, she’s still a little young and I’m again, no, I’m getting identified now. And we put, you know, the language because she was expressive language and we put that in place. It’s, you know, through the county plus we did private and then her expressive language just exploded.
Beth Hoch (⏱ 00:16:07): Yeah. Sometimes, you know, they, so a family might be going through infants and toddlers or the county and the child might not qualify for services in the county because they don’t have enough an impact. That doesn’t mean that the family can’t access private services. So sometimes it’s, yeah, they don’t qualify for the county. But you know what, if we can get those private services in place, um, that’s still important. And if it’s doable, let’s, let’s, let’s get that going.
Frances Shefter (⏱ 00:16:36): Yeah, definitely. Because it’s, it’s the education part that is sometimes difficult to get, or to argue the atypicality of it. Um, you know, ineligibility. It can be a challenge. And that’s why I always, I often tell parents to reach out to talk to an advocate or an attorney because there are ways that we can sometimes find Children eligible that um, the schools might not always find, I want to talk more about the curriculum you do at your school. Uh, and why it’s why you feel it’s the best curriculum in the environment.
Beth Hoch (⏱ 00:17:12): Sure. So in a more traditional early childhood setting, uh, a teacher has all the knowledge and they’re imparting it to all of the Children and the Children are receiving all of the information in this more progressive style of education and more of an emergent curriculum. We see the Children as co collaborators in the learning. Um, the environment in the classroom is set up as an invitation for learning. Let me give you an example of what that might look like. Um, perhaps in the classroom, in a, in a two or three classroom, they’re learning about farm animals. And the first day that the child comes in, there might be some small world play, which is maybe a bin filled with some mud and a gate and a little farmhouse and, and um animals and the Children were able to create this farm scene and that’s even before the, the teacher might introduce, you know, we’re learning about farm animals. So the Children are curious where this come from, What’s going on. You know, maybe the teachers planted some books in the library around their classroom on farm animals, maybe farm animals and hay bales were added to the block center. Um, all of this before um, that the teacher might introduce it sparks the learning gets the Children curious and asking questions, we want the child to ask questions. And and sometimes a teacher might have the information or, and they still might say, I don’t know, what do you think about that? Where can we learn more? And so let’s help the child learn that they are an important part of the learning process, whether that’s looking it up together, finding some books, doing some research. Um, and so, you know, the Children, the Children really thrive when the environment is set up in a more emergent way and the Children are co constructors in the knowledge. And so that doesn’t mean the teachers are not going to read a story or introduce a concept, but when we’re thinking about the big picture of all the different activities and learning and experiences, we want that to become in a more constructive emergent way.
Frances Shefter (⏱ 00:19:19): Right? I love that because it’s that curiosity at a young age and love of learning to learn more. And you get that when the child is young, I don’t think it ever goes away.
Beth Hoch (⏱ 00:19:30): Absolutely. This is um there we, we want to create that spark and that joy for learning, whether it’s reading the books are asking questions or discovering things. Um we have an incredible steam program that’s our science technology, engineering, arts and math and we, the teacher of that program says her classroom is all about the forces, collaboration, creativity, critical thinking and communication. Those are life skills. Right? And so the life skills, the social emotional foundation happens in early childhood. If we send a child to kindergarten, they know all the A. B. CS and are doing addition and subtraction, but they can’t sit still or be a good friend or communicator problem solve or persist with a challenging task. Then we were not successful and we’re not, we’re not giving them the right the right foundation. So we really believe our values and the way that we approach education, um, sets the Children up for success now and later in life.
Frances Shefter (⏱ 00:20:27): That’s not true. I love that because I know um, especially here in Maryland in Montgomery county how expectations of Children on the learning, you know, court um, concepts and stuff has gotten a lot, a lot more difficult. So the kids are even younger ages and you know, people are like bye kids in kindergarten and they don’t know their letters yet or they can’t read yet and it’s like, but how are they as a kid? How are they as a human being?
Beth Hoch (⏱ 00:20:56): Absolutely yes. That’s, that’s so important. When I tour family families at our school, I make it very clear that we um, believe that social emotional foundation and communication piece is the most important piece of early childhood and so right. So many parents in the county come in is my child is going to be ready for kindergarten. They’re worried, they know that kindergarten looks so different today than they did when they went to school or even maybe five or 10 years ago. And when they see the Children coming home with these new skills and um, in a more organic way, when they see the Children, um, being able to do so many of the um, kindergarten readiness skills. Um, but all in a play based way they’re amazed and um, time after time they come back and say thank you, my child was ready for kindergarten and you were right. The most important part was that they could sit and attend and focus and communicate and collaborate and still disappointment. There’s so many important social emotional skills that we will work on throughout the course of the day.
Frances Shefter (⏱ 00:21:59): And I say that often is that the social emotional and the, you know, being able to be in a classroom and communicate with friends and have that interaction, it’s not something you can really teach later on, you know, like because you get set in your ways, if you don’t know how to collaborate and then other things get in the way, it’s hard. Whereas when you grow up doing it from the age two or three.
Beth Hoch (⏱ 00:22:24): Absolutely. And that doesn’t still, we see Children who um, might have, you know, difficulty with that, right though, the social emotional skills, maybe we’re in a different timeline in their development than than other Children in the class, but when we look at, you know, the antioxidants for why that’s hap and put, you know, what’s what’s what’s the function of different behaviors and and how how do we meet the needs of the child and how do we give them that skills and unpeeled those layers? Um we can help them make the progress in those social emotional skills and a timeline that um that works for them, right?
Frances Shefter (⏱ 00:23:01): Which is also important with our neuro diverse Children, is it doesn’t matter. I hate a lot of times, and like the parent groups on facebook and stuff, they’re like, my child’s not walking yet, or my child’s not speaking yet, and that’s okay, You know, like relax, let your child develop at your child’s pace. Put supports in place if necessary, but slow down.
Beth Hoch (⏱ 00:23:26): right? Yes. Yes, we do a lot of um talking about that, each child develops in their own time and we want to get them an upward trajectory and as long as we’re moving in and in that direction, um we’re doing the right thing. That doesn’t mean sometimes there might be a little blip and we have to take two steps back to take three steps forward, but what we do is we support the family and the child through that process and um continue to move forward and keep it positive, Keep it positive, there’s gonna be bumps in the road, they’re gonna be things that are really challenging for your child, whether they are neuro diverse or not. But when you lower the pressure, when you put the supports in place and when you love them and believe in them and support them, they’re gonna get there.
Frances Shefter (⏱ 00:24:15): Okay, that’s so true. It’s so important. Um, talk to me a little more about like your teachers and how they support, like I know you said that you are have the special education background, um, how are your teachers, you know, within this environment and knowledge of maybe seeing or identifying issues?
Beth Hoch (⏱ 00:24:38): So I would say that, you know, all of our lead teachers and the vast majority of our associate and assistant teachers have been working with Children for a long time. And so, um, even if they don’t have a degree in special education, they’re able to identify when something looks a little different or when a child might be not quite where they, you know, other Children might be. And so we just do observing, especially at the beginning of the year, that’s the time when everybody’s adjusting to the situation. And there could be bumps in the road, right? We have to develop community. Everyone has to learn the rules and the expectations and the routines of the day. And, you know, after quite a bit of observation, we’re looking at maybe 6 to 8 weeks depending on the child. Um, you know, we’re sort of, if we’re not seeing the progress where the teachers would expect, then we’re gonna start to talk about some interventions and some more communication in place. So, so they’re able to generally identify in those different developmental areas, fine and gross motor skills, the social emotional development though, um self help skills, the cognitive or pre academic skills, they’re really able to see, you know what I think this is an area that they could use more support. And so sometimes the teacher has such a wealth of knowledge and they’re already putting modification that in combination strategies in place. Are there times that might be consulting with our support to? Super first support service specialist myself and say, hey, can you come in and take a look now, my support service specialist and I were in the classrooms every day throughout the course of the day. So we have a good buzz of what’s going on, which is so important for a director. But um really being able to dive a little bit deeper when the Children are around with the teachers about what they’re observing and what strategies they put in place and um is really important and bringing the parents in right openly communicating with parents about something that we’re seeing that we want to make sure that they know we are targeting this area because, you know, we see that they need a little bit more help in this area or perhaps it’s a conversation of, you know, needing those outside services. Um, a lot of times. I use social stories for many of our Children and so myself or my colleague will make social stories not only for Children on the spectrum, but for Children of all abilities, even Children who we might not consider in our divers that are just having difficulty adapting and learning a situation. And so, um, we use a lot of digital books that we customize for Children to help them through difficult situations. So sometimes that help comes naturally through what the teacher’s knowledge, sometimes it comes in with us meeting and providing more support and talked about those visuals or classrooms set up or providing some different breaks or sensory what, you know, what does the child need and how are we going to put that into place? So there’s ongoing communication. Um, an ongoing celebration of the progress and ongoing talk about what’s working and what’s not working and what we need to tweak.
Frances Shefter (⏱ 00:27:48): I love that the social stories I know when my daughter was attending the school that when Covid hit how you wrote those books and did those pictures and did the masks and without the mask, so that, you know, it was so amazing. I was like, wow, school directors do this, which I’m assuming. No,
Beth Hoch (⏱ 00:28:05): I think it’s something, I think it’s something special, but it’s something that really is important to me because it gives the Children and the parents a sense of comfort when they know what’s coming and um, and what the expectations are. So I I really love using them for all Children.
Frances Shefter (⏱ 00:28:23): Yeah. So, um that brings me to, so I know you’re in Potomac in Montgomery county Maryland. What are some things like, do you have some advice for parents when they’re looking for preschool? Sure. What kind of questions should they ask?
Beth Hoch (⏱ 00:28:37): Great question. What kind of question….Talk a little bit about, let’s talk about the teachers first and the director. Um What kind of experience that the teachers have? Um Well, I’m gonna put my hat on as a parent with a child who’s been identified as having being our diverse, having a special lady. I’m gonna put that hat on. So, if I’m that parent and going to tour schools, I’m gonna be saying. Um What kind of experience do you have as a director? What supports do you have in place? What what what is that, what what information do the teachers have about helping support a child who has sensory issues or who might have have some social emotional um delays and finding out what have they had Children in their school who have had delays in this area. Um Can you talk to other parents in the school who have um who can be like recommendations for how that school worked with that family in that child. That’s really important. I always say that the best recommendation I can get is a happy parent who’s referred another parent to our school and who knows about our services. So I think that’s really important observing, um, going to the school and covid were coming out to a place where now parents are getting back to in person tours, um, observing what is the classroom look like? Are their visual aids in the classroom? Is the classroom set up in an organized way? Are things labeled? Um, are their routines in place? Um, are their classroom, are the classroom expectations? Um, known to the Children seem happy? Is their laughter? Um, what’s that affect or in the, the looking at the teacher and their disposition? Right. Happy teacher means happy Children. Um, is it a joyful place? Um, and the Children seem like they want to be there. Those are, I think really all important things. And of course looking at the big picture, if you’re looking for, you know, a school that has, you know, the religious peace or that might have, you know, what other specialty you’re looking for. Um, I think, you know, it’s important to have that discussion, but if I have my hat on as that parent, I want to really be able to see things in action here about the supports and communicate with, uh, with parents who have been through that school. Yeah,
Frances Shefter (⏱ 00:30:54): I love that you focused on the teachers in the school because one of the things I know that’s so important is to talk to the director and so, you know, I know your preschool is so phenomenal because of you, like, you’re behind it because you do the hiring, you do the curriculum, you make sure that everything is the way it’s supposed to be and your hands on, like you said, you’re in the classroom every day. I know there’s other preschools that directors don’t do that.
Beth Hoch (⏱ 00:31:22): and I think that’s something that our teachers really feel good about that. It is supportive place, not only for the child and for the parents, but from myself to them and the child and the parents. Um, and when the teachers feel supported, um, they’re able to do their job better and then there and when they have the knowledge, right. So many of our teachers don’t come with that special education background and they are forthcoming and say that I don’t have the training to, um, you know, I don’t know anything about this need or that need. And a lot of times it’s, let’s sit and talk, let me, let me educate you hear some things we can put in place or you might not even know you’re doing these things already for other Children that can benefit this child. Um, and as I said, sometimes it’s bringing in some outside services, I, you know, we’re a private school setting. And so I really want to continue for our school to be a place that neural diverse learners can be, but I understand that we’re not a public school and that sometimes we’re not the best fit for every family because just because of the support we may or may not be able to provide. But if we can provide it, if we can put those um, supports in place, if the parents are collaborators and if and we can make the magic formula come together, it makes my heart sing for the child and for our school,
Frances Shefter (⏱ 00:32:42): right? And I love that you say that because you’re fabulous, amazing school. Um, but it might not be the right fit for somebody, which doesn’t mean your school’s bad or anything. It’s just not the right fit. And I know that especially, I mean throughout Children’s lives, placement is so important. Um, and the environment they’re in. So tell me more how people can get in touch with you, tell me about your school, if you feel comfortable going, you know, telling the name of your school and everything and
Beth Hoch (⏱ 00:33:11): absolutely thank you. So, so I am the early childhood director, Har Shalom. Our school is the Sherman early childhood center were located inside Har Shalom synagogue here in potomac. Um, if people want to get in touch with me. Um, my email is bhoch@harshalom.org . But also let me give you a website. Um, you can learn all about our school on our website and my contact information is there on our website is www.shermanecc.org. We have a wonderful school community. We welcome Children of all faiths and all backgrounds, all kinds of families and our diverse learners to be part of our school. That’s really important. We celebrate that the diversity in our school. And so if you’re looking for a school and we sound like we might be a match, I encourage you to reach out to me, email me, give me a call and let’s set up a time to talk.
Frances Shefter (⏱ 00:34:06): I love that. Thank you so much. Beth I loved having you on the show. And if you loved hearing Beth you can reach out to her, talk to her about her preschool. And um, don’t forget to subscribe below to my show so that you can see when I have future guests. And if you have any ideas for future guests, please feel free to throw them in the comments and I will see what I can do about getting them. Have a great day, everyone.
Beth Hoch (⏱ 00:34:30): Thanks Frances. Bye everybody.
VOICEOVER (⏱ 00:34:32): You’ve been listening to Stress-Free IEP™:. With your host Frances Shefter. Remembe,r you do not need to do it all alone. You can reach Frances through ShefterLaw.com. Where prior episodes are also posted. Thank you for your positive reviews, comments and sharing the show with others through YouTube LinkedIn, Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and more
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