[vvcronosvv]

my daughter has autism, and she's in a full day preschool at an elementary school in Southington. It's great. She started right as she turned 3 and goes from 8:30 to 3:00 5 days a week. Before this, she was in the birth - to three system for 2 years and some of the other towns the therapists spoke highly of were; Farmington, Plainville, Rocky Hill... You can give them a call too, or even CREC and ask them about schools. I bet they'll know which ones are good as they deal with them a lot. In the Southington school there's actually a couple people there all the time that are employed CREC and not the Southington school system. They're actually in charge of the programs for my daughter which is really cool because they'll do whatever she needs without concerns about towns budgets for special ed or other political monetary bull****. They're in charge and they tell the school what needs to be done.

[r2dc]

That's great to hear. I am not sure what level of function your daughter has, but our son has significant delays in all areas but is very social. We would really like him to be in an inclusive environment with all of the supports in place for now. Does your daughter require any specific adaptive equipment? I am wondering if that comes from the school system or if we would need to purchase these items on our own.

[vvcronosvv]

My daughter is in the ABA program majority of the day, but throughout the day she goes into the preschool which is right next door to the ABA room. The end goal is to get her in the preschool room for the entire day. She's high functional but she doesn't talk, except a word here and there. So the school has the logan talk box that she also brings home. Basically it's an electronic folder looking thing with 4-6 slots on the front where you put a small picture on it that says something once it's pressed. For example; she likes going into the preschool so one of the pictures they put on it has the teachers face. So one of her rewards after she completes an acitivity would to be go see MRS P , the preschool teacher if she presses that picture. (It'll say "I want to go see Mrs. P"). There's tons of other pictures on there.

There's also a therapy room next to that one with all sorts of goodies, like trampolines, swings, hammocks, obstacle course, and other things. When we started in September we had a meeting every friday with the whole gang to discuss things and get updates. There's about 6 people who are in charge of developing programs for her, and they would all meet with us. Now it's just once every months or 2, but there's also a one way glass in there located in a small observation room that we go to check out what she's up to. Once or twice a year they do a clinic where me and my wife sat in a same room as our daughter and they would show us the things that she has learned and have her do some of her normal activities. This was unbelievably cool to see and it almost me cry seeing how far she's come along and all the things she can do.

I'm not sure what kind of equipment you need or if the school provides it, but there's a lot of stuff in that therapy room that I didn't really check out because I was only in there once for a minute or two. I think they might provide some things. We've donated some things that our daughter doesn't need anymore or use, such as weighted vests, swings and some other things I can't recall.

[r2dc]

Thanks for all of this info. Coming from a parent, this is valuable information.

[Stylo]

Originally Posted by r2dc

These are the two areas that are within a reasonable commute to one of two of my husbands office locations. Any other towns around these you would recommend?

Well, I prefer the Farmington area over the Newtown area. More to do, more activity, more of a job market should you need to switch jobs. Might be slightly more affordable too.

I really like West Hartford in that area. If my job was in the Hartford area and my industry didn't require me to be in the southwest part of the state, that would be where I would choose to live. A great, well rounded place to live.

Avon, Southington, Canton and Simsbury are all well respected too. Too low key and quiet for me, but YMMV.

Near Newtown, Southbury is a nice town, as well as Oxford. You'll get more for your money in Oxford. Monroe and Trumbull aren't bad options either, but I feel like the taxes are a bit high - and Trumbull is expensive mostly for its location. Easton and Redding are nice, but a bit rural and expensive. I'm personally a big fan of Bethel in that area. Decent value, good schools, nice downtown, restaurants, abundance of family activities.