When April and Brandon Reynolds enrolled their son Randall into the preschool program at Christian Appalachian Project’s (CAP) Child and Family Development Center (CFDC) they knew he would receive a quality start toward kindergarten readiness. He has grown by leaps and bounds since starting as a 3-year-old and that is what made his preschool graduation so sweet.
“He came in with very little vocabulary and had some speech issues related to having tubes in his ears when he was younger to fix a problem with his hearing,” said April, who works at the CFDC as a teacher’s assistant and bus driver. “We knew he was behind and he needed more help than we could give him on our own.”
Randall blossomed under the loving care of his parents and CFDC staff. He lacked some fine motor skills when he started, but taking advantage of occupational therapy while attending the CFDC and receiving speech therapy, he is prepared to start kindergarten on a firm foundation.
“Over the past three years, we have watched the growth in his speech and fine motor skills. It is unreal the amount of progress he has made,” April said. “The biggest growth I have seen in him is his social and emotional skills. When he first started attending CFDC he had a hard time separating from me. But now he says he is happy to be going to “big school” in the fall.”
All three of the Reynolds children have attended the CFDC, so seeing her baby graduate was a bit emotional. “I feel he is ready to go on to kindergarten with all the help and knowledge he has gained. I still got a little teary eyed watching him get his diploma, but I know he has the skills to be successful in kindergarten.”
The staff at the CFDC strives to make sure all of the students have the basic skills to be kindergarten ready. When Randall started at the CFDC, he could not write his name or use scissors. “Now, he can do both with no issues. He can copy any letter, knows his alphabet, can recognize some letter sounds, and can identify his numbers to 10."
Randall is well prepared for kindergarten in the fall and he is taking many sweet memories along with him. “I will miss all the cool toys and my friends the most,” Randall said. “My favorite things was our trip to the zoo. I like to see the animals and learn about them. I love all the things we got to do at school.”
