Love to our children

Some of the medical reasons children come to our school include:

 developmental delays

 down syndrome

 speech and language impairment

 cerebral palsy

 spina biffida

 general orthopedic impairments

 genetic disorders

 visual impairments

 autism

Why Early Intervention Is Important?

A child's early years (birth through age five) form the foundation for future learning. If a gap in learning occurs (a child isn't ready to learn) then future learning is affected. We try to make the "gaps" in learning as small as possible because learning is "developmentally integrated" which means one thing affects another.

How We Help Children

Founded in 1981, the Helping Hands School is a private, non-profit preschool for two-to-five-year-olds with special needs. The school is located on 60 acres of farmland in the southern Saratoga County town of Clifton Park, New York. The school aims to foster readiness skills and help developmentally disabled preschoolers prepare for public school.

Services We Provide

Self-Contained Class: Children with special needs between the ages of two and five can attend a two-and-one-half-hour or four hour special education class on our campus during the school year and a six-week summer program.

Early Intervention Program: Developmentally delayed children from birth to age three receive a comprehensive program of educational and therapeutic services.

Integrated Preschool Classes: These classes are located in community nursery schools. Children with special needs participate in nursery education classes with typically developing peers and receive the support they need to be successful.

Comprehensive Evaluations: Children suspected of having a developmental delay or handicapping condition can come to Helping Hands for an evaluation to help parents determine the extent of the delay and the type of helped needed.

Special Education Itinerant Teacher (SEIT): Children who need one-on-one or small group instruction will work with a special education teacher. Instruction may be on-site, at home, on in other community-based settings like nursery schools or daycare centers.

All service are provided at no cost to parents and children.

Signs of delayed development can include, but are not limited to:

 difficulty sitting alone by nine months or walking alone by 18 months

 rigid or floppy muscles

 feeding problems

 vision or hearing problems

 problems understanding language or following directions

 problems communicating wants and needs

 difficulty understanding what the children is saying

 difficulty completing age-expected fine and gross motor tasks

 learning problems

What Distinguishes Us

The curriculum at Helping Hands is tailored to meet the individul needs of each child and encourages the developmental growth of children with special needs. Since the language of children with developmental delays is limited, and their cognitive skills (like counting and color identification) are delayed, we provide many structured, yet fun, experiences that will teach communications skills and stimulate the aquisition of learning concepts. The school creates an environment in which children can move at their own pace.

At Helping Hands, services are individualized to meet the specific needs of each child. Our program is designed so that the staff works closely with both the student and the family. We encourage parents to become even stonger advocates for their children.

New York State's System For Delivering Services To
Young Children With Special Needs

There are two systems: one for newborns through three years of age and the second for children aged three to five.

Infants through age three receive services that are paid for by the State Department of Health and the county in which the children live. If you suspect your child has special needs, then you should call the County Department of Health's Early Intervention Program.

Children ages three to five receive services paid for by both the New York State Education Department and the county in which the child lives. Each school district in New York State has a Committee on Preschool Special Education which administers the program for each child. The chairperson of that committee organizes an evaluation. From this assessmentof a child's skills, a report is created from which discusses the child's strenths and weaknesses. The Committee on Preschool Special Education uses this multidisciplinary evaluation to develop specific recommendations that meet the child's individual needs.