Bancroft’s Preschool & Early Education Program is moving to a new, expanded location in Moorestown, N.J. This new location will allow us to reimagine the preschool and elementary program and classroom experience for students ages 3 to 11 with autism, intellectual & developmental disabilities. Read how the PEEP program helped give hope to one special family.
Cade loves his iPad — like most 16-year-olds. He is also a gentle child who enjoys time on the swings and swimming. He laughs a lot but gets nervous in new surroundings. He sometimes has bad days like everyone else.
Cade also has autism.
At a very young age, Cade started attending Bancroft’s Early Education Program. His mom, Anne says at that time there were speech delays and he was very oral –there were biting issues. “We knew he wasn’t developing the way he needed to develop. We needed to plan for the next steps and knew he was going to need academic focus and specialized therapy.”
The Chandler family began their search for a place where Cade could excel and realize his full potential. Anne says Bancroft came out on top because “of the number of services they were able to offer and they were wonderful to work with.”
Anne credits Cade’s early successes to their advocate and the team around them that recognized early on that he had extraordinary needs. By the time they enrolled Cade in EEP, they knew they had found a home and relaxed in the knowledge that they “could always trust in the staff and the leadership to do the right thing.” The team at EEP started Cade on medication and developed a necessary routine, built a team around him that included Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) trained specialists, and focused on Cade’s unique needs.
“From the principal to the teachers,” states Anne, “there was an incredible amount of enthusiasm and support that was unrelenting.”
Anne says that while Cade isn’t verbal, he understands and says the EEP staff saw things in him his family thought he would never do — like Special Olympics. “Unless he had that start I would be so fearful of where he would be today. It has helped us as parents.”
Cade now attends The Bancroft School. Anne remembers when the Welsh Campus opened and feels the same excitement for those at PEEP who will now be able to experience the same grateful anticipation. “These kids deserve state-of-the-art services. (The move) speaks to the commitment Bancroft has.” And, Anne anticipates that the new school will bring new opportunities. “A new school will bring new hope.”
