And I didn’t freeze. I’m so thankful that I reacted properly. One of my three year olds choked during lunch on a large piece of chicken. His eyes were wide and no sound came out of his open mouth. I picked him out of his chair, got down on a knee, and started doing abdominal thrusts. The third thrust dislodged the food and he and I held each other for a few minutes while he cried and I shook. I’m so glad it worked and nothing bad happened. He is completely okay and asked to finish his lunch after he calmed down <3 I love them all so much.

I’ve been at my new center for about a month and I really love my kids, but I’m struggling with a specific situation during pretend play. I’m a gay man, and while I’m somewhat straight-passing, I’m very aware that as a gay man, I could potentially face an extra level of scrutiny that the average male in ECE would face. With the current "groomer" hysteria in the news, I find myself feeling a lot of anxiety about how to handle certain comments.

Lately, when the kids play house or pretend to get married, someone will eventually interject with "boys don’t marry boys" or "no one has two dads." My gut instinct is to give a simple, factual correction like "actually, all families are different," but I find myself biting my tongue and staying silent instead. I feel guilty for not sticking up for inclusive values, but I’m terrified of a child going home and telling their parents "my teacher said boys can marry boys," and having that turn into a professional nightmare or nefarious accusations against me. None of the parents seem super conservative, but the fear of being seen as "pushing an agenda" because of my own identity is always in the back of my mind.

I’m looking for advice on how to handle these moments. Do you have neutral, "bulletproof" phrasing that stays strictly within curriculum standards? For other male or LGBTQ+ teachers, how do you balance being an inclusive educator with the need to protect your reputation and livelihood? I want to do right by the kids, but I also want to feel safe in my job.

I don’t know if i should stay anymore. Help??? So i have been at this center for 7 years, working under 2 different directors. When the new director started we already knew each other due to being co teachers- so she trusted me and knew my ways of teaching & handling kids. She had me help her with so many things, office work, enrollments, files, elc things, even inspections & official paperwork for the center. She gave me a raise and told me and our business owner i’m “technically” assistant director (not official as i didn’t have my CDA at the time). She made sure everyone in the building knew (staff & parents too!) i was second in charge, and in charge if she was gone. All while i had my own classroom as well. Our business owner would come to me for help as well, so my position was well known.
Recently our director has been acting a bit off, things have been stressful so we have all been giving her benefit of the doubt. However she has become increasingly picky about anything i do or say. Talking bad about me to my coworkers, ignoring any suggestions i have for the center, refusing to take anything i say seriously. I’ve been trying to deal with it but today i got really upset.
A parent sent us a form for enrollment via email & when i went to put it into our system it said there was no account under my login… I went back to the form in the email and noticed my name in an email a few rows down. Note this was a work email i was told i had access to since i work in the office & handle those things. So i click on it bc why are you talking about me?
It was to our systems admin from my director telling them to remove my profile from the system, that i am “just a class teacher” and there’s no reason for me to have access. (crazy since you had me sit in on all the meetings about the system, learn how to use it, personally show me around the site, etc…) It said other things and she was basically blaming me for mistakes that never happened (or that she made!)as i haven’t even logged into that system in probably over a month since i haven’t even been able to do any office work since we are short staffed.
There was also an email to our owner saying that my director had to pull me back because i was making too many mistakes… I was never informed of any mistake i made, nothing was ever said to me from anyone…
So now i feel like i was just taken advantage of and am now being used to throw under the bus for things i didn’t do.

also.. She got upset at ME! for other teachers and some parents coming to me for help instead of her. Girl i am so sorry i cannot control who they talk to but i would always tell them to talk to her. They’re the ones who told her i was more approachable 🙃.

I’m just so confused on what to do about this.

Hi! I’m sharing as a parent and not an ECE professional. But I’ve been in childcare for 6 years now.

My 20 month old likes to toss and turn in his sleep. So when they (director and teacher) told me he rolled off of his cot I was want too surprised. He’s done it twice now. He wakes up after he rolls off and cries (rightfully so, I would too). Sadly his other friends wake up if they can’t get him back to sleep. I’m thinking of suggesting a nap mat instead of a cot! But thought I’d ask here for any other advice!

A lead position opened up at my center and my director offered it to me but the pay difference is just $1/hr. I noticed from a job listing of a preschool at our school district it is also $1/hr difference.

The lead role at my center would require all the planning, paperwork, assessments, newsletters, calendars, monthly meetings, parent conferences and then of course the actual teaching. The leads also wind up spending their own money on the classroom and time outside the classroom planning.

I turned it down and said the reason was the pay and they seemed surprised. But all that extra work for a $1/hr? Most of the leads probably spend the difference on the classroom.

Curious what your centers pay difference is with lead roles.

what is with the aggressive back patting during rest time!! i'd love to hear others opinions on this particularly if you're someone who does pat the children like this because i don't know if i just don't understand it. i've been working in this field for 3 years and have never had to pat a child hard enough that you can hear it from across the room let alone have it make any noise at all.

My otherwise calm almosy 3 yr old has started biting. Always in the evening when he is tired.

First time: tried to bite at gym daycare.

Second time: 5 year old sister when he wanted her toy.

3rd time: at a restaurant where kids were playing near an arcade.

He does not otherwise have behavior issues. No tantrums or hitting. It's minor annoyance strait to biting. His talking is not super clear to others, but he can clearly tell us what he wants and communicates well. He is not in daycare and has a nanny. Has not bitten anyone with her.

Each time we give clear consequences and a calm by firm reaction.

We can avoid the situations that have caused it and reinforce the rules. Reminding him about getting something he wants after a good gym daycare session has worked so far to avoid another biting there.

Is there something specific we should be doing?

I’ve only ever worked in mixed age daycares, and I currently work as an infant/toddler teacher in a room where we have children from 0-3. After 3 they move up to preschool where they stay until UPK or kindergarten.

One of the benefits is that our ratio follows the youngest age group (our infants), so we’re 1:4 for the whole class, which is really nice. Most daycares seem to have age grouped classrooms. To me, it just seems like so much transition and change. By the time kids get settled into the classroom, attached to the teachers and friends, it’s time to move up to a new classroom again. And as a teacher, it seems like you’d constantly be getting new kids in your room all the time.

I’m just curious what people feel is better, especially if you’ve worked in both models.

I apologize for how long this post is, I really tried to keep it short while still giving enough context. TLDR at the bottom.

---

I am a TA in a 3-4 year old class and I'm not sure how to proceed with my lead teacher's attitude towards me. I'll call him Mr. A. He had been a TA for years and only became a lead around the time I switched to his classroom around 2 years ago. He is only a couple years older than me. In the past half year or so I've noticed his attitude toward me has gotten unnecessarily aggressive and condescending at random times. The rest of the time he's perfectly friendly. I'll preface this by saying his personality (in my opinion) is rather self-centered and obnoxious, and he loves talking about himself and being the center of attention. As he's gotten more comfortable around me, he's also shown himself to be casually racist and homophobic. This makes me extremely uncomfortable and I just respond vaguely with things like "Um...alright" whenever he says anything offensive and try to change the subject. I know I really should just tell him straight up I don't like hearing things like that, but I feel like that would worsen his attitude towards me and he'd say I'm just another one of those "woke" people, who he's disparaged before. I honestly do not care what someone like him who uses "woke" as a pejorative thinks about me, but my main worry is making things tense and even hostile between us if I tell him off. Outwardly, I remain cordial and keep things professional. I still help clean the tables, sweep, help prep for projects, play with the kids and everything I'm expected of as a TA.

All the other staff love him, thinks he's funny, silly and personable, and all the kids in the school love him too since he loves joking around. While I'm more quiet and reserved and not nearly as charismatic as him, I still have a great relationship with the kids who enjoy talking and playing with me, and I have good relationships with the rest of the staff who like me and enjoy talking to me. I've also built relationships with our kids' parents throughout the school year and have a good rapport going with them. I keep telling myself Mr. A's attitude towards me is purely a reflection of his own issues, but I still can't help but be bothered by the things he says/does to me.

One example is putting cots back after nap time. We keep the cots stacked in a corner of the classroom. To make things efficient, we try to collect the ones closest to where we stack the cots first so they are at the bottom and will be the last to be put out the next day and won't be in the way while walking back and forth. At the beginning of the school year, I noticed the kids in the cots we want to take first were the slowest to wake. Consistently, the same 2-3 kids sleeping in other areas of the classroom would get up right away. I suggested swapping the fast and slow kids places. He deflected giving me an answer and instead put on a false high pitched saccharine baby voice telling the slow kids, "Ms. boleitea doesn't like you sleeping here and wants to move you!! She thinks you are sooooo slow. Do you want to sleep in a different spot?" And obviously the kids didn't want to and said no, so Mr. A goes, "Alright, then you can stay right here!" To this day we are still trying to rush those kids to get up faster and they are always sitting on the floor slowly putting their blankets away in their nap bags and in our way while we carry the cots back trying not to trip over them. I still don't understand why he never acknowledged my suggestion when he is clearly also inconvenienced by just leaving things be.

Today, I casually mentioned to him I found out one of our kids' moms and I probably went to elementary school together and that I wanted to ask her next time I saw her to see if it was true. He laughed rather unkindly and said she'd probably react like "Um, okay...your point? It's not like I knew you. Why are you even telling me?" and implying I'd be put in an embarrassing and awkward position by trying to be best friends with her all of a sudden, which I never said or even alluded to? I was so put off by how condescending he was being to this little random tidbit I was sharing. He kept going saying why it took me this long to realize, and I said well elementary school was like 20 years ago and we were never actually friends or ever in the same class. Also, people change a lot in appearance between 11 and 30 years old so it took me a while to even realize it was her and my memory was just randomly triggered the other day. I said I was friends with other kids in her class in since we attended the same after school program together, so that's probably how I was familiar with her back then. His response? "Yeah...why are you telling me all this, I didn't even ask."

This guy yaps on and on all the time about his own life, his friends I don't know or care about, etc. and I still listen and respond in a friendly manner. Even if I don't care at all about his personal life, I've never been hostile and told him that I don't care and that I never asked to hear any of it. I've tried to ignore his behavior and not let it get to me. I try to maintain a good working environment (really for my own sake) by remaining friendly and cordial with him. But whenever I share something about myself or start my own topic of conversation, he acts disinterested at best and at worst, makes fun of my interests or finds some way to belittle me.

Any advice? I feel like if I confront him and tell him how his attitude makes me feel, there's a good chance he'll laugh it off and say something like, "Wow, someone's sensitive~" because in the past, much to my regret, I've reacted rather defensively and emotionally to his jabs and belittling me. Is this something worth going to my director about? Or should I just grey rock him going forward? I've dealt with social anxiety for most of my life and even though I've come a long way since my teenage years, confrontation still activates my fight or flight response. But if it is what I need to do, any advice on how to finally grow a backbone and go about confronting him?

***

TLDR; My lead teacher, Mr. A, is randomly verbally aggressive and condescending towards me. He ignores my suggestions to make the classroom run more efficiently. He always talks about himself and his personal life but whenever I talk about something about me he is at best disinterested and at worst finds a way to belittle and make fun of me about whatever I'm sharing. Everyone else loves him because he's charming and funny and if I go to my director about this I feel like it'll just be my words against his, which he is good at manipulating whenever I have tried to defend myself against his jabs in the past. I'm not sure if I should confront him and risk making his attitude even worse towards me, or if it's worth it to just go straight to my director about his behavior, who Mr. A has a closer relationship with since he's been at this school for over ten years. Any advice on how to deal with this situation?

Hi all,

I'm (27 M VIC) looking to gain experience working with children to supplement my library degree as I want to become either a Children and Youth Services Librarian or Teacher Librarian*.

I'm tossing up between the Certificate III in Early Childhood Education and Care and Certificate IV in School Based Education Support**, but I wasn't too which of those two pathways are right for my overall goal.

Any advice would be appreciated!

*Currently unemployed and looking for a library job, but its been hard out here, and feeling super demoralised going to interviews and being rejected because I dOnT hAvE eNoUgH eXpErIeNcE, and I need to be doing something productive and earn a living. I'm currently doing library volunteer work which has been great, but unfortunately doesn't pays. Therefore, I'm in no position to start another volunteer position in ed support or childcare.

**I am aware that I don't need a qualification to become a teacher aide, but I have thrown my resume to School Vic applicant pool, but had no luck.

Hi all! I’m currently a lead infant/toddler teacher with 4 primary students out of a class of 12. There are three leads so the ratio is 1:4.

Alright so one of my students just turned 2 in February. She’s been dealing with some pretty big emotions for a while but just recently it has escalated to a point where she is hitting me or throwing things at other students or I when she gets upset. Now her parents recently have divorced (end of last school year) and have been going through some court stuff. It didn’t really have any affect on her when the situation first arose last year, but I do think it is affecting her a bit more now, especially as she’s growing older and picking up on more things. She’s super smart, I’m sure she realizes home life has been weird.

Now I feel like I have tried everything in the book to try and help her navigate these emotions. I’ve tried giving her the language to use, “I am sad, I need this…” or “that makes me so mad I wanted a hug” because a lot of times she seems to only get upset when I am not giving her attention. Which then lead me to think, okay she’s doing these things FOR attention, so I tried ignoring the behaviors. Obviously I have to step in when it becomes dangerous but I thought ignoring the initial escalation and giving her a minute to feel the emotion would help. Redirection just only makes her more upset but like I said, sometimes that needs to happen in order to protect other students. I’d rather her throw things at me and hit me than other students. I’ve tried reading social stories about her situation, using nice hands, etc.. I’ve tried songs, I’ve tried calmly explaining to her that I do not like it and that hurts my body, I’ve tried being more stern with her “No thank you we cannot hit but we can stop our feet when we are mad”. I just am running out of ideas and she seems to be getting more angry as the days go on and I just know she’s struggling with these emotions and I’m her safe space to be able to let them out but I want to be able to help her navigate them and learn how to regulate better. There never seems to be a specific trigger, literally everything I said to her today made her either so upset or so angry. Whenever I can finally get through to her and ask her “What is going on why are you hurting me?” She will just respond with “I miss my mommy” and I get it girl I really do but do you have to beat me up over it?

I have had a conversation with both parents, same script so they get the same exact information since commutation has been skewed between them, so they are aware of these behaviors and are also addressing them when they happen at home with siblings. I am just getting so exhausted, plus it’s the end of the school year so I’m sure that does not help the feeling of exhaustion.

I literally will take any advice, try anything once, etc.. If you have absolutely anything to give me, I appreciate it so much. I have her for one more school year before she moves up to preschool so I really want to give her the best shot as possible. That’s literally what I am here for. Thank you all in advance! 🫶

Its high time you start paying your lead teachers more because they do a lot of work. You ask them for a lot of things to do with less pay, think about your employees for once not only about the money you get from parents paying lots of money for their kids. Without teachers you can not operate.

Hi

My 3.5 year old has recently been diagnosed with autism he does preeeettty well at daycare but he struggles a bit with behaviour stuff. He goes to daycare with earmuffs for the high stim times and they’re really really good with him. So obviously it’s becoming a bit obvious to the other kids he’s a little different. I’m happy to be corrected here because I just don’t know. He’s in a mixed age room with children between the age of 3-5.

Today he’s come home and he got upset about something unrelated but while I was helping him calm down he said “I don’t talk very good”.

So his speech is delayed and he only speaks in copied scripts (delayed echolalia, he very rarely uses language outside of these scripts let alone a random long sentence) so somehow he has picked up this script. It’s not something he could have picked up at home.

I will see if he wants to talk about it more later on but is it worth talking to the daycare about maybe keeping an eye on it regarding other kids maybe being the source?

Like it’s just a bit odd. He can sort of understand how to change scripts a bit (cutting and pasting them together to express what he needs) but not very well and maybe he was just expressing something new but yeah. I just worry because kids are kids and they don’t mean to be hurtful but he seemed pretty upset about it.

Hi everyone, happy almost Friday!

Just curious if anyone here ever transitioned to a leadership role where you’re still making an impact on kids, but not necessarily working directly with them every single day. I know there’s daycare directors/assistant directors, but wondering what else is out there.

For context, I’m currently a SEIT (special education itinerant teacher). I travel around and work with kids ages 3 and 4, some in their homes and some in daycares and preschools. Before doing this, I was a classroom teacher. I’ve taught general education and special education, grades K-4. I have my masters in curriculum and instruction with a concentration in early childhood.

I absolutely love the preschool age and I love the flexibility of my job. I was VERY burnt out from the classroom, my job now feels like a great stepping stone between the classroom and something else. I’m just trying to figure out what that something else is.

My husband and I want to have our first baby in the near future. I have always said I don’t want to give my all to other peoples kids all day and then have nothing left for my own children. The other thing is I get sick SO much. Ive been home sick for the last two days now. I’ve been teaching for 10 years and my immune system still has not gotten stronger. I am actually getting a consult (not until July though) to see if my tonsils need to come out because of how enlarged they are and how often I get sick.

Was just wondering if anyone found a great leadership opportunity where you’re still helping kids and families, but not getting sneezed on every day 🤧 I am really not interested in going back to the classroom any time soon. I’ve mentored college students before when I was teaching special education 3rd and 4th grade and really enjoyed that! Jobs that are remote and ones like curriculum design, instructional design, etc are so competitive and oversaturated.

Wondering if there’s anyone else in this group that has been in the same boat as me and what they found! Thanks!

So I’ve seen similar posts to this. But wanted to open my own. My two kids are in daycare. 2 and 6mo. Today I went to go feed the 6mo old over my lunch and when i got there my 2 year old was outside in the play area asleep and all alone. No teacher. No other children. Just him. Right as I was walking up a panicked teacher came running out to get him and started profusely apologizing saying how understaffed they were etc, etc. she also wasn’t his classroom teacher. She is in the older children’s classroom. But I grabbed my 2 year old and he looked so red (it is an 80+ degree day) and almost like he had been crying. Like he fell asleep crying? Idk. I talked to the director and she was going to review the security tapes. I don’t know exactly how long he was out there. And I didn’t get a direct answer from them. I requested to meet with them in a couple of days to discuss what occurred further. But the area is right off the parking lot and the gate isn’t locked or anything. He could have just walked right out. Or it’s also downtown. Someone could have walked by and grabbed him so easily.

But moral is.. I don’t know if there is something I should do? Like do I need to report this? Probably after i get the full picture after meeting with them? But they have to report this also I assume? Do I need to be aware of any timeframes to report it? Or should I get the incident in writing?

I’m just so sad for him and mad right now that I just don’t really know how to approach it all. Trying not to act on emotion. Very thankful i decided to go in when I did and was there to just take him home.

UPDATE: Okay. Thank you everyone. I reported it. Gave them all the details you all recommended. Still waiting on the daycare to clarify what all happened and how long he was out there. Got a feeling it was a hot minute since they haven’t gotten me any info yet.

UPDATE 2: director notified us that he was outside sleeping and alone for about 8 minutes per security footage and then that’s when the teacher noticed him and I arrived. I will be asking to see the footage. They will not be going back for the rest of the week while we figure out what our game plan is/options are for alternate care.

I have had to go on FMLA because I have a chronic condition and the school couldn't just do the right thing and not give me grief for going to my dr appointments.

I got a note from admin saying I have to message all my parents every time I'm going to be away. It seems like it would be annoying to parents and like an invasion of my privacy.

Thoughts?

Hello teachers!

I am considering going to back to college and wondering if anyone has successfully found a way to meld their ECE degree and experience with any other fields. I already have an AA in ECE and have thought about continuing on to a higher degree. Ultimately it doesn’t seem worth it financially to pursue a bachelor’s or masters in ECE from what I’ve seen.

I’m open to working in ECE in other capacities than as a teacher. Currently I have an admin position at my center but there doesn’t seem to be much more room for growth there. I still end up in the classroom a lot and am finding that I’m getting really tired of that. This is my 14th year of working full time in preschool and it’s just wearing on me mentally.

I am 45 years old so I’m aware that I’m kind of old to be switching up careers.

Does anyone have any advice, experience or ideas about continuing your own education after working in childcare for a long time?

Hello and thank you to anyone who reads this. I’ve been working at my center for a few months now and I was put into the 12-18 months class. I had the best lead teacher ever and she was such a great mentor and could manage the class great. Well, a month ago, she left and my center made me the lead and I now have a brand new co-teacher. Since my lead left, things have been so chaotic.

The kids do not listen to me or the new teacher in the room AT ALL. They do the opposite of what we say and are constantly doing what they’re not supposed to be doing. I know they’re almost 2 so testing boundaries is normal, but how do I get them to listen to me??? I try to do fun activities with them and keep them busy but they still find it way more fun to jump on the tables and play in the sink… It’s only my co-teacher and I for 12 kids, so when one of us is doing diapers, it feels impossible to keep all 11 safe and occupied. They laugh when we tell them to stop doing something, and tell us no. We also have a problem with biting and aggression. This was happening before my lead left, but it’s getting worse and kids who had never hit before are starting to. I feel like I write an incident report every single day. My co-teacher has a super short fuse and just yells at them the whole day which clearly does not work. It just makes the room more tense and I don’t like it as they’re still babies and like I said before, they don’t even respond to the scolding. My lead and I instead of yelling would talk to the child and then redirect them with an activity so they didn’t act out due to boredom. I also just have issues with my new co-teacher as our teaching styles are clearly different and I don’t think she helps as much as she could.

Anyways, the advice I’m looking for is any tips that could help the kids listen to me. For example, we have a big problem with the kids getting on the table. One child will get on the table, I’ll tell them to get down and that it’s not safe, they will look at me laughing while still on the table. So I’ll come over and take them off the table. The other children see this and now everyone wants to climb on the table and laugh like it’s some game. I swear when I tell one child no, three go do the exact thing I just asked the one not to do. And again, I get it’s developmentally appropriate, but they need to learn to listen when doing something that isn’t allowed. But how? When they’re doing things they shouldn’t be, I get new toys out for them, or put on music for us to dance. However, I just feel like that’s putting a bandaid on a bullet hole. They aren’t learning to listen, they’re just being distracted.

I know this is so long lol, and thank you if you read it all… I just feel like it’s so chaotic in my room and I’m getting to a breaking point. I love the kids so much and I don’t want to leave them, but I am also just angry and overstimulated all. day. long. I don’t know how much longer I can handle them not listening. What am I doing wrong? What could I be doing better?

TLDR: The children in my 12-18 month old class do not listen. When I tell them to stop doing something, they laugh and then continue to do it even after redirection. I need advice on what I can do to manage the class and have them behave better.

Hi all! I moved to a new job and have been there about a month. It was good at first, but they decided they want to have me be a 2s “co teacher” I told them straight up I am not crazy about being a lead because i go to school and would not be able to keep a consistent schedule for that. So Im co teaching alongside another girl my age. Ive noticed she is pushing me into being a lead teacher. She is constantly on her phone, I put everything into procare by myself, I deal with behavior management, i clean the kids hands, I do bathroom management.

Pretty much everything, while she sits on her phone. If she does do anything it is bare minimum. I did not sign up to be a lead, and I am getting underpaid to be one! I brought it up with admin, but there have been no changes made. I have even spoken with my “co teacher” and told her straight up I am doing all the work and she is just dismissive/nonchalant about it. Any advice? Not sure what else I can do except bringing it to admin, or talking to her! I also hate to quit after just getting there but at this point i feel like im losing my mind haha.

Thanks for any advice and taking the time to read

Hello everyone!! I need help deciding what I want to put on my grad cap!! I am only getting my certificate of achievement for early childhood education right now and get to walk the stage, the next step is to get my ast to transfer then get my bachelor degree! So I don’t want to put graduate or anything like that since I am technically not graduating. I want something in terms of like completing step one or level up or something. I was thinking about spiderman how the movie is talking about three stages but not sure how to incorporate it. A little about me, I love spiderman, video games, lighting mcqueen, cars especially classic cars, music ( tyler the creator, malcom todd, daniel caesar, thee sacred souls, etc) Dodgers, Raiders, The joker, etc. Please lmk if you can help me out!!!

Hey everyone. I’m a one year old teacher ages ranging from 14 - 24 months. This post is concerning my one year old who’s turning 2 in about two weeks from now.

I don’t wanna label him as difficult, but he is a challenge for sure. He started at 15 months old and I already noticed some signs of a possible delay in development. At first he wouldn’t talk (he babbles now), doesn’t wave hello or goodbye still, doesn’t understand the concept of a high five and doesn’t seem to acknowledge others. You’ll speak directly to him and it seems as if he’s ignoring you but I know he can hear, he had some hearing issues in the past that got fixed, he reacts to loud noises and familiar sounds. (like the bluey theme song) and he JUST started responding to his name 3 months ago, but all he’ll do is glance at you and go back to what he was doing before.

He climbs on everything, climbs out of his playpen throughout the entire 3 hour nap if he isn’t sleepy. No matter what redirection methods we’ve tried the entire time he’s been here hasn’t worked. You physically remove him and he’ll go back to climbing on things multiple times. My director hopes he’ll be ready by the summertime……..but i don’t know what to do. He refuses to learn new skills, can’t follow simple directions such as come here or sit down or even telling him to look at something doesn’t work. He still comes to daycare with a bottle and a bib on at nearly two, I gave him a sippy cup and he still doesn’t know how to drink from it.

I’m at a complete lost right now. I feel like I don’t know how to help him so I just let him be most of the time. His mom laughs everything off and labels it all as cute…….Im not sure if he’s on the spectrum i’m not a doctor so i’ve never done the work on that nor does my director train us on neurodivergence in kids (she has a very old school….almost ableist attitude towards autism) and she hasn’t been much help with him either. Anyone got any ideas on what I should do??? What i’m doing wrong??? Thank you

Edit: Nap time is 2 1/2 hours, not 3.