No more OT?
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| Tue, 10-30-2007 - 8:50am |
We had Sam's IEP review last week.
It went well. He's getting tons of academic accomodations and he's doing pretty well, working hard, trying hard, making progress. They are being flexible with his work load and his teachers works very well with him. They are able to redirect him when he gets upset. Once they explain their reasons for an assignment....etc. he accepts their logic readily and gets the work done.
I like his new SLP *alot* she is much more focused on social skills at the level that Sam needs than the last one. She's doing much more than just playing games, taking turns...etc. They are doing more body language reading...etc. We haven't had luck finding a good match outside of school for social skills groups so I'm hoping this will help alot.
They want to cut out OT though. He's only been doing 30 min. 1x/week working on fine motor stuff and some sensory input at the end. The OTA says his writing is age appropriate and that he is maintaining his goals now. He still has some reversals but we've been teaching him to check over his work when he's done to find/correct any. He has a visual cue at his desk to remind him to do this and he is able to find most reversals and correct them on his own (most of the time.) Sam finds leaving the class incredibly disruptive. If it were speech or SpEd it would be worth the transition, but I'm not so sure he's getting anything out of OT anymore. But what makes me suspect is the fact that they've said it's up to me......if I want him to continue receiving the 30min/week than that's fine with them. They've proposed a 15 min. consult with his classroom teacher once a month to check on him and if he starts to regress then he'd go back to 30 min/week.
I know once services are removed it's tough to get them back. The OTA is making it sound like it'll be a piece of cake to work him back into her rotation, but I'm not so sure it'll be that easy. At the same time, I agree with them that he may not need OT anymore.
I contacted a local Autism resource. Their Ed. consult is going to set up a clinic on ASDs/AS with the principal for the staff/faculty working with Sam. They all mean well and are doing a good job so far, but there are some things that the SpEd and classrooms teachers just don't get. The SLP and OT are very good at pointing them in the right direction on that though. The Ed. consult is going to observe Sam in class too and point out anything that needs to be modified or can be done to help challenging situations.
There might be a kid in his class who is targetting him . The vice principal seems to be taking it seriously. "K" seems to be well known by the office staff and is in there often :( Sam is of course taking it to the next level. He's not shy about telling people that "K" did this or that and should be destroyed or killed. sigh......we've been talking alot about that. Sam is a little obsessed with "K." or maybe fascinated is a better word......he's definitely perseverating on the kid and misinterpretting the few incidents that have occured. Sam's story is wildly overblown and the teacher's story is mild, so it's probably somewhere in between. Sam has a way of hyper-focuing on the negative. I'm glad that he sees a psychologist! We have a new post -doc PhD that we're seeing. I like her better than the last. She made up a nice social story/script about "K" with Sam on the computer (complete with Pokemon pics!) last session. I hope it helps.
Chrystee


