I think I am stuck in this mindset that the therapists are the enemy. Well, maybe that's a little harsh, but I definitely have this us against them feeling.
So this week we've started with the new therapists. Our new OT, Emily, came on Tuesday morning. It was good. It definitely helps that I have a rapport with Emily already. She was very warm and playful with Finn, and he responded to her very nicely. She played on the floor with him for a while first - and even had him placing balls in a container by himself, which I didn't even know he could do! - and then worked on feeding with him for the second half hour. As far as feeding, Finn is still strictly on purees. He has some serious texture aversions, so we are going to work on that and hopefully get him finger feeding table foods over time.
The other therapist, an "infant stim teacher," came today, and I have to say that she got off on the wrong foot with me from the get-go. It all started with her calling me last night to set up a time to come out and do an initial assessment of Finn to see where he's at and what he needs. She seemed pretty inflexible about when she could come out - and with my having six kids, most of whom are involved in various extracurricular activities, plus staggered school drop-offs and pick-ups every day, it's not like my schedule is wide open. So I finally agreed to have Finn skip his nap today (grrrrr!) because she said that 1:30 this afternoon was the only time she had available. Fine. So this morning she calls to tell me she had a cancellation, could she come over at 11:30 instead? I told her that would be fine but I absolutely had to leave the house by 12:20 to pick up my two kindergartners. So she shows up a half hour late! She said she had trouble finding my house. Okay . . . woulda been nice if she woulda called me. Whatever. So we crammed what was supposed to be an hour-long assessment into 20 minutes - and really, all the "assessment" was was me signing a bunch of forms. Whatever.
So Chris, that's her name, she apparently does "global" therapy - a little PT, a little OT, a little ST, cognition, etc., etc. I'm trying to have an open mind, despite the fact that she got off on the wrong foot with me today, and despite the fact that I think I just resent the whole idea of therapy because of the intrusion, and the fact that it just feels like they're seeing my kid as a collection of problems that needs to be fixed. I know I have a bad attitude.
I do have to give her props, though, for asking about the other kids who might be here during therapy and expressing a desire to include them and have them help. Eun always seemed put off by my other kids and it was always very stressful trying to keep the others occupied and out of the way when she was here working with Finn. I mean, we have a passel of kids, that's our reality.
We are not going to be doing separate PT for the time being, as our SC has been unable to find a PT that can work with my very limited schedule availability. I am totally fine with this. PT is not one of my main concerns right now, and Emily and Chris will both be doing a little bit of PT with Finn anyway.
So there you have it.
3 comments:
This is Joyce. I think the best therapist in your house is Kevin. I watched him in the video. Matt focused on the words and I observed how Kevin was physically interacting with him. It was awesome. I say don't worry about the lack of a PT and if you don't like the infant stim gal bag her too. He's getting so much physical stuff from all your kids it'll be fine.
i sort of feel like the therapist invades my home too. annd i feel like sometimes they see the things Kheaven can't do, as opposed to all the things he does that he supposedly wasn't going to be able to do this soon. i try to keep a positive attitude and learn everything i can from them though. i hope Chris' next visit goes better! :)
sheesh lady are we living parallel lives? E makes the most progress when he's on an "intervention vacation" - seriously, when someone is sick in the house or there are holidays or whatever, we always notice more progress. (All because we know E can smell an agenda a mile away.)
I just know that our PT is leaving to go work for a health care system here in town and I am tempted to tell his ECSE teacher that we don't want a replacement. He gets so much motor stuff from his weekly private OT.
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