(done on my phone. Forgive the typos)
I tend to dread Wednesdays. It's the day I take the boys to therapy. Jason generally has an okay time while he's there. For the past Shawn has not.
Shawn is all smiles and excited about going to therapy. He asks to go most every day even though we only go twice a week. Well, actually, he is all smiles until we get to the parking lot. At that point he starts protesting by screaming. The screaming hits its peak once he sees his OT.
The screams can last the ENTIRE hour appointment (1/2 hour for OT and PT each) on some days. Most often, it is at least a fourth of the time we are there. It all depends on the success of his OT. When that goes better, the rest of the day goes better. When OT is for shit, the entire hour is lost.
It can be brutal and I never know how the day will go until we are there.
Sigh.
I have some issues with Shawn's OT. I feel she gives him babyish things to do, which he quickly dismisses. She rarely has a backup plan for working on a skill. If he doesn't want to do an activity, they just don't work on the skill at all. For instance, she wanted Shawn to work on his right wrist. She wanted him to pour water out of a container and water some plants. His right arm is his weaker, less coordinated arm. Yet what does she choose to use as a container?
A water filled coffee pot. When he couldn't hold it because it was too heavy, he wanted no part of her activity. She had nothing else to use for him to pour with. So he screams. There went a good 20 minutes of wasted time on a useless activity. Things like that happen all the time.
I have seen her as a necessary evil. There are really no other options for us for different therapists, so changing therapists is out. She doesn't help us, but I can at least get ideas of what I can do with him at home.
Shawn's OT has misquoted me on evaluations, so I don't trust talking to her. She has told me that she thinks I need to get Shawn behavior therapy because of his outbursts while there. I don't trust leaving her alone with him either.
I can't see why he needs behavior therapy when the issue is at therapy. I told her such. He has outbursts at home on occasion, but he's 4. 4 year olds do that.
But the thing that has pushed me over the edge is that she said to me today that Shawn screams because he is putting on a a show for me. She asked me to leave the area, "if i didn't mind", where they were working.
Oh holy hell did I mind.
Isn't it funny that she failed to consider that she may be the reasons for the screams.
I feel somewhat defeated. Therapy is supposed to make things better for him and our family. It is not. If anything, I'm worried that she may be making him resistant to therapy in general.
I think Shawn is not going to have OT for a few months. New therapists come to the clinic in August.
What a bitch, right?
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1 day ago
5 comments:
What a b*tch indeed. I know D acts out a bit for me at PT so it's definitely a possibility (I often hide where I can see them, but he doesn't see me, but easier with a 2.5 year old). But, she should be paying attention to Shawn and designing activities that challenge him but in a way he can be successful.
Maybe spend some time looking around the internet for good OT suggestions to incorporate into his play over the summer and give yourselves a nice long break. I wonder, would it help at all if he did PT first (if in fact he likes PT of course)?
Have you tried leaving the room to see if he still screams after you are gone? I know you don't necessarily like her but she may have a point. If he screams when you get into the parking lot and screams when you are in there he may stop as soon as he realizes it is not getting him extra attention from you and it is not getting him what he wants.
Or, he may continue to scream because he hates her. Either way, then you will know.
I might agree that he "could be putting on a show" for me if he screamed only when I took him. That's not the case. He screams when my husband takes him, too. Nearest we can come up with, he may scream a bit longer on my days, but on my days we have to wait for at least 5-8 minutes for her to be ready and the helper he really loves is working with another kid.
My issue is that the screaming has continued to build with no intervention done by this therapist. I seldom intervene in their sessions and am not always there (because I watch Jason's therapy, too) and the screams continue. I only have intervened if he has hit her, which she doesnt address at all when it happens. I have suggested after bad sessions that he responds best to choices of activities and that she might want to institute a reward system all to no avail. Instead she continues as if I said nothing.
When he screams, she doesn't make him do her planned activity. He basically gets off the hook from work when he acts like this and he knows it. The show is for her, in my opinion. Not me.
It has been a freaking year of twice a week and she still can't work with him? It's ridiculous.
But the part that upsets me the most is that she treats him as if he is mentally impaired. He's 4. Let him do things that are age/interest level appropriate! He knows she thinks he can't do stuff. He's smart and works people well. If she thinks he can't, then he won't.
That is ridiculous. I am so angry for you and your guys that they are locked into such stupid-ass policies and therapists. You'd think with as much as we should all know now about ways to treat challenges early they could get this act together.
That's just ridiculous.
Take a summer break. You'll be home all summer and can find things you can do with him to help. Screw it. (But, you know, therapy and I just don't jive anyhow.)
She should be able to adapt herself to him, not force him to adapt to her. She sucks.
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