Homeschooling Families: Speech and OT Taking most of our Week!

[Guest Homeschool4life]

I LOVE homeschooling but I am very exausted....WHY?

 

Well, my DS was DX with Auditory Processing Disorder. After years of not knowing what was wrong, teachers treating him like dirt etc etc We had a sudden opportunity for me to leave my job and dedicate all my time enery and attention to our son and find out what was going on.

 

It worked! He is doing great....BUT......since he has the Speech Delay and Low muscle tone in the trunk area I take him to Speech Therapy 2X a week and Occupational Therapy 2X week.

 

All in all it takes all Monday and all Wednesday to do this since we live almost 1 hour away from the closest therapy place.

 

He also does Listening Therapy twice a day everyday for 1/2 hour with headphones.

 

The therapists comments: He is doing well, the Auditory problem has already been tackled, in OT he does cursive writing, sit ups, hopping etc (I can see what they do). Speech Therapy is comprehention worksheets etc.

 

I feel like I only have 2 days during the week to do all the homeschooling. Tuesdays he goes to a County PE program. I also have a 2 year old and since working with a tight budget I cook and bake a lot.

 

We have been in therapy for about 2 years and even more if you count the on and off from before, he is 9.

 

How can I dump these therapies and not feel the MOM GUILT?? I can do these things myself right??

[JanetC]

I would cut back gradually and see how it goes. Ask your therapists to work with you to give you home activities that target his weaknesses, and see if you can go down to once a week and still make progress. Do you understand the goals of the therapies? Does he seem to be making progress on those goals? As hard as therapy is on families, it's work that usually pays off in the end.

 

There are actually tons of speech therapy resources in YouTube of all places. Get a copy of his records and see what the diagnoses are so you know what keywords to search on.

 

We never had any problem stopping therapies, because our insurance wouldn't cover more than so many weeks per year. But, I do think my DD would have benefited if we had had better coverage. You can do things at home (I did as much OT as I could on our own), but there is a lot to be said for having a good expert on your side, too.

[*Lulu*]

The question is not if you can dump the therapy, but if you should. Is there still a signifigant gap in his skills? Is he still making progress?

 

If the answer to both of these is no, then by all means change. Phasing out the therapy or finding a way to make it more home based sounds completely reasonable if the current therapy schedule is no longer meeting your needs.

 

However, if I were you and felt the therapy was still needed and helping I would make some changes to my schooling. You have four hours in the car each week that can be capitalized upon. Assuming there are not issues with car sickness, books, audio books, videos, oral education games, logic games, workbooks, and small whiteboards can all be used to turn that time into part of your school week. I might also consider turning Saturday into a light school day and/or schooling year round.

[LucyStoner]

Have you explored cutting down the days of therapy to one? That might be a bit of the best of both worlds.

[Crimson Wife]

As mom to a SN child, I would put a priority on therapy assuming good progress is being made. Get an iPad and have him do "carschooling" on the way to & from therapy.

[SailorMom]

We did speech and OT twice a week as well for a VERY long time. It was stressful, but we managed with car-schooling. Stick with it. It's well worth the effort. It really isn't until 4th or 5th grade that the amount of school work for my DS got a bit tough with all the therapy. By the time he was in 6th, we were down to OT only and usually only once a week.

Start books on tape in the car, oral vocabulary lessons, multiplication chants, etc.

Bring books for the waiting room.

The county PE day - is that really all day? Or does it just interrupt the day as to make it difficult to get work done? If the later - I'd consider getting up early, get in an hour or so of work, and then take him to PE.

Also - we had the therapists work WITH DS's curriculum when we could. Handwriting practice, comprehension worksheets, reading issues - all can be melded with your school curriculum.

[MerryAtHope]

(((Hugs))) to you. I know it's hard. He's only 9 though. Repeat often: "Therapy IS school. I don't have to add on EXTRA school." Meaning to cram extra work into the days you are home.

 

I'd really evaluate if the therapies are necessary.

 

You wrote: "The therapists comments: He is doing well, the Auditory problem has already been tackled, in OT he does cursive writing, sit ups, hopping etc (I can see what they do). Speech Therapy is comprehention worksheets etc."

 

So it sounds like the auditory problem has been tackled--maybe you can just continue with the listening therapy at home? How are the OT and Speech therapy going? Could you cut down to one day per week, and do a few activities at home and see how it goes?

 

Whatever is needed...continue with no guilt and don't try to squeeze full school weeks into whatever time remains. Think of the therapy as his curriculum. Don't try to squeeze extra subjects into whatever remaining days you have, but simply do normal days then. If you can find a way to do reading and math about 3-4 days per week (3 if you can't cut therapy days, 4 if you can cut one out), make therapy at home a priority, and then only add in history/science/art etc... as electives on days you are not on the go, that could work well.

 

Remember, it's a marathon...not a sprint. You don't have to do every subject every day, or every year. Try to do skills subjects as close to daily as is practical, but therapy comes first.

 

Hang in there! Merry :-)

[crazyfordlr]

I hear ya, mama! We didn't find out my odd had CAPD and other things until 4th grade. I knew something wasn't right, but everyone kept telling me she was just "young". Once we got the dx no one was willing to help us. "She's not *that* bad." Well, I didn't think being 1.5yrs behind was anything to brush off. So I started hsing and private therapies.

 

We're currently hsing through an ISP, so still under the school district's umbrella kwim. It has its good and its bad. The good is I have time to do therapies, the bad is I still have to turn in X amount of work each month. Between OT, auditory therapy, VT, and remediation there isn't much brain power left for schooling kwim. When we really buckle down on school, the therapists comment that she's slipping. When we really buckle down on therapies, our teacher comments she's slipping. I ask myself every single month if ISP is the best choice for her. It's the best for ME b/c I get the support I need. However, is it too much for HER?

 

All this ranting to say that I understand ... I didn't mean to make this all about me. Sorry.

[Arboreal TJ]

After a year of ST I refused serves for my boys, even the free in-home services. I was done with it. Long story short I worked with my kids at home and they are fine now. Mom knows best, go with your gut.

[NotSoObvious]

My dd is 10 and we are going on 6 years of twice a week therapy (more when she was younger). It's so hard. I think about quitting every week. Last year we drove an hour each way. This year it's 30 min each way.

 

Just remember that it's either now or never. So before you quit, be sure that these are things he can 100% learn at home. My dd doesn't do OT anymor, but when we see my OT friend, she will point out issues and give me exercises for things I would have never thought of.

 

If it's going well and making a difference, stick it out as long as you can. He will thank you for it!

[NotSoObvious]

Also, another option is just doing monthly visits with an intense home program. That way you have someone keeping you on track and monitoring progress.

[PandaMom]

We are kind of in the same boat here as DD(7) goes to PT/ST/OT 4 days per week. It does take a big chunk out of our day. I know that we need to be doing more academically but her therapy is top priority right now. If she doesn't get the therapy then she will never be able succeed or totally function independently as an adult. We have several more years of therapy ahead of us. I have decided to homeschool year round so as to not get too far behind. I am one exhausted Momma so I know what you mean :)

 

Susan

DD(7)

[ravinlunachick]

You may be able to ask your OT or ST if he can take a break, but still remain an active patient. That way, when you come back after the designated time, you won't have to potentially sit on a waiting list, and you can probably continue with the therapist he had before. We've done this a couple of times with my ds, and it was very beneficial both times. His breaks were 3 months each time.

[PeterPan]

The therapy system isn't set up for people who are willing to work with their kids at home. You're willing to, so you want to talk with them about that. Those worksheets often come from a place like Linguisystems or SuperDuper or Gander, all of whom would sell to you. OT especially is something I wish we had done with just once a month appointments and lots of homework. That's ridiculous to drive that far twice a week to have someone tell him to do things you can replicate at home. They need to show you what to do with him and give him homework. Otherwise they're just lining THEIR pockets.

 

We drive 2 1/2 hours each way for ST for my ds, have for 2 1/2 years, btw. When we started we did weekly, now we go every other week. When we did OT, we did weekly, and I look back with horror. We totally should have done just once a month. And they're wasting your money on the sit-ups thing. Granted there's more they can do in a session, but he could get that same toning through horse-riding. I paid $100 an hour for a lady to push my kid in a swing while she wore a weighted collar. Finally I bought the swing, made a collar, and stopped paying the $100. Don't pay them to do things you can do yourself or you can do locally with other, equally effective methods.

 

On the speech if he's low tone and has a speech delay, you want to make sure it's not apraxia. Apraxia is not a delay but is motor control. Methods should be totally different, and traditional speech therapy for it takes a lot more sessions than the best method (PROMPT). Takes a specialist that you find through the PROMPT Institute. So it's just something to check. That's why we drive so far, because we go to someone who is certified in it (well actually she's an instructor now).

 

Don't let them make you feel guilty. Their system is designed to MAKE THEM MONEY, not to empower you, and not necessarily to help kids. If it was designed solely to help kids, they wouldn't use inferior methods and drag people out with treatments without accountability for results. MUCH of this is something you can do at home if they will give you some guidance. You need sessions for accountability and if you have issues with compliance. Otherwise, space them out and have them give you more homework. You might find just going to every other week makes a huge difference.