Friday, February 02, 2007

Declaration of War

My private OT and I have managed to put together a simple sensory diet for Joey. For those of you not familiar with sensory diet, this is a series of strategies to deal with Joey's sensory integration issues. Joey has been displaying some disruptive behaviors lately- clicking, scripting, etc. If you give him a peice of gum, it stops; he gets the oral sensory input he needs. Seems simple, yes?

Apparently not.

The note I got back from the school OT was that she finds it effective to put her fingers on his throat and tell him "stop."Will he swallow the gum? What will they tell the other children about the gum? And they don't allow gum in regular classrooms.

Hello?

I doubt this woman wants to run after my son all day with her fingers on his throat, so the intervention she is recommending is not functional. Swallowing gum is not fatal. What do they tell children about other people's needs- such as chocolate for a diabetic, or special lunches for children with allergies? And what do I care what they allow in "regular classrooms"? For one, he isn't in one, and for two, inclusion classrooms should have no toruble accomodating such a simple strategy! What the HELL???

So I called the teacher. That went OK. She seemed to at least understand I was trying to help- I hope. BUt to have an OT so completely ignorant of sensory integration issues and interventions... where is the support for his teacher in these strategies?

So I called the special ed supervisor. I am hoping he will help. If not, I will have to go to the director. Allan has HAD it with this OT- this is the THIRD run-in with this person. In fact, this blog was started as a way to deal with frustrations from this lady. We're through. If she were a private OT, she'd be fired.