Preschooler eligible for OT services but want to take an observe approach

[Anonymous]

My 5 year old (late birthday) just got an IEP for OT. Some goals are working on zipping his coat and prewriting skills. He only attends a private preschool 3 days a week for 2 hours. They say they won’t pull him from preschool activities. It doesn’t seem like they can work of these goals without pulling him away so I don’t get it but I also don’t want him to miss circle, recess, snack etc. 2 hours is nothing and I wish we could afford a longer day but unfortunately it’s not possible right now. I’m thinking to decline the services unless he can do them at home or the library. They did put in the IEP services could be at home or school but his OT is pushing for the school. He has other therapists and I think it can be distracting for him to have so many people around observing him. He’s been doing fine and the other therapist are indicating his growing out of their services. Services are with early intervention.

Thoughts?

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Is there a public preschool he can go to instead? So that he gets more hours of preschool plus the OT? They don’t qualify a child for services unless the child really needs it, so I wouldn’t skip.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is there a public preschool he can go to instead? So that he gets more hours of preschool plus the OT? They don’t qualify a child for services unless the child really needs it, so I wouldn’t skip.

No. They don’t have public prek where we live. You need to have severe delays for that. Kinder is also only half day in our school district.

[Anonymous]

He needs the OT more than circle time. You can attend K without any preschool at all. Plus you can work on the preschool stuff with him. Do not decline the OT.

[Anonymous]

The best OT I did was having my kid do Kumon where you go once ir twice a week and do some pre writing and reading activities then he had “homework” we worked in together the other 5-6 days.

I tried just buying workbooks but having someone actually be checking his work took the pressure off me. It was good that one on one everyday he learned to firm his letters correctly, learned letter sounds, then learned to read and write words.

He went to a play based preschool so he never chose to do the fine motor activities. We started in the fall before kindergarten when he turned 5. I thought it was well worth the $125 a month (it might be more now).

https://kumon.sg/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Table-of-Learning-ENGLISH.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The best OT I did was having my kid do Kumon where you go once ir twice a week and do some pre writing and reading activities then he had “homework” we worked in together the other 5-6 days.

I tried just buying workbooks but having someone actually be checking his work took the pressure off me. It was good that one on one everyday he learned to firm his letters correctly, learned letter sounds, then learned to read and write words.

He went to a play based preschool so he never chose to do the fine motor activities. We started in the fall before kindergarten when he turned 5. I thought it was well worth the $125 a month (it might be more now).

https://kumon.sg/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Table-of-Learning-ENGLISH.pdf

Op here. Thank you so much! His brother was in kumon for grade 1-3 . I was thinking to put him in kumon since kindergarten is only half day here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He needs the OT more than circle time. You can attend K without any preschool at all. Plus you can work on the preschool stuff with him. Do not decline the OT.

Op here. Unless he’s getting pulled out it feels pointless to me. They specifically said they won’t pull him from preschool activities. Let’s say he needed speech therapy. Can you imagine if they said that? Doesn’t make sense to me to just observe unless it’s behavior therapy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He needs the OT more than circle time. You can attend K without any preschool at all. Plus you can work on the preschool stuff with him. Do not decline the OT.

+10. Much easier to fix these issues now than when DC is older. Get the OT now, either in school or after school, but now.

[Anonymous]

Might be worth observing kindergarten at the school he is going to next year so you can see what he will be expected to do. If it seems far above him, therapy now could help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He needs the OT more than circle time. You can attend K without any preschool at all. Plus you can work on the preschool stuff with him. Do not decline the OT.

+10. Much easier to fix these issues now than when DC is older. Get the OT now, either in school or after school, but now.

I don't think OP is against OT. They are against the approach EE wants to take which isn't one on one services. If your child was supposed to receive speech therapy but wanted the therapist to sit next to the child in class and correct speech instead of working one on one most wouldn't be happy. OT needs to be done one on one to be effective at such a young age.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He needs the OT more than circle time. You can attend K without any preschool at all. Plus you can work on the preschool stuff with him. Do not decline the OT.

Op here. Unless he’s getting pulled out it feels pointless to me. They specifically said they won’t pull him from preschool activities. Let’s say he needed speech therapy. Can you imagine if they said that? Doesn’t make sense to me to just observe unless it’s behavior therapy.

Np. Observation does help my child with severe speech needs. It gives a truer picture of what his daily language capabilities are. I would not suggest it alone. Therapy should also be one-on-one. Just saying there is value to this outside of the behavioral therapy context.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He needs the OT more than circle time. You can attend K without any preschool at all. Plus you can work on the preschool stuff with him. Do not decline the OT.

Op here. Unless he’s getting pulled out it feels pointless to me. They specifically said they won’t pull him from preschool activities. Let’s say he needed speech therapy. Can you imagine if they said that? Doesn’t make sense to me to just observe unless it’s behavior therapy.

Are they proposing "just observing" or are they proposing pushing into the classroom to work with him?

Push in therapy, for speech or OT is powerful. Kids learn skills in the context they'll apply them. They practice their skills with toys and activities that will be available tomorrow so they can generalize skills. Teachers and peers learn how to support them in natural environments.

-- former preschool special educator

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He needs the OT more than circle time. You can attend K without any preschool at all. Plus you can work on the preschool stuff with him. Do not decline the OT.

+10. Much easier to fix these issues now than when DC is older. Get the OT now, either in school or after school, but now.

I don't think OP is against OT. They are against the approach EE wants to take which isn't one on one services. If your child was supposed to receive speech therapy but wanted the therapist to sit next to the child in class and correct speech instead of working one on one most wouldn't be happy. OT needs to be done one on one to be effective at such a young age.

This isn't EE, the child is over 3 and has an IEP.

"Sitting next to child in class and correcting speech" isn't remotely what push in therapy looks like.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He needs the OT more than circle time. You can attend K without any preschool at all. Plus you can work on the preschool stuff with him. Do not decline the OT.

+10. Much easier to fix these issues now than when DC is older. Get the OT now, either in school or after school, but now.

I don't think OP is against OT. They are against the approach EE wants to take which isn't one on one services. If your child was supposed to receive speech therapy but wanted the therapist to sit next to the child in class and correct speech instead of working one on one most wouldn't be happy. OT needs to be done one on one to be effective at such a young age.

This isn't EE, the child is over 3 and has an IEP.

"Sitting next to child in class and correcting speech" isn't remotely what push in therapy looks like.

Op here. It is early intervention. My son is still in preschool. These services are county services and yes they just want to do observation approach but yet they also have very specific goals like zipping his coat, writing name etc. I pushed to do services outside of school and the therapist said that’s fine but we would get assigned to someone else who does home services. The other services he gets are also observational. It honestly just seems like a waste and distracting to his day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He needs the OT more than circle time. You can attend K without any preschool at all. Plus you can work on the preschool stuff with him. Do not decline the OT.

+10. Much easier to fix these issues now than when DC is older. Get the OT now, either in school or after school, but now.

I don't think OP is against OT. They are against the approach EE wants to take which isn't one on one services. If your child was supposed to receive speech therapy but wanted the therapist to sit next to the child in class and correct speech instead of working one on one most wouldn't be happy. OT needs to be done one on one to be effective at such a young age.

This isn't EE, the child is over 3 and has an IEP.

"Sitting next to child in class and correcting speech" isn't remotely what push in therapy looks like.

Op here. It is early intervention. My son is still in preschool. These services are county services and yes they just want to do observation approach but yet they also have very specific goals like zipping his coat, writing name etc. I pushed to do services outside of school and the therapist said that’s fine but we would get assigned to someone else who does home services. The other services he gets are also observational. It honestly just seems like a waste and distracting to his day.

Just observation? They don't help him when it is time to zip his coat at preschool, or sign in, or provide coaching to his teacher or to you on how to help him based on what they observe? That's not a model I have heard of.