Agree about the OT for sensory seeking behavior (have heard it’s more successful with sensory avoidant behavior). Should have just done more gymnastics, parkour, yoga, swimming.

Also many years of talk therapy although even in retrospect it’s hard to know when it helped and how much. People judge you so much if your kids have issues and they aren’t in therapy but it’s totally unclear to me how much kids benefit from talk therapy. If money was tight, I’m not sure it would be worth it. It more just gave me some peace of mind that a professional had some eyes on them, and that I was doing everything possible.

Anonymous wrote:OT assessment and OT at age 4. Not sure any of it was useful.

Talk therapy. Kid doesn’t remember. Not sure it did anything.

I agree about preschool OT, for "sensory integration." Not only did it accomplish nothing, but the OT made us think that no further assessment or services were necessary, even though our primary concern was with social interactions and she was eventually diagnosed with autism. We would have gotten on the right track sooner had we not listened to the OT.

The RDI therapy was a waste.

Currently spending way too much on a social group, but I haven't found a better one (it's ongoing so my kid actually has relationships with the provider and other kids).

Spent too long in individual OT.

But every cent spent on our SLP was worth it. She went into his school from Pre-K through 5th. I wish she could still work with DS, but he's older now and not in any settings where it would make sense to have her there.

Anonymous wrote:I think there were things we tried that didn’t work. But I don’t regret trying them. The one thing I do regret which cost me nothing because of insurance and was more than trying something, was staying with a particular psychiatrist when I should have found a new provider. That being said, I never used an advocate or attorney.

Us too. It took some time to figure out what was right for our child, but I have no regrets. We did switch providers a few times for ones that took our insurance to go back to the original one who was great and stayed with them for years.

Was it worth doing everything we did? Not sure, but if we didn't do it, I would have regretted it.

We stuck with therapy modalities that weren't working for too long, because our hopes were raised every time a clinician said *this* was the recommended approach for our child's needs (play therapy, CBT, art therapy, more challenging classes, more playdates, social skills group). We were terrified to not try everything just in case it'd make a big difference.

No professional could (and still can't, tbh) define DC's diagnoses and how to best address them. So we are still patching together support.

Anonymous wrote:OT assessment and OT at age 4. Not sure any of it was useful.

Talk therapy. Kid doesn’t remember. Not sure it did anything.

OT was useful for actual physical issues for us (handwriting & coordination) but not much else.

OT assessment and OT at age 4. Not sure any of it was useful.

Talk therapy. Kid doesn’t remember. Not sure it did anything.

Speech therapy that we paid privately for. I guess we felt like we had to try it. But our DS developed in speech more without it than with it. I don’t think it hurt but it didn’t help and it was money we really didn’t have.

CBT caused more stress. Multiple advocates / lawyers and money wasted - should have saved that money for private school.

Lots of recommended not covered by insurance medical tests, specialists, etc. all for the same conclusion of “I guess it’s just the autism…”

Most of my regrets relate not to what we tried, but to how long we hung on. CBT and IEP advocate. Unstuck was worth it for us, even though our kid forgot it all when he hit adolescence.

Anonymous wrote:- every cent I gave CAAT
- 2 years of talk therapy
- $400 to a “2e” consultant who provided zero useful information but just wanted to refer us to her friends

We did Unstuck and On Target through Childrens for free but I probably would have thought that was a big waste if I had paid for it.

forgot to add, I think our advocate was mostly worth it in the beginning when we needed the intial IEP and the school was willing to listen & implement her suggestions. I picked her specifically because she was not a lawyer but had a special ed teaching background and could work collaboratively with the school. So it added value. At this point I feel like the school won’t implement no matter what we do, and tutoring is a better use of money.

- every cent I gave CAAT
- 2 years of talk therapy
- $400 to a “2e” consultant who provided zero useful information but just wanted to refer us to her friends

We did Unstuck and On Target through Childrens for free but I probably would have thought that was a big waste if I had paid for it.

I think there were things we tried that didn’t work. But I don’t regret trying them. The one thing I do regret which cost me nothing because of insurance and was more than trying something, was staying with a particular psychiatrist when I should have found a new provider. That being said, I never used an advocate or attorney.

The 4 years across two different private schools that couldn't meet my child's needs.

Spinoff- would anyone share therapies, tools, etc that they paid for and regret ? Either because they didn’t help or because they were overpriced ? My biggest regret is not dropping my advocate sooner. I eventually came to the realization that for every minute she extended the IEP meeting by arguing needlessly with the school, I was paying her $3 and nothing was meaningfully changing for my child. When I started using that money for tutoring, I saw WAY more improvement in her math skills.