Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Public or private school? Public schools are too conservative with providing OT. Anything free is hard to get. Private schools are known to over-refer to private practices which don't take insurance. Also, if they let an outside OT come in and observe to "catch things early" do not ever see that OT. It's a conflict of interest and it's sketchy and unethical to refer kids to yourself. I would however, get another opinion or 2 from reputable OTs who aren't so hungry for customers.

I totally agree!

Agree too. We looked at several schools that insisted we use their speech and OT person, who did not take our insurance. OT is free through our insurance and speech has a minimal co-pay, but if we went outside our network, we would have to private pay 100%. Many of the concerns our child had were much better helped by the teachers at his current school (who advised me not to bother with OT as they will do it) and they were correct and they did a much better job as they did it every day (we did it at home too) and really worked with him. Being with the other kids and seeing them do it helped far more too.

Anonymous wrote:Public or private school? Public schools are too conservative with providing OT. Anything free is hard to get. Private schools are known to over-refer to private practices which don't take insurance. Also, if they let an outside OT come in and observe to "catch things early" do not ever see that OT. It's a conflict of interest and it's sketchy and unethical to refer kids to yourself. I would however, get another opinion or 2 from reputable OTs who aren't so hungry for customers.

I totally agree!

Public or private school? Public schools are too conservative with providing OT. Anything free is hard to get. Private schools are known to over-refer to private practices which don't take insurance. Also, if they let an outside OT come in and observe to "catch things early" do not ever see that OT. It's a conflict of interest and it's sketchy and unethical to refer kids to yourself. I would however, get another opinion or 2 from reputable OTs who aren't so hungry for customers.

I would be thankful to receive OT services. I've been trying for 2 years but cannot.

Anonymous wrote:A school will only provide OT if (this is in DC):

(a) have a diagnosed disability resulting in a need for special education or (b) must be two years behind peers or two standard deviations behind peers in one or more area of development.

Schools do not provide OT for being "quirky".

This is every school.

A school will only provide OT if (this is in DC):

(a) have a diagnosed disability resulting in a need for special education or (b) must be two years behind peers or two standard deviations behind peers in one or more area of development.

Schools do not provide OT for being "quirky".

Did the school provide the OT?

This is 21:00... I meant just don't give out services to kids they don't think need it.

School systems just just give out services to kids they don't think need it. You need to probably schedule a quick meeting to discuss what progress they think your child is making and why they think s/he needs to continue. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth.

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone had negative experiences w/ being told by school or someone else that your somewhat quirky but normal child could benefit from OT? Only to do OT for awhile and decide that really all you have is a kid who's a bit quirky and needs to grow into him/herself?

If your school is suggesting OT, your kid probably needs OT. It's useful for:
--fine motor
--gross motor
--regulation, e.g.,: a kid who has difficulty controlling their emotions or has trouble sitting in their seat.

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone had negative experiences w/ being told by school or someone else that your somewhat quirky but normal child could benefit from OT? Only to do OT for awhile and decide that really all you have is a kid who's a bit quirky and needs to grow into him/herself?

shakes head

Not to make light of your situation, but given the issues we did have -- I would not call that a negative experience. I'd have been delighted for that result.

More seriously I would hope that the OT did an evaluation or something before treatment started rather than just relying on an informal referral from school.

Has anyone had negative experiences w/ being told by school or someone else that your somewhat quirky but normal child could benefit from OT? Only to do OT for awhile and decide that really all you have is a kid who's a bit quirky and needs to grow into him/herself?