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Willa
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Location: California
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| Posted: Feb 28 2008 at 6:31pm | IP Logged
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I'm not talking about the therapy services so much as the therapy "homework" you do in between sessions. I think I asked about this once before but my question is slightly different this time.
How do you keep it from interfering with your relationship with your child? It seems like every time my eyes light on Aidan, almost 9, I am telling him to do one of his stretches and exercises for PT and OT. He just got Botox and while it has had great results so far, the therapy has definitely got to be intensified to make the improvements carry over.
Then when I'm not telling him to stretch or do leg bends or whatever, I'm corralling him to do phonics and math. He functions about like a 6 year old and has all the reading readiness in place but not much of an attention span.
I feel like I am always the therapist or teacher and not getting to just enjoy his cuteness like I used to. I have no doubt he feels the same way about me 
Anyone found something that works or can share experiences?
__________________
AMDG
Willa
hsing boys ages 11, 14, almost 18 (+ 4 homeschool grads ages 20 to 27)
Take Up and Read
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mom3aut1not
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| Posted: Feb 28 2008 at 7:41pm | IP Logged
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Willa,
I don't know if my experience will be helpful since it is mostly SLT-related -- at least until we get our OT consult.
I put our therapy work (other than the stuff I do all the time like making him give me eye contact when he asks for stuff or using teachable moments to talk about social skills) as part of our hsing. His homeschool day is divided into Hello, Prayer & Memory, Table 1, Music, Table 2, and Book. This corresponds to the following subjects: Social skills, religion and memory work, calendar and SLT work (Table 1), music that now includes the Star Spangled Banner, SSRW songs, poetry memorization (weekly), Cub Scout songs, Hail Holy Queen, and Vivaldi*, math, phonics, fine motor, and copy work (Table 2), and lastly science, art appreciation (weekly), social studies, poetry, social skills, religion, and other picture books. Art projects and PE are done after a break usually. Life skills (like potty training) are done as continuously as we can manage. I have updated his PECS schedule and we use it every day. (On days we go to Kennedy Krieger or other rare half-days, I omit Table 1 and tack calendar unto Table 2.)
* I love my ipod. It's so easy to arrange our music for homeschooling.
Joseph mostly complains about math as that requires the most attention and work from him. He would much rather play with legos all day. The SLT work is more or less taken for granted although some recent purchases from Super Duper and Linguisystems has made it more fun.
I think a few things makes it easier than it would otherwise be. 1) Our schedule has been mostly the same for a long time, and I rarely let it be disrupted. 2) The PECS schedule lets him what is going on and gives him a structure of expectation if that makes sense. 3) Although he complains about homeschool, once we get started he does pretty well although he needs nearly constant redirection. 4) Those recent purchases has given me a greater variety (still not much) of materials to address the same issues. It has definitely helped us both. 5) The placement of music in his curriculum is deliberate. Although he does have a little trouble getting back to work after music, I feel that varying the intensity of his work helps us both. I designed the structure of his homeschool day to alternate more and less intense periods as well as having a definite beginning and ending (except for PE and art which he likes to do anyway).
As I said, I don't know if this helps, but here 'tis. In case you are interested, I work with my other (autistic) student whenever I can manage; she's not an easy student to plan for as adolescence hit her very hard, and she often is not able to cope.
Could I do all this if I had a bunch of other kids that needed me? I guess it would depend. It would be hard, and if I had another young autistic child, I probably could not. (Especially since each of the ASD kids has been further into the autism spectrum than the child before him or her.) Joseph takes 2-2.5 hours of my time with no interruptions. This does not include research or planning. When his sisters were younger, I could manage homeschooling them in littler chunks of time. Each one needed intense one-on-one, but I could switch between them more easily and they didn't need as much time. (Due to their special needs, I could only rarely teach even two of them together.) They also needed much less SLT work. So take from this what you will.
I think you're amazing. You have a lot to cope with, and you do so well.
In Christ,
Deborah
There is a reason Joseph is so much younger than his sisters. I have four special needs children, but three of them are much older than he is. I am older as well, and my energy is less. Joseph's needs and those of his sisters are about all I can manage especially as it looks as though we may have two of our children with us until we can't manage anymore. This is a newish thought for us, and I am currently adjusting to the thought that not all our kids will be independent.
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4Real Forums : Special Blessings
Topic: How do you manage therapy?
