Yesterday I told you that a Looper reminded me that I should make sure there wasn't a medical problem before punishing Lamb 2. I began by discussing Lamb 2 with his speech therapist. She was at a point that she was very frustrated that Lamb 2 wasn't making much progress even after a year of speech with her. She could see that Lamb 2 was not reading yet. She suggested that we have an occupational therapist evaluate him to rule out something like dyslexia. When I spoke to the receptionist to make an appointment, she told me that the beginning of the school year was the worst time for getting an evaluation done and not to be surprised if it took a couple of months. I put him on the waiting list for an OT evaluation.
Next I called our family doctor and explained that we needed a referral for an OT evaluation and I was trying to speed up the process by getting this referral from the family doctor before his name came up on the waiting list. I am so glad I did this over the phone because our family doctor did not have a reaction that I expected. She said she would give the referral for an OT evaluation because the speech therapist recommended it, but she also wanted an evaluation done by a child psychologist because it is not normal for 7 year olds to have tantrums in public. I agreed to this because I thought it was important to rule out something like autism spectrum.
We were so surprised that Lamb 2 got in for an OT evaluation just one week after I put him on the waiting list. After a couple of weeks of evaluation they told us that he did qualify for OT services for a couple of things. His upper body strength was very weak which would make handwriting difficult and he also had vision difficulties. In September he began going to OT once a week for an hour following his speech therapy.
Shortly after Lamb 2 had a tantrum in church we went to an event at the park where there were several booths. The Lambs had fun in all the bounce houses and we walked around looking at everything. Brain Balance was there and caught my eye. We signed up for their drawing. Brain Balance had opened in our town 4 months before this event. Out of the hundreds of people there they picked our name. Lamb 2 won a full evaluation by Brain Balance which normally costs $350+. We went for the consultation after his evaluation. We explained that we were so thankful to hear what they had to say after his evaluation, but we could not afford $5000+ for services from them. The consultation taught us about primitive reflexes and exercises you can do with your child. They also told us that Lamb 2 had vision difficulties. We were not surprised to hear anything they said, but it was good to hear their view of Lamb 2 after evaluating him.
He was evaluated by an OT but after the evaluation he began therapy with an OT assistant. She was thrilled to have a student that was a little older than most of her pediatric patients and do tasks beyond what she usually accomplished with her patients. When he first had therapy with her she was excited because she was going to attend a workshop in a few weeks that focused on OT for dyslexic children. Even though Lamb 2 wasn't diagnosed with dyslexia, she thought this would be helpful for Lamb 2's vision difficulties. She did go to that workshop and was very surprised that the whole workshop talked about primitive reflexes and what exercises to do with them. She ended up being trained to do the primitive reflexes that is a big part of what Brain Balance does. She came back excited to try these exercises out on Lamb 2.
I will continue this story tomorrow, but I want to review the major events so far that I can tell God was with us on this journey and answered our prayers.
1. We got in for an OT evaluation 1 week after he was put on the waiting list even though they told us it would take several months.
2. Brain Balance recently opened in our town and we went to the event in the park when they had a booth there.
3. Out of the hundreds of people at that event we won the Brain Balance drawing for a free evaluation for Lamb 2.
4. The OT assistant happened to be scheduled to go to a workshop that ended up being perfect for helping Lamb 2.
5. We had already met our 2013 deductible so all these evaluations and doctor visits were free to us.
6. Lamb 2 has an excellent speech teacher that keeps trying to present material to him in different ways until he gets it. Now he goes to OT at the same place and the speech teacher communicates with the OT teacher and they work together to help Lamb 2. His OT assistant is young and eager to help Lamb 2 be a success. God has really blessed us with these two therapists for Lamb 2.
No comments:
Post a Comment