Posts Tagged by Apraxia Diagnosis
Mr. Miyagi
| November 30, 2012 | Posted by Laura under Diagnosis, E, Special Education, Treatment |
E is losing her occupational therapist at the end of December. She is a victim of school district budget cuts. It is cheaper for the school district to hire independent contractors (read no medical insurance) than to keep their own OTs on staff. E will of course continue to get services but it will be with a different provider.
I’m sad we are losing her as part of our team but resigned to what is happening at the same time. It wasn’t always this way.
There was a time when I knew E had CAS but couldn’t get anyone to diagnose her. I finally found an SLP who diagnosed her and we began therapy with her immediately. I put all of my faith in her. I knew we were in for a marathon and she was going to be the coach – our Mr. Miyagi if you will. Then four months into therapy she decided to stop seeing E because we didn’t fit into her schedule. E continued to see another SLP in the practice but she was not as experienced dealing with CAS. E didn’t really care but I was devastated. Mr. Miyagi had abandoned us.
In reality, it was I and not E who needed a Mr. Miyagi. E was completely dependent on me and I needed someone to tell me what to do. I would do anything I was told, I just needed someone to tell me what I should do.
In the three years since that happened, I have come to the realization that there will be no Mr. Miyagi for me. Instead, I have to be my own Mr. Miyagi. I do the research. I make the treatment plan. I find people to put on our team to help make this happen. The buck stops with me and it’s scary as hell.
Losing that first SLP was the worst. We’ve gone through several more – well, eight to be exact. We’ve found another specialist, one who knows her stuff, one who wants to be on our team. She treats me like an equal. She’s the expert in treating CAS and I’m the expert in E. The two are not synonymous so we have to work together to come up with the treatment plan that works best for her.
I’m really going to miss our OT. She has worked with E for two and half years, longer than anyone else has worked with her in the school district. She’s knows her stuff and she genuinely cares. She’s going to be a real loss to our team. E has come a long way in her sensory processing and fine motor delays journey because of her. I’ll be forever grateful but we must pick up and move on.
We’ll have to wait and see what January has in store for us
Should You Be Concerned?
| February 28, 2012 | Posted by Laura under Apraxia Awareness, Early Intervention |
When I first started to be concerned about E’s speech I scoured baby books and the internet to find out how many words she should be able to say at 18 months, 2 years, etc. Later I realized that the number so often quoted in baby books is a minimum not an average. In other words, your child should be able to say at least that many words or you should probably be concerned.
Head on over to Testy Yet Trying to read this mom’s take on this topic. She is another mother of a child with CAS who just happens to also be a speech pathologist. I loved reading what she had to say.
