Three in the morning certainly is a peaceful time, isn’t it? I have yet to find this kind of silence at any other time of day. As I sit here in the eerie glow of my monitor I can feel my family sleeping all around me, and I feel safe. I’m talking warm fuzzies all the way down to the core here, people. This is something to be remembered.
So I blog.
I realize my posts may seem random lately, but I ask you to bear with me. I’m trying to find my groove in this whole world of blogging, and it’s becoming more and more apparent as I go on that treating this page as a diary – recording everything that goes on in our day-to-day lives – just isn’t working for me. I’m trying to find my writing style, and will be attempting to post about more specific things here…though I’m sure there will be times (probably a lot!) that you’ll see meandering late-night musings like this one in the future.
So fear not, dear readers, for I shall never stop rambling!
My dear, sweet little princess is doing well. We had DT today with Jill, one of the newer members of our “village”. When she walked through the door, The Princess smiled and ran to greet her…and even helped to bring her supplies (toys!) into the living room. She sat down and gave Jill her full attention, choosing the texture bin – big surprise!! – and sticking with it for a good, long while. Then came the puzzles and the fishy game, accompanied by an abundance of giggles and fantastic eye contact.
Which got me thinking…
I believe this is the third time Jill has ever been to our house. The Princess obviously remembered her and greeted her as if she were a member of our family. So why are things always so difficult when our speech therapist comes to the house? It’s like night and day from what I saw this afternoon…The Princess runs to hide, and often cries. The sessions have become hour-long power struggles between our very rigid ST and my poor, sweet little girl who just gets so frustrated that every time we see the ST she breaks down in tears.
Those of you who are close to our family, or who have been reading this blog for a while, know that I’ve had my misgivings about this provider for some time now. But recently there have been a few moments in which, I’m sorry to say, I’ve just wanted to slap this woman. Moments in which she has displayed absolutely zero compassion for my child, zero respect for her other providers, and zero acknowledgment of her challenges other than with speech. When The Princess starts to stim on a toy, she takes it away and says something like, “No! We don’t need to do silly things like that.” This happened on Tuesday, and I wanted to yell at her. I’m not a therapist, and I’m aware that when The Princess starts stimming on an object it means she needs some sensory input. Very simple solution: stop what you’re doing, give her some sensory input – whether it is swinging, “flying”, brushing, playing with her hair, putting on lotion, what have you – and then go back to the task. This person scolds my daughter for doing things she simply can’t help, and I can’t abide that in my house.
There are other issues with this person as well, but I won’t go into that here. Suffice it to say that I called our service coordinator today and she is making some calls for me to get The Princess set up with a different ST. I hope the switch can be made soon…the way things are going right now, no one is benefitting from these sessions.
Sounds like a good move. My daughter's first OT for SPD was not a good fit. She was nice enough to us, but I don't think she had any idea what she was doing. After a few weeks of me being totally confused as to why we were there, we switched to someone new and it was a completely different experience.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with finding a therapist that will be a good fit for your daughter. She's out there.
It's very difficult to find a good speech therapists for kids on the spectrum. Whe Devin was in Early Intervention we went through 3. One even told me it wasn't her job to make him pay attention. When I finally got a good one and he was about to age out, I asked her to take us on as a private client. She is still here. She herself has told off other Speech Therapists for the way they treat kids on the spectrum. Don't give up thought. They are out there.
ReplyDeleteGood for you, Sis! You are that Angel's protector & her world so if you don't feel that it's working for her, change it and don't give it a second thought. Help me remember to talk to you more about this on Sat. M&D have a friend in this field who is super nice & might know someone good in your area.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like change is definitely what is needed for Chloe. We had a similar experience with Noah's first speech therapist. She seemed fine at first, but after a bit Noah spent most of his sessions hiding under the table and crying. Not much progress being made that way. We were lucky to find an excellent speech therapist that really knows kids on the spectrum. I'm sure you will find one that is the right fit.
ReplyDelete