since we have lived here (almost a year) both my boys have qualified for therapy, and not my girl. we had a few early interventionists that actually paid MORE attention to my daughter than my boys, it drove me crazy, since over hidden in a corner was charles who really NEEDS the help! i think they just thought she was so "cute" because she 'gets' everything and is VERY social and involved. BUT....thats why she ISN'T getting therapy!!

Anyway, our PT really had a good balance of not ignoring my DD, but not focusing her time on her either. Anyway, i'm just wondering now that we will be in a lot of therapy every week, what is the best thing to do with her?
As it is now we will have (per week) 2 hrs ST, 1 hr OT, 2 hr special needs playgroup (that she is allowed to play at) and everyother week we will have 2 hrs early intervention. I am just wondering what you all do--do you sit and be involved more with the therapist working with your child, or do you kind of let the therapist do the special needs kid and YOU do the other one(s)? my husband is gone most of the time during the day, so we can't really take my DD out during therapy.

just wondering what you all do.

Meg

I actually find sitters for my other kids. I like to be involved with the therapists and get ideas on what we need to focus on for the week. I don't remember what age your kids are but for us it just got worse as they got older (they are only 32 months now). During the summer I have a neice babysit and during the fall I beg my neighbors to take turns. They know it's for a good cause and they don't seem to mind. We have private pt/ot for an hour each on Mondays but we need to find room for speech in there somehow... Anyways the girls attend early intervention pre-school four mornings a week where they get additional pt/ot/st.

Gina

Meg When one of my boys would have therapy and we had to go the child getting services goes with the therapist. I chose not go with them. I personally think they can get more from the child when the parent is not there. Also they can build that bond/relationship of trust they need. Bring snacks, special activities, go for walk, find a park near by. Spend that one-one time with your daughter and let the special needs child get there time that they need with OT, ST or PT or ABA.

Danielle
Easton, Blake & Hunter
1-24-99

My boys have about 15+ hrs a week of therapy in our home, so it's given me and my daughter quite a bit of 1:1 time. One thing I did do is since we were stuck home anyway and I could devote the time, we potty trained! (They all said I was crazy, but it worked!) We also do some activities that I don't try to do with all three, like baking. She loves to play with water in the sink, so she will "clean up" while I can do some bills, etc.

Krista
Michael, Katherine & Daniel
7/25/01 27w5d

Krista
b/g/b
July 2001

thanks for the suggestions. since all our therapy will be in-home i will find some activities for me and the non-therapy kid(s) to do. i guess i never want the therapists to feel like they are bb sitting my kid while i do something with another. but i think our situation now is different since it won't be just once a week for an hour.

we are about to get a new EI, new ST and new OT, so i will talk to them about what they want to do and how involved they need me to be during the actually therapy time.

thanks,
Meg

We juggle about 20 hours/per week each for my two with autism. If you qualify for respite services (ask your support coordinator) you can use some of that time during therapy for the other two. It happens quite a lot that one has therapy already, another one has therapy starting within 20 minutes and my third child wants my attention. I'll use the respite worker to stay at the house for 2 hours so the therapists can come and go and I'll go on an errand with my third child. Great one-on-one time. A lot of times I do tend to hang around and watch some of the therapy for my kids so I know how they're doing and so I can get some imput from the therapist. It's always a catch-22, though because then my third child gets ignored