Ds (2yrs)( autistic) is currently going to ST 2x a week and will start OT 2x a week for the rest of December. In January all insurance deductibles starts over and something is going to get cut back to once a week. My question is which one do I cut back? Or preferably which one can I work on at home with more success? I just ordered the "it takes two to talk" that some of you reccomended on another post. Is there something similar for toddler OT? Any other suggestions? Thanks ladies
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I'd have an in depth and honest talk with both the OT and ST and ask them. Even better, can you get the two of them to have a pow-wow to help you make the decision? Ultimately it's your decision to make but I'd heavily factor in their opinions (and they'd be able to give you a home program for your kiddo). Ultimately, they want what's best for your child and family and even though they will each think their discipline is important, therapists today recognize the realities of battling insurers (I say all of this as a PT)
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don't have any useful knowledge on this, but just wanted to say it sounds like you're doing such a great job making sure your LO gets tons of great support! good luck to you!
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@Littlebit7: this was my original thought, the problem is that speech is this places niche and the OT is outsourced to a woman that works with the local school district, she's very good from what I understand (out eval is today) but she's also already fully booked and would be squeezing him in. we were wait listed for a month. I just feel like they are going to push the speech no matter what because it's the easiest option. But if the OT is more beneficial I don't want to miss out on that.
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@arosebyany: ahh gotcha. I reread your post..so it seems like you will still be receiving two services just cutting the frequency of one, correct? And you are just starting OT now? I think, in order to give OT a fair shot, keeping it two times a week for the time being would be your best bet. It's going to be hard to tell if it's beneficial if you go 2x/week for a month and then suddenly drop to 1x for the duration. If you've been in ST for a while and are seeing gains, you have the benefit of the therapist already having a solid relationship with you are your LO and you might be more successful with the ST giving you homework.
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@Littlebit7: thank you for taking the time to read my craziness lol.
the other thing is we've only been in ST for one month, so they will both be "new" in a sense. And they're not really giving me any homework?! Which I thought was weird but then I thought maybe because it's only been a month. Even still he's made improvement, but I don't k is if that can be contributed to the speech or just him having a developmental spur.I want to add that to put it into perspective each 30min session is 70$ so that's 280$ or 210$ a week. So realistically once a week of each would ideal ($140 a week) but I'm pushing to do one of these twice a week, but both twice a week is not really going to be possible.
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@arosebyany: I think I have seen more growth from speech than OT in the month and a half our son (who also has asd) has been getting services. What area are you more concerned about? I think there maybe more work you could do one on one with him in the area of fine motor skills and sensory activities if you do decide to cut back on the OT.
I wish you the best and agree with pp that you’re doing an amazing job
We are about to start paying out of pocket for aba . It’s so expensive
but it will all be worth it when you see the progress
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I think saying which one is more important/easier to "DIY" is hard to say without knowing what specifically they are working on with your LO. For example, I feel like I could provide competent support for pragmatic speech or word retrieval strategies, but not as much for articulation goals. In OT, I could provide access to sensory strategies if the needs were known, but would feel less qualified to assess needs or develop novel strategies. (I am not trained in OT or speech, but work with professionals in both disciplines as a special educator.)
Would it be possible with the therapists schedules to alternate twice a week/once a week (so your LO gets each session three times every two weeks)?
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Okay so we had the eval and she said that there are some things that can definitely be worked on, but she honestly sounded surprised at where he is, she was very impressed with his fine motor skills. I think that pretty well answers my question for me lol. I won't get the full results of the eval until Monday when we go back for speech, but it looks like OT will be once a week.
Thank you all so much for your encouragement and praise you are all too sweet
@lady baltimore: I like this idea and I'm going to ask on Monday, once I see what the eval states.@magnolia:
I'm sorry your going to have to pay out of pocket! I've decided to forgo to ABA for a couple of reasons but one of the main is the cost! When DS turns 3 my plan is to get him into a local school district not far from here that has an amazing ABA certified teacher who runs a class for autistic children. She told me that DS would absolry be accepted as long as the school distric has open transfers, it changes year to year so I'm just keeping my fingers crossed! I hope your son is doing well!
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Have you called your insurance company and specifically asked what is covered in terms of the "instances" of a therapy session?
When I spoke with mine, I was under the impression that 35 session were covered. What I learned was that instead, if I scheduled a speech therapy session and an occupational therapy session on the same day, it counted as one day of services, not 2, even if the providers were completely different.
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@looch: yes I have
. The ST and OT are completely different, the lady I talked to told me they were even catorgorized under different services, one is under behavioral and mental services, and I can't rember what the other was.? I receive 20 of each per calendar year, which only means they go towards our 3500$ deductible, so regardless it's still completely out of pocket.
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@arosebyany: Oh, that's too bad!
Having done both, I think it's a lot easier to DIY occupational therapy. My son's speech therapy involved bite sticks, vibrators and all kinds of things in his mouth, it's not for the faint of heart!
the other thing is we've only been in ST for one month, so they will both be "new" in a sense. And they're not really giving me any homework?! Which I thought was weird but then I thought maybe because it's only been a month. Even still he's made improvement, but I don't k is if that can be contributed to the speech or just him having a developmental spur.
but it will all be worth it when you see the progress
. The ST and OT are completely different, the lady I talked to told me they were even catorgorized under different services, one is under behavioral and mental services, and I can't rember what the other was.? I receive 20 of each per calendar year, which only means they go towards our 3500$ deductible, so regardless it's still completely out of pocket.
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