Belle - Ugh, I'd definitely want a nice long chat with that montessori teacher. Like any school, it's hit or miss when it comes to teachers. We are super lucky that my DS5 with the issues (his twin brother has far fewer issues and has a very different teacher) has a brand new teacher who is willing to try whatever it takes. Just the other day (I think I posted about this on another thread) I was trying to explain the visual-spatial concept and how complex is easy vs. simple is hard, and she totally got it, and related a story about how ds had a hard time with some simpler works, but then she let him try the more complex work that they lead up to, and not only could he do it, but then he went back to the simpler works and had a much better understanding of them (which makes total sense under the VSL theory of whole vs. part and needing the big framework in which they can store the info). I am planning to give her some articles from the visual-spatial website. OMG, I would be furious about the math - for my ds that's his huge strength since he has such a hard time with speech (being understood). He still does bead chain even though he's done more complex stuff beyond that, but OMG if she hadn't even let him try bead chain I'd scream (besides, I thought it's normal for bead chain to be introduced before K?). His teacher told me that part of the montessori training was to let them try things beyond their level, or something like that. If I were in your shoes, if the teacher won't cooperate, I'd consider having a chat with the principle about this (even if it means hunting down written info on the montessori method). I mean, what is the point of montessori if the child can't move at his own pace. Ugh, I'd be furious. (still, I need to have chats with my other two kids' teachers about some of this stuff, but their actions have not been so blatant like your ds's teacher).
I really gotta run, but I also want to emphasize the vision issue - getting an evaluation, or at least a screening, with a behavioral optometrist, might be very important (I admit it's hard to do at this age - my dd's eval was more involved than my ds's eval because, besides the fact that she was older at the time, he was determined to be non-verbal during the eval, my introverted-sensory-speech boy)
questions - my feeling is that the OT gym is, for many kids (depending on their form of SPD, but especially those with any motor issues), an invaluable part of the OT. My friend's dd got some sort of OT at home for SPD, and my friend thinks it's all hocus-pocus and her dd didn't benefit much if at all, but it doesn't seem like she was getting the right kind of OT.
