I first started homeschooling my son after Kindergarten when the teacher recommended holding him back in transitional first grade (a year in between kindergarten and first grade) so that he would learn to color in the lines, even though we had explained at the beginning of the year that he had hypotonia and some problems with fine motor skills. We didn't know that OT was available at the school and it was never suggested that he needed it. We also told the teacher about my son's highly gifted adult half-brother who had problems in school because he was never allowed to learn at his level and thought it was a waste of time so he dropped out.
My son had started kindergarten already reading very well since he had started reading at 2 and was at about a 5th grade level at the beginning of that school year, and had figured out how to do math with negative numbers. But this school believes that all boys with spring and summer birthdays like my son should be held back and then, of course, my son would not color in those lines, so the teacher thought a year of doing lots of coloring would be good for him. She didn't believe he needed to learn anything since he already read and did math very well.
A relative of mine (the elementary school principal) set up a meeting with a first grade teacher who was working on her master's in special ed. I showed her samples of my son's work. She believed he was highly gifted and told me that he needed to be homeschooled or put in private school. So that is what we did. After one year of homeschooling for only a couple of hours a day he scored grade levels ahead of where he should have been for his age except in spelling which was only slightly above grade level but since they were having him write the words and his hands got very tired I don't think it was a fair assessment of his spelling ability. The doctor joked that no matter what we did he would never be gifted in handwriting and to teach him to type. We talked to the special ed director at the school with the certified educational psychologist's report and test results in hand and asked what accommodations could be made for my son if we put him back in school. He said it would be best for us to continue homeschooling because it would be difficult to accommodate his needs in that school but he would set up an IEP meeting so we could discuss it. That was two years ago. My special ed teacher friend even reminded him to call us several times but he wouldn't do it. I talked to the superintendent of the school. He said that our problem was a "good problem" to have and we should continue homeschooling.
So my son has never had any occupational therapy or physical therapy of any kind. His condition is mild but he would have trouble keeping up with the amount of writing expected in school. His developmental pediatrician recommended working with him at home with Handwriting without Tears for his handwriting difficulties and doing activities from "The Out-of-Sync Child Has Fun--Activities for Kids with Sensory Integration Dysfunction" for the vestibular dysfunction and vision therapy for the visual motor integration problems. My friend thinks sitting in a classroom all day would be hard for him
because he seems hyperactive and fidgety but he does not have ADHD according to the developmental pediatrician. I let him move around a lot while he is learning because it works for him. His problems aren't really problems at home but would be in school.
My special ed teacher friend recently told me that there is another child at the school now that seems to have some of the same characteristics of the vestibular dysfunction that my son has and she thinks I should try to fight the school to get OT for him, but our school does not allow part time school and the child has to be enrolled full time to receive any services. It didn't matter to them that they should have provided OT for him when he was in kindergarten. She mentioned some kind of listening therapy that the other child was doing. I can't see how this would help him any way, but I hate to think he might be missing out on something that might possibly help him. Has anyone else had any experience with this type of therapy? Does it really do any good?
My son wants me to quit worrying about this and accept him the way he is. He seems happy and has gifted friends with common interests. He is happy that he doesn't have to deal with the bullies at school that his friends tell him about.
