aculady - I agree whole heartedly. Even if a child is compensating, it may be at a cost - draining energy for example. As the child moves through school and the demands increase in terms of volume and complexity - it may difficult for even a brilliant child to keep up.
I always try to balance treatments with maintaining a full life for my child. When the progress stalls and tapers off, and we determine it isn't because of the practitioner or program, we reassess. Is it time for a new approach that would result in better gains? Or, is his skill as good as it is going to get and now it is time for plan B (typing for example). On one hand my son is fully aware of his challenges - he needs to understand so he can self advocate and employ compensatory strategies. But at the same time, I never want him to feel broken or like a project.
One last thing - we found that martial arts was a great way to address many of my son's motor issues. The strength and conditioning, sequencing, and, yes, crossing the midline was a very enjoyable way for him to work on some of his weaknesses. Like swimming, biking and horseback riding - it has the fun factor. For us, swimming has always been a huge chore; that difficulty with bi-lateral coordination and upper body strength has been a huge barrier. But, since it is a safety issue, he's had private swim lessons since age 5. As soon as he gets his BS Swimming Merit Badge, I think we can drop the lessons (which are very much like therapy to him). Luckily he loves to bike (once he finally learned at age 8)
