So what is "typical" in terms of what is offered for services like speech and OT? Is there a bare minimum required by state law? Before they agreed to do the eval they said that the MOST he would get would be OT 20 min. per week (that's the most ANYONE gets according to them) so I'm actually surprised they are suggesting have a special ed teacher work with him twice per week as well.
Services are not standard, but driven by need. (And theoretically not by when the provider happens to be available.) The IEP team is supposed to look at the data collected through the evaluation process, identify the needs of the child, then write measurable IEP goals, and THEN craft a set of services that will allow the child to meet those goals. Discussion of services should come at the end of that process, after it's clear what's reasonable and needed to attain the goals.
Of course, if the evaluation was shoddy or incomplete, or the team wasn't honest in making measurable goals for the IEP, the decision about services can be made poorly.
FWIW of all the services we have had at school, special ed support was the most flexible, and the one we got the most mileage out of. They can deploy that time toward organizational skills, classroom behavior, practically anything your child needs, as long as it is in support of the IEP goals. This was a lifesaver for us.
Speech services have been completely uselss. DS has a fluency/prosody problem (he is somewhat apraxic) but the SLP with the school seems clueless about how to deal with it. Lately she has been having him read to her, using appropriate expression in his voice and that's what speech therapy entails. So I'm wondering if I should just leave that alone and hope that whatever school he is in next fall will modify the speech section of the IEP and do a better job.
We had a school speech therapist who was actually making things worse and we ended up just declining services. But I only felt OK doing that because we had very comprehensive help outside of school that was allowing DS to progress. I would probably not turn down school services if you have nothing better to replace them with. (The only exception: if the person is so bad they are doing harm.)
Everyone can clearly see the impaired motor skills--for instance he can barely hold a pencil, he can't color, his cutting looks like a 3 year old, he has troubles getting caps off markers. But right now overall he is producing what he needs to produce. It probably will be much more difficult when more writing is required, but in first grade they just write a few sentences at a time, which DS can pull off.
You are wise to plan for future needs. The writing demands go up a lot in 2nd grade and still more in 3rd. And coloring lasts... forever, it seems, but at least well into middle school.
DeeDee
