What you describe (is he behind or at standard for K) is something the school OT is supposed to be able to do. YMMV, but we have had very mixed experiences, with the school OT sometimes choosing not to remediate things that were obvious, glaring problems. Outside OTs are highly variable as well.
And kindergarten is tricky-- the level of fine motor skill that is presumed is very, very low, so it's likely they'll tell you he's fine, whether or not there is a problem, unless the problem is so enormous that anybody could see it.
Sorry to sound a bit pessimistic... we have obviously had very mixed experiences about motor skills remediation.
DeeDee
DeeDee
Given what you have had to fight for I understand your pessimism! In our situation, we aren't really sure what we want. When we had him initially tested at 4.5 it was because the psych who did the WPPSI said the frustration produced by the difference in his skills really should be addressed. So he did about 8 sessions, but it wasn't a good fit at the OT was used to dealing with kids with more severe disabilities. However, it did get him over the "i won't do it because I am not good at it" behavior. But he improved in pre-k and now in K - we see MASSIVE improvement - so what we have been pushing back against with his K teacher is that he needs to be at gifted K levels for writing and handwriting. She says he is below K, we aren't sure, but that is why we finally agreed to the testing.
DS has turned a bit of a corner - he must have been in some sort of growth spurt because he had been resisting everything and is now back to his more agreeable self - he said they are still doing handwriting without tears in class - and said he would be willing to get it for home to so he could do it here too.
So on some level, if this is a situation where they think he 'should' just be further along we are ok with them saying no services necessary and just let him get better as his physical skills improve. But if there is a issue obviously we need to deal. I don't know if they downplay to not have to offer services - the pysch volunteered that not many get services at this gifted school, but the majority of those that do get OT.
Plus, I know that some of the problem is that he feels much of the work is a waste of his time or is not interesting - so we have been working on that. When the subject is interesting his handwriting improves - not a lot - but enough!
DeHe
