Unfortunately, the state I live in--Oklahoma--does not require that OT be given, no matter what the disability, if the child is not failing in some subject as a result of the disability. Because my son's reading, comprehension, spelling, math, and everything they test is above grade level for his age he would not qualify. Because my child, like a lot of twice exceptional children, is good at compensating for some of his disabilities he would not only not qualify for services, he would most likely not be allowed to do the above grade level work he is doing at home. He just told me that one of the things he told the doctor was that he felt good about himself even though he has some physical problems because he knows that he would surpass most of the kids his age mentally. To hold him back from the one thing he feels good about--learning--because of his disability is just plain wrong.
Months ago, when I talked to the gifted coordinator for our state, she encouraged me to write a letter to my legislators to ask that our laws be changed to require OT in public schools for twice exceptional kids, but I really don't think it would do any good. In my state, it seems that most people are happy with a mediocre education and they don't understand how I could ask for anything special for my child who is academically gifted.
If they would just allow some kind of part time school it would be great, but they won't. I would love for him to be able to attend the one hour a week gifted class at the school or band class next year, but he would have to be enrolled full time. A friend of my husband's who is a state representative and also on the education committee, and used to be a teacher, thought there should be a part time school option, but she says too many people are opposed to the idea. Many of the homeschoolers are against it because they think it opens the door for the government to get involved in their lives. I'm not quite sure I understand why. They haven't been very friendly ever since I mentioned that I thought part time school might be a good idea, so homeschooling feels very lonely sometimes but I can deal with it.
So my choices are to keep homeschooling or move out of this state. There are reasons that we cannot move so we just have to do our best we can with what we have. At least we can take breaks throughout the day to work on his motor planning issues and this could be fun, I suppose. We did get the Dance, Dance Revolution game out. He hasn't used this in six months, but after about 15 minutes he was able to get a C grade on the "Play That Funky Music" song. I tried it and couldn't do it as well as he did. I didn't realize it had a metronome feature on it and we turned it on, but my son says it doesn't help him and in fact it annoys him, so we had to turn it off. He said he wished he could get a video of me on the DDR to put on YouTube.
I think for exercise and increasing endurance, the DDR is good, but I realize now after watching him on it that it probably won't help with his motor planning issues. I don't think it will help him learn sequences of 10-15 dance steps in dance class any faster. I can't wait to see what an OT tells us.
