Hi passthepotatoes, it is a good question.
My youngest child did have an OT eval between K and 1st grade. We looked and looked for someone who did not seem to have a "sensory" approach. But we ended up failing at that, and the woman wrote a long report including results of sensory tests she had administered (the PRAXIS test I think). We never shared the report with the school (which had been pushing for an eval already throughout k). The reason we did not share the report was it was full of sensory recommendations, and other recommendations we found incredibly unhelpful.
There was even a section of the report which stated that the tester saw these things I (the mom) denied, and if I were at home right now I would pull the report and quote some of it (maybe I will do that when I return to NY). She found my son fidgety (and sensory seeking I think), but her testing was done at 5 PM on a hot day when my son had been in camp 8 to 4, and he was tired!
I also objected to the idea she had a long list things she wanted the teacher to do differently for my son, including allowing my son to sit on a bouncy chair while completing his writing assignments at school. My ds comes from a family where there are shadow syndromes of autism and one older brother had the full-blown disorder (autism) among other handicaps. My kids need CLEAR signals about what behavior is expected and when. There is an inside voice and an outside voice. Bouncy chairs are for playtime and NOT for work time.
I think that recommendation for a bouncy seat during writing time is ridiculous for my son and most unhelpful, and I would never bring a recommendation like that in a report to his teacher. So we buried the report and tried to do Handwriting without Tears and other things at home (sad to say the "without tears" bit did not work out as promised!)
My son's next year (first grade) the teacher pushed us to go to a specific center for OT. I found the place had a website online, and I of course checked out what they said about their services there. Turns out the director of that center describes herself as follows on that site: (blank) "has specialized training in the evaluation and treatment of children with sensory processing disorders." When you look at their "services provided" page it says near the top of the list "SIPT Sensory Integrations Praxis Test" and "Sensory Processing Disorder Evaluation." This center by the way is the one more than half of my son's classmates at that (former) private school were sent to for their evals (of course at extra expense to the parents). All the boys evidently had "upper body weakness" or similar problems which were supposed to be some huge problem which could interfere with future academic performance.
I was fairly outspoken with the parents of classmates and we all ended up sharing report cards and teacher's comments about our kids, which is how the parents all figured out so many kids were pushed to go to this OT provider. (Actually the discovery of just how many kids had been referred from that one school came a little later, as our kids were by then in the first half of second grade).
As we were looking at options for 3rd grade, we were floored when a different private school told us they would admit my son as an incoming 3rd grader contingent on our getting him evaluated by that SAME provider of OT services. Wow, that OT provider has some power in our neighborhood! I think the prospective school thought we would go along with it willingly, but we ended up declining the offer of admission instead. Then the school said my son could come even without the eval, but we wound up saying no thanks since by then my son had gotten into a good lottery school (public). My son landed in a 3rd grade CTT class at the new public school though (some kids in the class have IEPs) and there is a child in the class with a 1 on 1 assistant in the room. She is a "para" and really sweet (not fully trained as an OT yet), but guess what her specialty is?
If kids in your community can get OT services without primary focus on "sensory integration" I am pleased to hear it. I wish for us it were as simple as us just not expressing anything about sensory problems, and I wish I could find someone who would provide an evaluation of fine motor and handwriting without also giving the PRAXIS test, etc. I think the sensory treatments are so very popular here it is next to impossible to get away from them if your child gets any OT. And then if you decide to put up with the sensory treatments so your child can get the other benefits from OT, your child comes away with these confusing recommendations (like for the bouncy chair use when the child really needs to be practicing sitting quietly during that activity).
I have some real concerns about this child (my youngest) and maybe I will come back and ask in a new thread how to deal with his issues (he is a real underachiever in school, performing far below his ability).That is another whole story....... (by the way, sorry for the long, long posts).
