Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Done

We had our final OT session this morning. Emily asked if we wanted to extend services for a month, and I declined. With the holidays coming up and all, I'd really rather have our calendar freed up, and I don't see the benefit to Finn to have one more month of OT.

So we're done - done with early intervention. No more therapy. I am honestly relieved. All the therapists Finn has had have been committed to their professions and passionate about what they do, but I still can't attribute a single gain Finn has made to therapy. (And in all honesty, I'm left scratching my head, wondering how true believers in therapy quantify the benefits of it. I know there are those parents out there who assume that we've just had a bad all-around experience with early intervention - which is true to some degree - and that I'd feel differently about it if only we could get better therapists.) I won't go so far as to say it's all been a complete waste of time; some things you just don't know until you go down the path, and in order to discover that therapy was not the end-all be-all for us, we had to go down the path of early intervention. Do I wish I had trusted myself as a parent a little more? Or that I had had more faith in Finn to progress along his own path? Yes. And I'm sure there will be times in the future, as we fly solo, so to speak, when I will second-guess myself. But I also know that is the nature of parenting - parenting any child.

I am looking forward to a schedule free from therapy appointments, days when we can instead go for long walks, go to the park, and just be.

I assume our Service Coordinator will be closing Finn's file. I don't know what that will mean with regard to transitioning him to the school district when he turns three next summer. I have no idea at this point if I even care. Maybe we'll take another year to just be. Who knows?

5 comments:

SunflowerStories said...

Enjoy your time with Finn! I think you are doing a great job on your own and need to do what fits your family best.

Angelle said...

Glad you are so confident in Finn's and your family's ability to meet his needs. I think that's true of lots of families.

Other times, I think kids and families benefit from early intervention. There's just no one-size-fits-all solution.

Unknown said...

I know you are 3 years past the Early Intervention debate but I have a few questions for you.

First let me tell you that I am a Mom to a 1 1/2 year old with DS. We have OT , PT and Speech therapy for her everyday of the week. I am happy with it so far.

Why was it that you didn't like EI? Did you not like your therapists? You didn't see a benefit?

I just found your blog last night. I was looking for some new books to read and your reading list came up. I am sure you have explained your reservations about EI in your posts but to tell you the truth I dont have time to search through them!

Thanks,
Gillian

Lisa said...

Gillian, hopefully you'll check back here and see this. There are so many reasons that I'm not a big fan of EI. Instead of trying to write it all out here, I'll share a post I wrote about it a while back: http://www.lisamorguess.com/2011/01/26/babies-and-early-intervention/

That pretty much sums it up for me. Finn just turned 5 and I never regretted dropping out of EI, although he has received speech therapy through the school district for the past two years. I do think that EI has its place, but I don't think it's appropriate for all children with Ds or other disabilities, and I do think that parents should question it more.

I also highly recommend the book, Disability is Natural by Kathie Snow.

Unknown said...

Lisa, thank you for your response. I had some time to check out your older posts on EI and I found them very interesting. I can now understand why EI was becoming an annoyance for you and your family.

So far I have had a good experience, but your posts made me understand that I have the power to change the services as I see fit. I never thought about the fact of "being sold on EI ". It is so true. From the day Zella was born I have had people telling me what she needs, what I should do and when to do it. From now on I am going to question these things more and not just do something because someone else thinks I should.

Thanks for offering a new perspective. I really enjoy your writting and will continue to read your older posts for more eye opening views.