The last time that LuLu went to speech therapy provided by the public school she was in kindergarten. (When I said that to this speech therapist today, she was truly blown away, and just kept asking “why did they stop?”) Now here we are six years later, and today we went for her first speech therapy session through the virtual academy. Even though she’s been enrolled since November, it has taken the school awhile locate and contract with private providers.
Now a gun-shy mom like myself, who has been extremely burned by public schools could have gotten a bit nervous while waiting for these services. Truth is, STs and OTs are hard to find, and with the virtual school’s enrollment being so much larger than they’d anticipated, they were scrambling. And I could have grumbled when I found out that the clinic was quite a drive from us. But I didn’t, and boy am I glad.
The clinic’s owner immediately recognized how long our commute was going to be and scheduled at a time that was easier, and scheduled LuLu’s speech therapy and occupational therapy back-to-back. (That’s right fans, they are giving LuLu OT too…woo hoo!) The clinic is very sensory-based, so there is an awesome sensory room where LuLu will do both her ST and OT, and the two therapists will work together on some things. As we talked, they also brought up the idea of a social skills group and some brain-based, computer interventions to help with her auditory issues. The OT is going to do some programs with her to help her learn better self-regulation and modulation skills.
I couldn’t believe my ears! After all the battles we’ve gone through, both with the schools and with getting insurance to pay for any private therapies we’ve pursued, to have someone just hand us such appropriate therapy…well, I’m still wondering if I was dreaming this morning.
And LuLu, she’s already asking if she can order a pill-shaped ball and one of the swings for her birthday and build her own sensory room. Hmmm…not a bad idea!