I was with my 2 1/2-year-old son in his classroom the other day when I noticed a strange adult working with another child. I’m always wary of strangers around my children so I asked the teacher who she was. The teacher told me that she was an occupational therapist who was working with another student in the class (a 3-year-old boy). Of course it’s none of my business so I would never think to ask the parents why their son needs and OT, but I am curious.
Does anyone know what benefit a 3-year-old would get from an OT?
An occupational therapist could be working with the boy for any number of reasons. Delayed fine motor skills have many and varied causes. My youngest son has been getting OT for years, starting before he was two. Before school starts, the state is responsible for services. They will send their contracted therapists into daycare if that’s where the child spends his days. It’s a lot simpler than going into the kids’ homes at night after their parents get off work.
Occupational therapy is a vast field. For instance, the therapist who worked with me after my surgery to repair my broken wrist was an occupational therapist. (Apparently therapists who rehab hand and wrist injuries are considered occupational therapists… who knew?) Just off-hand (so to speak ) the child could have a developmental disability like autism or cerebral palsy, a mental health issue such as OCD, fetal alcohol syndrome, central nervous system damage or disorder, spinal cord injury or birth defect, be recovery from fracture or injury like I was, or have any other visual, perceptual or cognitive impairment.
OT is fairly common for autistic or developmentally delayed (physically delayed, not mentally) preschoolers. I worked with sped 3-6 year olds and the OT person came twice a week to provide services to some of the kids in the class. She worked extensively with one of my charges who hadn’t begun to walk until age 3.
My daughter had an OT when she was in preschool. Also a Physical Therapist. She has Cerebral Palsy. Her OT helped her learn to do self-help things (tie her shoes, button buttons, so on), and also helped with classroom fine motor stuff – drawing, writing, using scissors.
I must say, though, that while being careful of strangers around your kids is laudable, I’m not sure that you need to be concerned about strangers in a classroom – especially when said stranger is working with another child.
My 5-year-old has had OT for a couple of years now, to deal with fine and gross motor skills as well as sensory integration problems. He has two different occupational therapists at school, and a private session each week. (He also has speech and physical therapists at school. I sometimes wonder when he gets any classroom time.)
Dweezil had OT services starting when he was about three also. He had fine (and to some extent) gross motor delays. OTs also help with sensory issues. One thing they did with my son was “brushing” (http://www.brighttots.com/sensory_integration.html) which was targeted at reducing his mild hypersensitivity and to calm him, overall.
I think y’all need to chill. All lilflower did was ask who the person was, which was perfectly understandable. For all he/she knew, the teacher might have been unaware of the person’s presence in the classroom.
I don’t think it’s unreasonable for me to be curious if there are strange adults in my child’s classroom. I didn’t suspect the OT of any nefarious behavior but since I’d never seen this other adult in the class and I didn’t know whether or not she would be spending any time with my child (because at the time I did not realize she was there for one child specifically), I felt I needed to know her purpose for being there. Plus, my child is only 2 1/2 so if something bad were to happen to him (i.e., this stranger upset him in some way), I do not know that he would be able to explain it to me very well. So until he gets better at conveying ideas and concepts to me, I will continue to ask questions about any adults with whom he has contact.
Perfectly reasonable and responsible attitude, IMHO. There is a big difference between freaking out anytime an adult comes near your child and inquiring about strangers in the classroom!
I didn’t mean you were unreasonable, or even overprotective, really. It just seemed odd to me. My kid’s classrooms often held people (parents, aides, other teachers) I didn’t know. But I didn’t think of them as “strangers” – the teacher knew who they were and what they were doing. I guess, to me, a classroom roof contitutes an introduction.
) the child could have a developmental disability like autism or cerebral palsy, a mental health issue such as OCD, fetal alcohol syndrome, central nervous system damage or disorder, spinal cord injury or birth defect, be recovery from fracture or injury like I was, or have any other visual, perceptual or cognitive impairment.