OT Evaluation

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My son has to go in for an OT Evaluation tomorrow and is also having to have a sensory evaluation. Every time I ask the therapist about it, I just get like a vague idea of what they are going to be doing. Can any give me some examples? Also, in the fall my son (starting 2nd grade and confirmed with Aspergers in march) is going to be getting evaluated by the school district to see if they think he has Aspergers so that he can get the various programs that go with that other than just what they are calling a 504 (stuff like a counselor who specializes in Autism). The principal said it is standard for their counselors to interview him and make their own diagnosis - even though we have had three doctors confirm it and have had him in therapy since March. I told her I could get letters from them stating he needs these services, but she said it wasn't needed. I guess it is my own distrust of any kind of bureaucratic system, but I can't help but feel that we are going to have to fight to get him the stuff that he needs. Am I just being paranoid? Has anyone else gone through this process with a Texas school district?

I'm not in Texas but it is fairly common for each therapist to evaluate new students. They are not dxing - they are not doctors, they can't DX. What they are doing is evaluating strengths and weaknesses to see where and how they can help. The IEP and 504 processes requires them to outline the goals of therapy and the methods they will use to achieve those goals. Every kid with autism is more individual and unique than a snowflake. There is no 'standard' treatment. Every child needs to be evaluated individually.

Nothing sounds weird or out of line from what you described. Our daughters OT focused immediately on her hand writing skills since that was what she was initially referred for but through the evaluation, parental and doctor input and the continuing input of her other teachers they came up with a complete 'picture' of her needs. They will assess motor skills - OT focuses on fine motor skills like catching a ball, handwriting. buttoning buttons, tying shoes. They'll put him through some basic - an usually fun - tests to see where he is skills wise.

I don't blame you for distrusting the system BUT, in my experience, at least, the actually therapists are much more in tune and dialed in to a childs needs. Call them, get their email address, whatever it takes to get to know them and develop that trust.

My daughter also had a 504 plan before her dx with Aspergers. A 504 is just an intervention plan to address skills and learning deficits. An IEP is a special education designation - they are reserved for kids with more than just one or two issues - it creates a cooperative learning environment with special education, the regular classroom and the other educational specialists that will be involved in your sons education. A 504 is like an IEP lite version. The IEP is all inclusive.

THANK YOU! My son has a 504 in place now, but it is just really basic. The reason we are going to the OT evaluation tomorrow is because the therapist he sees has concerns about the way he holds a pencil with handwriting. He also can't tie his shoes because he just doesn't have the motor skills. His gym/PE teacher the other week was telling me about her concerns about his abilities when they were playing things like Kickball. It just seems like such a long process to get through all the steps so they/we can start helping him more.

That's a great sign then. His educational team is being proactive in addressing his issues. That's a great place to be starting from.

Are they starting a psychoeducational testing with the district psychologist? That's what it sounds like - that they initiated the process. That's also a great place to start from. Many times parents need to fight tooth and nail just to get the school district to start that process. It does take time - months actually- but it is a complete educational evaluation. Make sure the district psychologist has the dx and other documents from your dxing doctor as well. They will include those in the report. They use that report to guide needed services in an IEP.

If the school saw the need in your son and started that process themselves - I'd say you have a decent team on your side. The fact that they are starting services as add ons to your 504 instead of waiting for the IEP is also wonderful.

This is all good news! Glad to hear the system is working as intended for once!

Yeah, my wife and I have felt really lucky with the school he is at and the teacher he had this year. We were hopeful that we would have everything done before the start of second grade, but it doesn't look like that is going to be the case. The principal and his first grade teacher are going to work with his second grade teacher so she knows what to expect and will hopefully be able to avoid some of the meltdowns and issues we had at the start of first grade. Plus, we will have a summer of therapy and working on our own to help him more as well.

In addition to fine and large motor skills, the OT may evaluate your chils's ability to follow multi-step instructions and look for sensory sensitivies, among other things. The sensory stuff may be evaluated more by asking questions of you and your wife than of a physical examination, things like does he like to be hugged or "buried" under piles of blankets or does he avoid close contract with others? Does he seem to be troubled by sudden loud noises and do such sounds not seem to register with him? The OT is also likely to ask about things like problems with transitions and disuption of routines.

I would guess that the therapist is being vague because there are such a variety of things to be considered and how your child presents in different areas should lead the OT as to what he or she needs to evaluate.

Our OT was similar to what has been described. I did want to just add that the vagueness is most likely 'professional courtesy'. Different therapists / OT etc do things differently and its never a good idea to go into too much detail on what another professional office visit will be like. Better to be a bit vague and let that specialists explain it themselves.

She has mentioned that she has concern that he has trouble processing a certain tone. I can say something to him, and he will understand. My can say the same thing, the same way and in the same level tone as I did, and he thinks she is yelling at him and never gets word for word what was said. He seems to have disconnect sometimes where we will say one thing and he will hear something completely different. Last week the therapist was working on him trying to decide which is right what his mother said or what his brain is saying she said.

There are lots of different sensory disorders that can occur in AS. Your son's 'tone' issue could be a sound processing disorder or a number of other different things. These are all things they will be looking at and testing for in the full evaluation.

It would be helpful to keep a written list of all these little things that you notice and experience at home and to share it with the educational team. Many times kids will do a great job of keeping it all together at school and then when they get home just relax and let all their quirks, traits and symptoms out. The school may not see the same behaviors you do or to the extent that you do.

We are in Texas. We had my son in OT/PT for a year for his sensory issues. At the end of 2nd grade, we could see that wasn't meeting all of his needs. It was becoming apparent the older he got that it was more than only sensory. We were going to test him ourselves, but our school said that while they would look at any other results we had, they had to do their own testing. We had a district psychologist that did testing and observations, a district speech therapist evaluated him and an occupational therapy evalutaion. They looked for Psychological problems, Autism, ADHD, Speech and OT. We gave them all previous evalutaions we had done on our own. We filled out some of the parental evaluations and we came in and did an interview too. His teacher did evaluations for some of the tesing too. I would have to pull out my records to recall all the test names. I don't have time right now. Before I spent even more money on testing or therapy, (We had him tested at 3 1/2 and they said he wasn't on the spectrum.) I decided to see what the school did. If I didn't like how the school handled it, I was going to get my own testing and then fight them. I didn't know what to expect. Our district was very good and looked for everything. When we got our report, it was very complete and they did come back with autism, specifically aspergers in their report and speech delays in pragmatic speech. I think that is just how it works it Texas. They also don't call them IEP meetings, they are ARD mettings in Texas. They are the same thing though.

We have an ARD here first, then he gets evaluated by the school, then we have another ARD about what he is going to need. He had his OT evaluation today (not through the school, but through what we are doing on our own), and she said she thought she needed to see him every week. Not so much for the Aspergers, but just general motor skill delays that could be feeding into the Aspergers or something along those lines. She also recommended we gets his eyes checked because she thinks he has a depth perception problem as well. She didn't really do any testing for sensory (which shocked us since that is what we were really there for), but said we might do those in a few weeks once she gets to know his ticks and can read him better. I was amazed at how quick he clicked with her. He was playing with her and having a blast - which is something he never does with strangers.

We actually did have a meeting with all specialists, his teacher, and administration to determine if testing was needed too, I just didn't put that step in my previous post.

I think it helped that we were just coming from what he calls "the boring talk lady" (his regular therapist) and he went into this room where the lady wanted to play kickball, toss, color, cut n paste and fun stuff.

the school does have to do their own evaluation, they cannot simply take reports from your private assessments. the IDEA laws require them to "identify, locate, and evaluate" all children with disabilities, so part of their responsibility is to do that evaluation. if they did not do the evaluation after having already identified him as having a disability, then they wouldnt be upholding their end of the requirements under the law.

as for the 504 vs IEP, the iep is actually more protective for your child. you can get the same accommodations, but the iep also requires that the school act within a certain time frame, gives you legal remedies if you disagree with the process, and gives you access to disability specific services that they dont have to provide with just the 504. that the school wants to put him on an iep is a good thing. you will likely have to fight less with an iep than with the 504.

our 5 yo autie had an OT evaluation done as part of his whole assessment, and these are some of the things noted in the report that they used to test him: jump, run, draw lines and circles, scissors use, lacing/unlacing a "shoe puzzle", throwing 12 inch ball including at a target, jump on a trampoline, slide, climb, following verbal one step directions in both a quiet 1 on 1 setting and in the classroom setting. the OT also did some observations in the classroom, watching his activity level, what he does and how he moves, how he interacts with his environment and other people, sensory seeking or avoidance.

the OT is mainly the smaller motor skills, if your child really does have issues with the larger motor skills (walking, running, climbing stairs, etc) you may want to request they do a physical therapy evaluation also. OT will deal with handwriting and sensory issues, but PT deals more with the ability to get around.

When your child gets to high school if your school has study skills or whatever it is called dont make your child take it.
Yes I failed many classes but when I enjoyed the class I got high bs to a +s. Study skills would take your child out of some of those great classes.