Therapy Quandary

Today I had a meeting with a developmental therapy place. It was the usual determination for The Love Magnet to see if she qualified for services. They told me that she would need to do at least 10 hours a week of services.

Do you realize how hard it is to plan 10 hours a week for therapy? That doesn't include the Physical therapy, Occuptaional therapy and Speech therapy she gets outside of school.

I didnt' want her to miss school too much so we finally determined that she would leave school the last half hour and be working on DT at their facility until dinnertime. Her therapist will even pick her up as part of services.

This is all new to me. We never qualified for services in Utah, but the rules are different in Idaho. So all of these new therapies have been thrown at us since January.

I am not sure what to think.

On one hand, I want every single advantage I can get for my daughter. But I worry that I am scheduling too much. DT will specifically aim at safety issues (wandering, trusting strangers, personal space) as well as social issues (like the bad behavior at school, pushing limits, hitting friends to see what will happen) and the constant redirection she needs when she gets off task. If these problems weren't a big deal, I wouldn't worry about it. But they are a big deal. They are affecting her at school. I do believe we need some extra help.

Should I worry that someone I will have barely met be driving my daughter from school to therapy? They are licensed and registered, background checked and educated. Will that be enough to protect my daughter?, although I can pick her up (I am in school at the time and wont' be able to take her myself.) I don't want therapy to go beyond her normal dinner time. Dinner with the family is important to us.

I don't want her to miss too much of school. She also gets out early for PT and OT one day a week. She loves school. But the afternoons are hard for her because those are when the specials like music, P.E., art and library are scheduled. Because there is less structure in the afternoons, that is when most of he problems start. The therapy we've done for a month have made noticible improvements in The Love Magnet. She likes PT, but not OT (OT is too much like work to her. PT is just fun).

I need to talk to other mothers doing this. I need to talk to Mr. Wonderful. I might need to try it for a month to see if it is worth doing. Is it worth doing? I try to make sure we don't overschedule the children.

Is it worth it? I need to pray about this, too.........