Tough Decisions Regarding School and Therapy

It's that time of year again - time to make major decisions regarding Faith's school year. Last year we had to make the huge decision of Faith attending Kindergarten for half days or full days. We decided half days would be enough for her, considering she still had therapy sessions at the clinic in the afternoons. Looking back, I think we definitely made the right decision.

This year, we are looking at Faith attending school full days. With that decision made, it opens the door for many other decisions to be ironed out. Some of those have been very difficult decisions and as we make them, I find myself wondering if we're doing the right thing.

For instance, Faith has been seeing her physical therapist at least once a week since she was six months old. I have always dreaded the day that Faith would no longer see that physical therapist. Well, that day is coming. We decided to for-go physical therapy, until January anyway. We hope that by cutting PT from her schedule at the clinic, (she'll still receive PT services at school) Faith's lighter load will enable her to have more energy for school.

Last days of summer, which means it's time to start thinking about school again!

We have also decided to cut out Occupational Therapy (OT) at the clinic for about a month to see how she does in school full days. We're hoping that by being around the other kids during snack time and lunch, Faith will feel more motivated to feed herself, which is something we've been working on during OT.

We will continue with her speech therapy, to the relief of those who work there. They were worried they wouldn't get to see Faith at all anymore!

I hope we are making the right decisions. I know that if full days don't pan out, we will just have to take another route. The hard part about making decisions is the not knowing part. She has had one full day of kindergarten, and she had two full days at summer school - all of which went great. But this is going to be five days in a row, week after week. And when she's in school, it's not just class she's attending, she also has all of her therapies plus her special education program.

I wouldn't be so concerned if she was a good sleeper, and I knew she would regenerate her energy, but she doesn't sleep well sometimes and has decreased amounts of stamina as the week wears on. We just don't know how she's going to handle all of this. What I do know is that we do the best we can with what we've got and that someday in the future we can hopefully look back and say, yes, that was the right decision.