Special Needs

Taking a therapy break?

My daughter was diagnosed with epilepsy two months ago. To date, they have not found a dose of medication that is effective in completely stopping her seizures. She has good days where she's verbal, engaged in therapy, using words frequently and mimicking sounds, etc. then we have days like yesterday where the seizures seem nonstop and she sits under the kitchen table with her thumb in her mouth completely unengaged and doesn't make a sound.

Part of me says some therapy even if its a bad session is better than nothing at all. We are getting some good sessions in-I'd say its 50/50.  Part of me wants to give her a break from all of this as she is still adapting to medication especially since they had to raise it twice in the past two weeks. Maybe a break would help recharge her, but what if it takes another 6-12 months before the medicine really works or its difficult to get her back in the routine? 

Wwyd? 

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Re: Taking a therapy break?

  • Grant gets 3 one hour therapies and one 90minute therapy each week. I don't see any value in his speech therapy so I am decreasing it to once a month. That way we don't have to go through the evaluation process to get back into services.

    If it were me, I would decrease therapy to something manageable and then go from there. I wouldn't stop them completely.


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  • image-auntie-:

    What does her doctor say?

    DS's psychologist and dev pedi do not condone stopping therapy for most kids. His psych compares therapy to Sisyphus and the boulder- if you aren't actively pushing the rock up the hill, it will roll right down to the bottom. I wonder if a break would cause her to lose skills she's worked hard to learn. 

    it wasn't something I discussed with her neuro yet. It was more of a passing thought and wanted to see if anyone had done something similar.  

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  • abs05abs05 member
    We had an insurance miscommunication last month and ended up with a three week break from speech therapy. I was not happy about it and feared total regression, but that did not happen. Instead my daughter actually used that time to practice different skills and really blossomed with her pretend play. She didn't gain any speech during that break, but she didn't lose it either. Now we are back at it and she does seems refreshed. So, I wouldn't take a super long break but a little break might be what she needs. FWIW, my daughter has apraxia and hypotonia.
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  • The only time DS2 gets breaks from therapy is due to illness, vacations, doctor appointments, or the actual therapists being out.  He misses hippotherapy the most mainly due to illness, weather (I have to drive an hour to/from), or doctor appointments. He just had a 2wk break from all therapies due to vacation and I could tell especially with PT related things.  Hippotherapy today said that he didn't lose as much this time as he has with previous small breaks (it usually takes a week or two to catch him back up).

    Overall my feeling is at some point, DS2 will be able to choose to actively not participate in therapy so while he is still young I want breaks to be as few and far between so he gets the best chance at gaining skills especially while therapy is still incorporated into play vs it being "work".

  • I'm a therapist to give you where I'm coming from.  I also have a son who's been on seizure meds for 5 years (weaning now)  I've seen kids really get burnt out from therapy.  A week off here and there really seems to help those kids.  More than that you're losing what's being gained (I'm speaking in very general terms).  It sounds like gaining seizure control is really your DC's main need right now.  If they are having a seizure (general) they aren't going to retain what's being taught.  Sorry you're going through this...
  • imagelazysusan:
    I'm a therapist to give you where I'm coming from.  I also have a son who's been on seizure meds for 5 years (weaning now)  I've seen kids really get burnt out from therapy.  A week off here and there really seems to help those kids.  More than that you're losing what's being gained (I'm speaking in very general terms).  It sounds like gaining seizure control is really your DC's main need right now.  If they are having a seizure (general) they aren't going to retain what's being taught.  Sorry you're going through this...

    thanks for the insight as both a parent of an epileptic child and therapist. We are taking a vacation for a week and a half which will make her miss two weeks of therapy. I'm hoping a little break will help and will consider extending it depending on how she is (after consulting with her neuro/treatment team, of course). 

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  • I would take an unofficial break before I formally withdrew from any services. It was a pain for us to get everything set up for DS2, and I'd hate to have to do it again.
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  • imageaugust06mom:
    I would take an unofficial break before I formally withdrew from any services. It was a pain for us to get everything set up for DS2, and I'd hate to have to do it again.

    oh, I don't plan on withdrawing completely. I'm thinking maybe four weeks or so. Nothing long term. 

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