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School-age kids and therapy homework

macchiattomacchiatto member
in Special Needs
Some of the posts in the dealing with anxiety thread made me wonder: For those of you whose kids are in full-day school, especially if their therapies are private/outside of school time, how much time do you spend on therapy homework?

Boys started full-day K two weeks ago. They went from 3 hrs of preschool/day to being gone from 7:30-3:30 every day. Three days a week, X has in-home therapies right at 3:30 when he gets home from school. (Not my ideal timing but we're dealing with it.) They both still really need a good 30-45 min of quiet time/down time in their rooms after snack/therapies/whatever. (They still napped until recently, especially X.) 

I know we're still finding our groove with the new school schedule but the day ends up feeling kind of rushed with fitting in dinner, play time with DH, school homework, in bed by 8, etc. And I feel like X needs time to just relax and be a kid after all that school and therapy. Just trying to figure out how much I should be incorporating therapy homework (PT, speech--pragmatics/communication, EI family training, and f/u on OT he just "graduated" from) along with everything else at this stage.
fraternal twin boys born january 2009
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Re: School-age kids and therapy homework

  • bumpuser511563bumpuser511563 member
    It is almost like no therapy homework for us.

    I only work on things as we go along. Like last weekend DS was saying "come for me" and would pull my hand. We really had to work on saying "come with me please."
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  • d.fd.f member
    edited September 2014
    I don't do a lot of specific therapy homework. I work a bunch of stuff in naturally where I can. For Ot there's sensory activities available. Pragmatics and social skills are worked in naturally at the park, when I watch my niece...it has become second nature to reinforce the skills he's learned in social skills groups. I can't even tell you how many times I tell him daily that I don't respond to demands ("give me water") and make him rephrase requests or how frequently I tell him to put his thought in a bubble because it's still my turn to talk).

    DS 09/2008

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  • CaptainSeriousCaptainSerious member
    To be honest, I rarely do any speech homework with J that comes from our private SLP.  It's tough enough getting through regular and speech homework that comes from the school.  The school's speech teacher sends home assignments 1-2 times a week, at our request (most students only receive one assignment a week).  By asking her to send things home more frequently, it just became part of our routine, and we spend about 10 -15 minutes on it.
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  • funchickenfunchicken member
    We were only doing OT, but once DD was in kindergarten they did a ton of cutting and writing, so we didn't do as much at home. I try to work things in like pumping her legs on the swing, opening packages and heavy work like carrying things up and down the stairs.

    I also signed DD up for an art class after school last year. The philosophy of the class was that there were "no mistakes." They used sharpies, so they couldn't erase lines, and I found that it helped with some of DD's perfectionism, and it was good for fine motor, too :)




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  • Hiccup15Hiccup15 member
    Between DS1's and DS2's therapy, preschool, and work it has been hard finding a balance. I'll work things in when we are at the park, during bath, diaper changes for DS2 or just playing a few minutes after dinner. I've also just started fitting some in during the morning before we head out for the day. I have to be careful with timing for morning, but my boys need a little time to play in the morning and do not do well just rushing out the door. When they are playing after breakfast I'll work a few minutes with each one. 
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  • gardensparrowgardensparrow member
    It's definitely hard to fit everything in with the amount of homework and other activities kids have these days from regular school. And sometimes you just have to let some things fall by the wayside-at least until you can figure out a routine for the new schedule your kids have. But I like the idea of just trying to fit the therapies into your everyday activities, instead of having to set aside large blocks of time for them. But give yourself some time adjust and know that everything will feel a bit crazy to begin with. But, hopefully, as time goes by you guys will find a happy medium for fitting in what needs to be done. Hang in there! 
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