Lala, no worries. I was clueless in the beginning. It's been a learning process for me too.

The school social worker is like a psychologist. The school has a psychologist who works half the week and the social worker works half the week. The budget doesn't allow for full-time. So the social worker has been working on social skills with him since Kindergarten when his teacher expressed concern that he wasn't interacting with the other kids and he was still parallel playing. She showed him how to ask to play with other kids, how to be friends, how to ask for help if he needed it, etc. She came to the classroom, and he would have sessions in her office. She also formed a social skills group with a couple other kids in school who needed extra help socially.

Our school district also has an OT who works at all the schools where needed. She worked with him in 1st and 2nd grades. He was having meltdowns in the mornings when all the kids were coming in and putting away their backpacks, too overwhelming and too much noise. So they started having an aide bring him to the swings on the playground in the morning right after he got off the bus. By the time he got to the classroom, the kids were sitting in their places. Then he had motor breaks at a few times throughout the day, often right before times he needed to focus. Motor breaks were mini trampoline, punching bag, sitting scooter, wheelbarrows, swinging, etc. End of the day he had the same issues, so an aide came to get him and they'd read in the library or go out to the swings again.

The Special Ed (Education) teacher helps him academically. She tested him (I think at the end of 1st grade?) to see what areas he needed more help and figure out how he learns. He freezes like a deer in the headlights when there's a time limit, like for tests. He has a hard time learning or following directions if it's just given orally. He needs a visual aid too. I'm the same way, could never just listen to a lecture and take in the information, always had to read the information too, for it to stick. I can't take phone messages very well at all.



Over the the summer before 1st grade, he was evaluated for autism, but they said he didn't fit enough of the criteria. Kept searching for answers. School started a plan for him, including OT and motor breaks. As a freelance editor, I edited the revised edition of The Out-of-Sync Child Has Fun. I realized that the activities they were doing at school were the same ones suggested in the book--and they were helping him. Since the book was for SPD, I looked up more about that and found the checklist. Had my aha moment when so much on the list fit him. So I brought him to an OT center and he was diagnosed with SPD (and later anxiety).

So the school came to me with things they wanted to set into place to help him. Of course I said yes! They were doing so much already before we even had a diagnosis. After I got the evaluation from the outside (not related to the school) OT center, I passed it along to his school so they'd have the specifics of his SPD. So the only things I came to them with were the SPD checklist and the OT evaluation. I kept in close contact with the social worker to let her know when we were having issues at home. My son relapsed a bit one time when hubby went away on a business trip. When his routine is disrupted, it often causes lots of meltdowns.

I was amazed at all the people involved as well! And they meet every 6 weeks to discuss every student in school who has a plan 504/IEP. They decide what is working and what isn't working, make changes when needed.

Marci, yes, my son is starting to not like Mom telling him what he needs to do all the time. I'll have check that program out!