How much therapy is necessary when there was no need in the first place?

OT play
(photo by Dad)

Little Missy's teachers have never told us that there are any problems. We were not called in to school for any reason. 

Her report cards are very good.

But because she is born in the last month of the year, there is a bit of a worry about her school readiness. I am the guilty party! (l now think that I should have left it!)

We did the school readiness tests at the developmental psychologist and the results did not come back as positive as we expected. I blogged about it already: School readiness results. She referred us to an Occupational Therapist and an Optometrist.

So we are seeing the Occupational Therapist and Little Missy is in occupational therapy every week. We decided to not do tests again, because the OT feels she does not want to test again within six months from the previous testing, and to cut out paying for another round of tests and a report.

The day before yesterday we saw the Optometrist, and although her vision is perfect, she apparently needs glasses to help her eyes relax when she is reading. She also "needs" Visual Therapy to help her before she starts with reading. What is Visual Therapy? (I should have asked, but I was flabbergasted!) 

Luckily Little Missy is besotted with her new glasses, and couldn't wait to use them at school today.

I feel it is all too much! 

To address a problem when there was no problem in the first place?

It is also costing an arm and a leg. (Luckily we have medical aid.)

I would like to know how many children go to one of these assessments and walk out of there without having to go for follow-up therapies? 

Is it not only a big money-making scheme, with referrals keeping them all going? 

For how long are we now going to have to carry on with this?

It is also very disruptive. Little Missy misses a very important hour each week in school because she has to go for OT. Mom and Dad needs to take time off from work to drive her around.

Do we also not place a label on Little Missy for struggling or having issues when there was none before?

Not colour blind!

The first eye test went very well. I had made the appointment because I suspected our 4-year old is colour blind.

 

Little Missy told me she was afraid, and I had to promise I would hold her hand.

She was a star! The optometrist spoke only in English to her, and she even tried to give the answers back in English as well. She enjoyed all the machines, and different glasses, and could perfectly identify all the objects on the screen.

 

The optometrist gave her only 4 colour patterns to identify.

She had to coax her to identify a house in one of the colour patterns. (Which makes me feel a little bit uneasy...)

But, according to the optometrist: She is not colour blind, and we should not worry about it anymore. She says that she would not have been able to see any pattern in the 4 colour charts had she been colour blind.

She also carried on for quite a bit about girls and that it is very rare that they test positive for colour blind...

I will keep an eye (pun intended!) on the situation, but for now we will trust the judgement of the optometrist!

Yay!

I am relieved!

 

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