ABC Therapeutics Occupational Therapy Weblog

I am writing this entry in the hope that it will be referenced as well as my other pages on "Adult Sensory Processing Disorder." Look here for more information. As I have discussed in the past, I advocate a conservative approach to understanding these difficulties that people report. Unfortunately, there are some rather unscrupulous people in the world who have set up websites where you pay money to take a test and then they will tell you if you have "Sensory Processing Disorder." I won't link to those sites because I don't want to drive any traffic to them. People who are having difficulties may be easily fooled by this kind of scam. It is a free world and if people want to pay money for Internet tests then I suppose that is their business - but I am also free to state that in my opinion sending money to get this "diagnosis" is a colossal waste of money and may actually divert people from seeking appropriate care from their doctors. If the pe

The players: Yorick: The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) Horatio: Education Secretary Arne Duncan Hamlet: President Obama The plot: After overwhelming bipartisan support for education reform and an honest but failed attempt at tackling a problem, partisan hacks run for the hills and blame a former President for his education policy. Background reading here. ______________ Obama: Alas, poor NCLB! I knew him, Arnie Duncan; a policy of infinite bipartisan support, of most excellent intentions: it hath borne us on its back a thousand times, and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is. Here hung those standards of which I have praised I know not how oft. Where be your requirements now? Your purpose? Your promise of school choice? Your flashes of expectations, that were wont to set the teacher's unions on a roar? Not one, now, to praise your own objectives. Quite chap-fallen? Now get you to my Cabinet's chambers, free from Congressional oversight, and have them paint an inch t

Bullying is not just a part of growing up. Just because something happens does not mean that it is normal or should be tolerated. I am aware that many people 'live through' their bullying and think that it is enculturated into childhood - but that opinion only holds up in the mind of someone who was victimized and then grows past the problem. Not all children are so resilient - particularly those who already have differences from the 'social norm' that are causing them to be targeted. The need for a different level of bullying intervention is brought to a tragic light for us locally in Western NY because of the apparent suicide of a high school student over this weekend . Perhaps I don't have much to say, or maybe I just feel like anything I was going to say feels like it rings a little hollow in context of the real story. Please go read about Jamey Rodemeyer. He perceived himself as different and perhaps was victimized because of these differences. Sometimes t

Proposed changes to early intervention reimbursements have been temporarily shelved. Today Brad Hutton, Director of the NY State Early Intervention Program, sent out an email stating: The Department has removed from this regulatory package the changes to the payment of home and community-based and facility-based visits. The Department remains committed to continued examination of the EIP reimbursement methodology and intends to have more discussion about this and other proposals with its Reimbursement Advisory Panel in the coming months. I know that a lot of people are very happy about this, but it is important that we consider all of the events that led up to this recent decision. As I have discussed here frequently in the past there is no question that there is need to revamp billing for this program to help support collection of payments from insurance plans. The problem is that we just witnessed and experienced an extraordinarily irresponsible and haphazard attempt to fix the pro

One of the biggest concerns that we hear about from parents relates to how their children are functioning socially in their schools. Most schools have 'anti-bullying' or 'bullying prevention' programs in place. Recently, there is a lot more talk about bullying in school environments but that hasn't seemed to stop the behaviors much in the perspective of many families whose children still struggle with the problem. It is important for parents to know that there are different kinds of bullying - and just because a program is established or policies are in place in a school that doesn't mean that bullying will cease to occur. Broad programmatic anti-bullying efforts like those listed on the OSEP website tend to speak to the whole school population and attempt to create a culture of respect that works on a very broad level. As a result, most kids understand that peer exclusion, relational aggression, and even direct bullying is not acceptable. However,