Yesterday was our first therapy session at CTC Kent.  Didn’t. Go. Well.!!!!!!!!!!  I did realize that our Family Care Coordinator (FCC) is very kind, very professional, very helpful.  Our speech therapist?  Not so much.  It. Was. Horrible.

We have to go again tomorrow.  Dreading it. But…..  after much deliberation, prayer, pacing, grousing under my breath and WAY OUT LOUD (to my husband, not the therapist) we finally decided how best to proceed.  AG and I are going to CTC Kent tomorrow and just going to try to get through this session… getting along…ignoring all sighing, rolling of eyes, underhanded remarks, etc.  Then we made an appointment with the Family Care Coordinator to come out and I’ll try to resolve the issues with her.

Basically… here’s the deal.  When AG was in Florida she received speech therapy for 30 minutes twice a week.  Washington wants to combine those sessions and give her 50 minutes once a week.  I think that long of a session is too high an expectation on a 23 month old child but, my bigger concern is only interacting with the therapist once a week instead of twice a week.  I feel strongly that once every 7 days is too long between sessions to have adequate progress. We advocated for AG on this issue and CTC agreed to honor her support plan from Florida.  They acted like this was a big thing for them to do but… lets review….THEY ARE REQUIRED BY FEDERAL LAW TO HONOR HER PLAN!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, at our session yesterday the speech therapist immediately started talking to me about changing her therapy sesssions and that I would change the sessions if I wanted Anna Grace to have "good" therapy.  When AG’s session ended the therapist let out this big sigh, rolled her eyes and said to the family care coordinator something to the effect that she can’t be expected to work with Anna Grace under these constraints.  The therapist also refused to review any of the information in Anna Grace’s chart, any of the info from her therapists and would not listen to any info I tried to give her about AG because she said she didn’t want to be "skewed".  (All of this was in addition to the therapist telling me that AG’s speech would be closer to target if my parenting skills were better, telling me that she thinks AG’s speech is closer to that of a 10 month old even though the child has nearly 40 words, etc etc etc.  It was bad.  It was ugly.)

In other words…. I have a speech therapist using every passive aggressive (and openly aggressive) tactic in her playbook.  Here’s the kicker…. why is she doing this?  Because seeing AG for 30 minutes messes up their schedule.  She speaks over and over again about their schedule and then will sometimes say it will be best for AG.  It seems to me the thing you mention most often is the thing you’re most concerned about.  What do they mention most often as their reason for changing AG’s therapy??????? THEIR SCHEDULE. 

In Orlando AG briefly had a therapist I wasn’t fond of.  BUT, it didn’t take long for me to realize that regardless of my feelings over this person’s personality, the therapist was having a fabulous inpact on Anna Grace.  Although AG’s time with this therapist was brief I firmly believe that this experience made a huge difference in her progress and preparing her for doing her best with her regular therapist.  Would I have lunch with this chic?  NOPE.  Will I put aside my personal opinions so she can work with my kid?  Absolutely.

My point being….. it doesn’t matter to me if AG’s therapist is Atila the Hunn (sp?) as long as she is appropriate with her, pushes her toward doing her best, we can establish a healthy/professional interaction and we see the results.  I can put up with anybody or anything if it’s to the benefit of AG.  So far….. I’m not seeing the therapist’s style and ugly attitude as having positive long term benefits.  Besides….if she keeps rollin’ her eyes at me like that I’m gonna snatch her baldheaded and then I’ll spend the rest of my days living with some chic named Bertha at the state prison.  But…. until that becomes necessary….. I’ll try to work out a polite compromise with the FCC on Monday and work hard to bite my tongue tomorrow.