Remote SEIT is approved - now what?!

seeker

Wed, Mar 25 2020, 10:27 pm

Going to be brave here and not go anon.
When I do SEIT, I'm almost always within the classroom, and fitting in my work within the context of what the classroom is doing. There's often a lot of social facilitation with peers. I use a lot of physical techniques - whether that's arranging objects in a conducive way, using hand-over-hand guidance to help the child complete a task, gentle physical prompts, or just putting my body in a position that blocks undesired action or directs attention to desired places.

I am having a total panic attack meltdown trying to figure out how to adapt to video chat "therapy!" I have ONE kid who has the stamina and comprehension for teacher-directed activities that could be done over video. It'll be really hard to line up enough 1:1 activities to fill a session when usually our focus is interacting with peers (there is no possibility of looping a peer into the video, and no siblings in the family) but that's the least of my worries. MUCH bigger worry about the little kids who have zero attention span (this is not an exaggeration, one of my kids is really THAT challenging and another is better but still very challenged) and very very limited comprehension. I'm talking about kids who most of the time can't follow directions without prompting because they literally can't, and the rest of the time they can't follow directions without prompting because they are self directed and need constant motivation.

OMG I am so stressed and can hardly even begin to prepare for this. I did do some theoretical preparation because I knew this was likely to happen but at the same time I was deeply in denial so I'm not very prepared.

Where do I start?!!!

Actually I know where I need to start - by calling the parents first thing in the morning. That'll be fun, trying to convince them in middle of all the madness that they should facilitate a video session for their preschooler. The ones who are more challenged are going to need the parents to literally be there so they don't just run around the room not paying attention or breaking the computer or ipad or whatever. Wish me luck.

But we only got the go-ahead with no further details after 8 tonight so I wasn't able to reach out to the parents (by the time I was able to pause hyperventilating it was late enough that I wasn't sure if it would be rude to call. Can you call parents after 9?) so meanwhile I may as well start lining up lesson materials.

Owwww literally my body is hurting from the anxiety and overwhelm right now. This is going to consume so much time and energy. I feel really bad for people thrown into this who have larger families at home and whose kids need the computers... my kids' school is by phone so I can have the devices to myself. But the kids will still want feeding and stuff, and Pesach is coming, I was spring cleaning at a nice leisurely pace because as I said I was in denial that I would ever have a job again. Maybe I should have put this in the mental health section but I actually need practical advice on how you do this with 3 year olds who have no attention span and very little language.

HELP.

amother

Green

Wed, Mar 25 2020, 10:32 pm

I’m a Seit too.. it’s a crazy situation. I honestly don’t see how I will be able to do this. So many obstacles.. firstly there is nooo way my mandates will be filled. I have one child that has 9 hours!! No chance. Second of all this requires use of devices which my children will need. Speaking of kids, who is watching my kids while I retreat to do remote sessions for hours??
I doubt I’m actually going to go ahead with this.

amother

Blonde

Wed, Mar 25 2020, 10:36 pm

Are you mandated to provide the service? My son's ot called today. Apparently they were finally approved to do tele therapy but she informed the agency that she will not be able to provide the services. She asked if I am interested in video sessions and I said yes but I have no idea how you conduct OT over a video.

cnc

Wed, Mar 25 2020, 10:41 pm

My sons SEIT called me today and asked me I am interested. I said absolutely YES!

amother

Amber

Wed, Mar 25 2020, 10:41 pm

I have therapy on zoom for some of my kids nowadays, and I hold my preschooler the whole time. It's stressful, but I'm assuming most parents will be home (where else would they be) and they would make themselves available if they can.

You can read books on zoom, where the kid can see the pages on the screen. Do you know how to do that? It's part of my son's therapy every session. There's also hangman, but preschoolers are young for that. You can also draw and the kids can see it. I have never used zoom before, so I'm finding it cool.

seeker

Wed, Mar 25 2020, 10:53 pm

amother [ Blonde ] wrote:

Well if I decline to provide the services, then I have no income, so there's that. I already lost 2 weeks of income while waiting for the approval, and March is usually a great month that I really depend on. And Pesach is coming. So yeah I'm going to do this as well as I can.

I saw some nice OT video sessions on Youtube. There's a lot of the provider giving directions and the child following them, sometimes with parent involvement. But one of the kids I work with does not have the capacity to follow directions. He cannot even follow along the simplest board book in school, as far as I've been able to tell. So I'm trying to think as creatively as I can but this could become very embarrassing...

amother

Silver

Wed, Mar 25 2020, 10:55 pm

What sort of lessons/material are you hoping to cover?
ABCs? Numbers?

amother

Crimson

Wed, Mar 25 2020, 11:02 pm

I could have literally written your post op (down to the descriptions of your students). I am kind of panicking about it. I need the income but in a way was hoping that remote services wouldn't get approved - this way there would be nothing I could do about it and wouldn't feel guilty not working. I think its just impossible for me to fill all my mandates (one kid has ten hours a week - two hours a day!) I thinking about just doing 1/2 hr a day per kid. Still a big loss in money, which I cant really afford, but dont think that more than that is realistic.... also not sure how to get it done with my kids around.....

amother

Crimson

Wed, Mar 25 2020, 11:06 pm

seeker wrote:

I saw some nice OT video sessions on Youtube. There's a lot of the provider giving directions and the child following them, sometimes with parent involvement. But one of the kids I work with does not have the capacity to follow directions. He cannot even follow along the simplest board book in school, as far as I've been able to tell. So I'm trying to think as creatively as I can but this could become very embarrassing...

Can you post links of anything you find helpful?
Or anyone here who has any good ideas for remote lessons for 3yr olds - can you post?
We could use any help we could get....

amother

Silver

Wed, Mar 25 2020, 11:11 pm

Can you find you tube videos with songs and motions that you can sing with your student? Send worksheets for parents to print up while you talk them thru it? You'd need help from parents.

amother

Floralwhite

Wed, Mar 25 2020, 11:12 pm

I don’t do anything in a remotely similar field but one thing jumped out at me:

Student has no siblings, you have kids home, and you want to work on social interaction- can you’re kids be with you and part of e session

seeker

Wed, Mar 25 2020, 11:40 pm

amother [ Crimson ] wrote:

EXACTLY. I was like "ok, very stressful, Hashem yaazor, this is part of having a fee for service job and I'm hopeful it will even out eventually, meanwhile we're going to have a wonderful spring cleaning, and oy I feel for my WAHM friends and can't imagine how on Earth they're managing. #blessed."

seeker

Wed, Mar 25 2020, 11:42 pm

amother [ Floralwhite ] wrote:

My kids are older and have their own stuff to do, but anyway I can't see how it would work. I think the best I can do re social skills will be stories, puppets, and mentchies. Very theoretical but that's video school for you, it's by definition not going to be very hands-on.

seeker

Wed, Mar 25 2020, 11:43 pm

amother [ Silver ] wrote:

Can you find you tube videos with songs and motions that you can sing with your student? Send worksheets for parents to print up while you talk them thru it? You'd need help from parents.

Yes if parents can help that will be ideal. Not sure how much that will happen though. I have the one only child who happens to be the one who would need the least help, but the others have their hands full.

seeker

Wed, Mar 25 2020, 11:56 pm

I found this helpful for general tips about remote therapy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpFBiYlErRM

This is the OT one I was telling you about, this would never work with those kids who have no idea how to listen, and obviously the parents must have helped get the kit together. But I still found it helpful just to see someone at work. https://www.youtube.com/watch?.....=268s

Gonna keep searching around. Next issue, I don't have TIME to watch all these things for great ideas. Sigh.

amother

Crimson

Thu, Mar 26 2020, 12:43 pm

seeker wrote:

Thank you for those links - they where helpful

amother

Pumpkin

Thu, Mar 26 2020, 1:24 pm

The school I work at conducts class sessions via Zoom, such that all class lessons as well as short breaks with social interaction are provided virtually. If your school does this, would it be an option for you to join, and direct your students throughout the lessons and social breaks? You can see all the children and the teacher, and your students can see you as well. This would allow you to direct your students in the virtual classroom, guiding them through academics, social and emotional/behavioral skills, focus, etc., and could potentially help you to get in most of your hours, leaving a half-hour here and there for private sessions with your students. (Students cannot really focus for more than half an hour at a time when using this medium.)

amother

Lilac

Thu, Mar 26 2020, 2:27 pm

My son is also getting tele seit. The first day he didn't want to cooperate but today bh he did. He played a game over the phone . He's not using any devices.

seeker

Thu, Mar 26 2020, 2:38 pm

Hope your agency knows what they're doing because as far as I know DOE only approved services if they are both audio and visual at the same time.

What game did they play over the phone? Sounds fun.

seeker

Thu, Mar 26 2020, 2:39 pm

amother [ Pumpkin ] wrote:

Would love to do this but they're not really doing much for the 3-year-olds...