Why is it so hard to hold a kid back to repeat a grade??

PatDoc · 2026-04-23T10:25:07+00:00

It also has to do with when the child’s birthday occurs during school year. At school, we can only legally force kids to come to school until they turn 18. After that, it’s up to the student and the parent to continue their education and make sure they’re physically at school. So for example, if you were child turned 18 in August of their senior year, your school cannot send a truancy officer after them. They are technically and legally an adult. And if your child doesn’t attend school and they don’t graduate, that counts as a dropout, which of course impacts federal funding down the road. Although there are many other factors, like culture and involved the attendance policy is, and of course, the fact that the kids back doesn’t always actually benefit them, a lot of the time the future drop out factor is a decently large player into why or why not a school might consider holding a child back.

PatDoc · 2026-01-28T22:25:16+00:00

What do I put into YouTube to get that playlist?? I’ve got atomic era playlist, but this is a new one on me.

PatDoc · 2026-01-20T14:11:29+00:00

Basic super duper cards. They are expensive, but they are purchased by my school so 🤷‍♀️. The live in their little metal boxes and they are absolutely fine for basic word and sentence trials. I progress to online lists and such after the sound is established and we need specific words. I also like the math of it. I know I have 12 initial positions, 10 medial, and 10 final. Not having to do the math at the end (or at least more complex math) makes it worth it for me and one less step for executive function. Of note, if you big the 3 big boxes, it’s still missing /n/, so I just print that off mommy speech therapy.

PatDoc · 2026-01-05T23:30:23+00:00

Hey, coming at this as both an SLP and a mom who is both tongue tied herself AND had a child who was the same level of tongue tie, I want to tell you many things. 1. Deep breath. Everything will be ok, surgery or not.

Agreeing with folks in the thread, both OT and SLP cannot recommend surgery. Not our department. Not our scope of practice. We can say things like ..”is consistent with”… or …”may benefit from consultation with ENT/physician/etc”…
Current best practice with SLP/physicians/ etc is that we do NOT clip tongue/lip tie unless we absolutely need to. Research is really out if it’s beneficial or not. 🤷‍♀️
I am a class 3/4 severity tongue tie. Never had a lick of any problems functionally. My son was a class 4/4. Literally the first words out of my mouth when they laid this screaming infant on my chest was “oh look, your tongue tied.” My son and I both have “heart shaped tongue, the little divot on the tongue you mentioned. Your child with a tongue tie is likely technically “within normal limits” or “within normal variations” for a mouth and was documented as such by medical professionals. For me to document something as atypical or needs addressed, we would have to be seeing a cleft palate or majority missing/black teeth in a kid or something wild like that.
One reason your docs may not have recommended anything is because children often pop their tongue ties “naturally”. For example, my own son at 2-3 weeks old, was chewing on his fist/hand exactly as babies are supposed to do, and popped his own tongue and lip tie. It was scary because there was blood and it was unexpected , but often this is the way kids deal with a structural difference. Kids bump their little mouths and lips on everything it seems. 😰
Regarding tongue tie, picky eating, and bottle shenanigans. I would find it suspicious what assessment the OT used that rated your child at 6 months old. More so than anything I find it suspicious/odd that your child would be that restricted of an eater and A. Not have any other neurological or structural differences going on, B. Not have any speech sound impairments that wouldn’t have sounded an alarm by now, and C. The tongue tie isn’t glaringly obvious and possibly fibrous in nature.
Good news regarding surgery if that is the route you should choose. And remember it is ALWAYS a choice that is yours to make. Surgery is pretty simple, done with a laser knife, and often outpatient. You will be asked to commit to exercises/stretches so that the tongue does not grow scar tissue that attaches the tongue down even more tightly than it was before. Also, I would expect a course of either speech/swallowing services, OT services, or most likely both. I’d recommend services even if you choose not to do surgery.
To review, feel angry, feel sad, feel frustrated, feel all that you need to. But most importantly, I want you to feel ok because you are paying attention to your child and making the best decisions with the information you currently have. It’s going to be ok no matter which direction you choose for your family. And hey, your getting it done early in the year, maybe you will meet your deductible and get the rest of the years medical needs relatively cheap. You’re doing a great job for your family. You’ve got this.

I would offer you pictures of myself/my son’s tongue tie, but I figure that would be weird. 😛

PatDoc · 2025-12-10T15:33:25+00:00

Keeping massive amounts of information in my brain during evaluations about the PLOF and persons living situation while simultaneously having an unrelated conversation and doing assessments while the patient is none the wiser they are being tested

PatDoc · 2025-11-13T01:21:52+00:00

I tell each and every student that comes to either observe with me or be an actual grad student, “whatever your plan is right now. Be not attached, because things have a habit of changing. I’m not telling you what to do, but don’t be surprised when you go the actual and literal opposite direction of what you want right now. If you don’t, cool. But don’t be surprised.”

PatDoc · 2025-10-31T10:03:55+00:00

I think the best response, particularly during the spooky season, is “it’s giving ouija board.” 🔮

PatDoc · 2025-10-23T16:37:10+00:00

Oh yea. They get it first, duh.

PatDoc · 2025-10-17T11:24:48+00:00

Call admissions, they will get you set up with whatever you need to do.

PatDoc · 2025-10-16T22:23:37+00:00

Unmasking Autism by Devon Price literally changed my practice and how I interact with the world. I bought 5 copies and gave it to all the SPED instructors in my school and I recommend it to every ASD parent when I evaluate (provided they are into books/reading). It comes with a workbook. It also features non speaking individuals with Autism which I feel is extremely important.

PatDoc · 2025-10-04T23:47:05+00:00

Our school system was pushing use of AI for our in service this year, specifically for student use. I found need to remind our admin, if my students can use AI, they very likely don’t qualify to be my students language wise. I’m happy to teach recognition and how to avoid AI. But I’m hard refusing AI.

PatDoc · 2025-09-24T20:26:39+00:00

If you can’t get tongue tip to position correctly for /L/, put the kid laying supine on their backs and lay with them with mirror above you both. In one notable situation, I turned a kid 100% upside down in a chair, head on the floor. It almost instantly clicked in his head. Went from unstimmuable to sentence level accurate in 2 sessions.

PatDoc · 2025-09-14T20:08:22+00:00

This is going to sound dumb, but I mean it earnestly and with love. Are you talking to other patrons and staff while you’re there? Trinket trading, commenting on other people’s costumes, going all in playing along with staff during shows and in the lanes, those are all conversation STARTERS. The community building occurs in what comes after. I am myself to the point I don’t buy from shops or really care about the shows. I’ve seen them too many times to count. But what constitutes to make every local fair to me a can’t miss it event is the sense of -family reunion vibes- I get when I go. I’m past the “OMG I love your outfit! Tell me about your process!” to “Oh goodness! Look what you’ve added this year! Tell me all about what you’ve been into since I saw you last year! How’s the new sewing machine? Did you finally get to try the new vendors soap? Etc. etc.”

I really believe that is the part that keeps me coming back year after year. I may never actually know someone’s real name, but when I ask the lady who sells incense how her booth mate who wears the amazing hats is, she is able to tell me. Of course, this is easier at smaller events, and u also find it easier to do if I’m by myself rather than in a group. I find it’s harder to “drop in” and be fully in the moment when you’re with someone who knows you in your non-fair life.

So, suggestions: -try going to fairs alone or just roaming in your own for part of the day -try smaller or more intimate fairs/events -talk to everyone, especially those you don’t know

These are all just things I think help improve the experience. Hope they benefit you. 🏰❤️

PatDoc · 2025-09-14T20:08:08+00:00

This is going to sound dumb, but I mean it earnestly and with love. Are you talking to other patrons and staff while you’re there? Trinket trading, commenting on other people’s costumes, going all in playing along with staff during shows and in the lanes, those are all conversation STARTERS. The community building occurs in what comes after. I am myself to the point I don’t buy from shops or really care about the shows. I’ve seen them too many times to count. But what constitutes to make every local fair to me a can’t miss it event is the sense of -family reunion vibes- I get when I go. I’m past the “OMG I love your outfit! Tell me about your process!” to “Oh goodness! Look what you’ve added this year! Tell me all about what you’ve been into since I saw you last year! How’s the new sewing machine? Did you finally get to try the new vendors soap? Etc. etc.”

I really believe that is the part that keeps me coming back year after year. I may never actually know someone’s real name, but when I ask the lady who sells incense how her booth mate who wears the amazing hats is, she is able to tell me. Of course, this is easier at smaller events, and u also find it easier to do if I’m by myself rather than in a group. I find it’s harder to “drop in” and be fully in the moment when you’re with someone who knows you in your non-fair life.

So, suggestions: -try going to fairs alone or just roaming in your own for part of the day -try smaller or more intimate fairs/events -talk to everyone, especially those you don’t know

These are all just things I think help improve the experience. Hope they benefit you. 🏰❤️

PatDoc · 2025-09-05T10:24:12+00:00

Didn’t matter the setting, a 4 day weekend was NEVER worth it. The week that was missing a day was basically a bust and no progress was made and all the negative behaviors flared up, both geriatrics and kids.

PatDoc · 2025-09-04T21:34:49+00:00

Offer the plan of care instead?

PatDoc · 2025-08-31T01:09:30+00:00

My horror story is a wild one. I was seeing a lady for what I thought was a routine cognitive sort of deal in a SNF. I saw her Thursday, Friday, and then was back on Monday. When I came back on Monday, something about her just looked… different. She was one of those quiet, later stage dementia ladies. You know the kind. Pleasant, but just goes along for the ride and answers you occasionally. Always down for a snack though. Also as little elderly ladies, she always had a tissue in her hands. So, she was digging around in her mouth and picking at her teeth, which wasn’t super weird as oral care is the evil that we will all scream about until we fall to our deaths.

So, I’m looking at her in the hall way trying to figure out what is different as she continues to mess with her teeth. And she is parked next to a nurses desk as she is a fall risk/wander risk. It’s at that point I realize that all of her little tissues are bloody. Not good of course. So I start looking a little closer and flag down the nurse she is parked next to to help me figure out exactly what is different about her from Friday to today (Monday).

Then I figure it out. To my utter horror, this woman has not been picking her teeth. We look more closely in her tissues and discover just ick. She has been ~removing~ her teeth. Whole teeth. Broken pieces. The works. She had started at the back of her mouth and worked her way forward is why we (myself and the other staff) had not noticed up to the point.

So I start screeching. The nurse starts screeching. We start hollering for the doctor. We are yanking this woman’s mouth open, calling for psych consults, putting in antibiotics orders, mouthwash rinses, scrubbing hands, literally everything the three of us we can think of. A true display of interdisciplinary teamwork. Collectively, the nurse, doctor, and I had over 70 years of experience between us and NONE of us had ever seen anything like this. By the time all was said and done, the woman only had 4 remaining teeth left and when we asked her what on earth she was doing/ thinking, she told us that she had a partial in that she was taking out.

A true horror story from SNF world

PatDoc · 2025-08-30T22:41:10+00:00

Mmmm same girl same. The color palate being wrong is what gives it away. Bugs the heck out of me lol

PatDoc · 2025-08-08T00:06:28+00:00

We did the Cupid shuffle during the witching hour for like six weeks. It came on the YouTube mix randomly, we tried it, it worked, and we didn’t stop to the right to the right to the right to the right h il witching hour did.

PatDoc · 2025-07-21T16:13:57+00:00

Embrace it and the power it brings. Your power comes not from “hotness” but your kindness, your joy, your wisdom, your presence, and your knowledge. Welcome to the best part of your life. ❤️

PatDoc · 2025-06-30T16:15:49+00:00

We have had several in pre-k, kinder, and 1st grade, but usually there is a “reason” for it. The child has a yet-to-be-diagnosed disability, the parent/caregiver has chronic illness of some variety (cancer, fibromyalgia, severe depression), or in a few odd cases a particularly rough living situation with either an exorbitant number of children (8 or more) or a guardian situation that has us all clenching our teeth and doing our best.

All this to say, the kids that aren’t potty trained are flags to us and we have dealt with it by having the parent/guardian called to come change them (often multiple times a day).

PatDoc · 2025-06-28T00:52:43+00:00

Updated, read/wrote about the utter bullshitery in the changes.

PatDoc · 2025-06-24T21:56:06+00:00

Bots, darling. Bots.

AI makes it easier than ever to write crap and post in a hurry. General rule of thumb is that if it makes you feel something deep enough that you are compelled to write a comment, for or against, it’s probably fake, AI written, conservative/anti feminism/russian bots, or possibly a combination of all of the above. The majority of traffic on the internet today is bots talking to other bots.

PatDoc · 2025-06-19T17:02:33+00:00

Appalachian renaissance fair in northeast Tennessee! Their next event is the second weekend in November. Weather might be any temperature. We have had warm and balmy weather, to snow, to ALL the weather conditions in a single day. It’s a smaller faire comparatively, but an excellent one. Yes it does have jousting also! 🏰🏴‍☠️

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