Live Q&A
Live Q&A with Marga Grey & Liz London – CoordiKids Courses Explained
Summary & Transcript from Live Q&A on CoordiKids’ Programs
with Liz London and Marga Grey, Pediatric Occupational Therapist.
Liz: Well, since it’s thundering outside my window here in Ohio now, what are some tips for children who are sensory sensitive to thunderstorms?
Oh there are plenty of kids who find that tricky. They might be able to compose themselves for a long period of time, but thunderstorms and fireworks are a whole different story.
Ear mufflers, close windows, close curtains. Be empathetic. Don’t tell them “oh it’s nothing, it will go away.” Instead, say, “Oh yes I can understand your fear, but we are safe. See how safe we are? The windows are closed, the doors are closed.”
Liz: Do you think it would be useful to bring a child to the door or to the window to see what’s going on and see that it’s ok. To see the rain, to feel it. Would that possibly make things better, or would that be complete overwhelm and shut them down?
Oh it depends very much on each child. If it’s a child without a lot of sensory issues, sure you can take theme. Especially if there’s no thunder. But keep in mind that a thunderstorm is a scary thing for all of us. We wouldn’t just say, “Let’s walk out in a thunderstorm, “ because that’s not a safe thing to do.
But the point is to make them feel safe. If you have wrap them up in a blanket, hold them tight. Tell them, “We’ve done everything to be safe inside and everything will be fine.”
Definitely this is something that you can consider. Especially for children who have to wear a school uniform. It’s great to put those comfort clothes underneath a uniform that is otherwise uncomfortable or difficult for children with sensory issues.
Liz: Can we start by talking a bit about the different programs, and we have a lot of questions about whether insurance covers these programs?
Marga: In general, all programs have been developed to develop skills in a child, but also to make it really easy for parents at home and for teachers in a classroom.
Our focus was to make it so easy that they don’t have prepare anything, get extra equipment, nothing. They can just turn it on. Don’t have to print anything, prepare, nothing.
The first one is called CoordiKids Home Course. It includes 26 fortnights – 26 sets of every other week – worth of exercise. That gives you work for the whole year. There’s a reason for that having to do with splinter skills – CoordiKids doesn’t teach splinter skills.*
CoordiKids Preschool Course is for Kindergarten, 4-6 years. 30 weeks of exercises. That’s because we don’t do the more advanced exercises that are in the other programs, but that’s more or less the average private school year length.
It also gives the opportunity for teachers to repeat a program on different weeks for students who are only coming part time or a few days a week. All kids will get the opportunity to try all of the exercises.
Also no prep, no printouts, just log in and put on the video for the kids to follow. This gives the teacher an opportunity to observe the children while they do it.
Liz: Someone had asked – another OT in fact who works in a school – she asked when is the right time to recommend CoordiKids? Isn’t it challenging to only use it for a few kids in a classroom? If not everyone has motor skills challenges or ADHD in the classroom, is it ok for every child to be doing it?
Marga: Oh yes absolutely. CoordiKids Classroom Course is only 5 minutes. It has 30 weeks of exercises, but it’s not graded. The teacher can randomly choose any set to do. It’s very easy to use as well – teacher just puts it on like the other videos.
Anyone can do it, children with or without sensory or motor skills issues. It’s even for adults. Anyone can do it to improve concentration. It’ll never be ONLY for kids with challenges or problems.
Kids with problems may use it more than once a day, while the rest might use it once a day to boost their concentration and attention in class.
Liz: For the children who you say need it multiple times a day, does it pair at all with the CoordiKids home course program to do at home? Should they do something like CoordiKids Classroom course at school if they have an IEP or something like that to leave the classroom and do those exercises? Or should those individuals use their own CoordiKids home course program at school alone and then do the CoordiKids Classroom course with the whole class?
Marga: No I think it’s best for them to use the CoordiKids classroom course at school. It’s so easy that way. I do recommend, especially if the child is a little older, like 10 years old that they can use their learning ipad or laptop in the back of the classroom and use it as they need.
It’s not disruptive to the rest o the class – there’s no loud instructions or discussion, just an occasional metronome to follow a rhythm.
Liz: My therapist is reluctant to reccomend CoordiKids because she feels my child needs face to face therapy. How can I tell her I want to use CoordiKids instead?
Marga: I wouldn’t tell a therapist anything that she needs to do. You can ask, but I recommend CoordiKids programs to compliment therapy sessions or to give the family a break from the weekly therapy sessions.
They can work on these at home for a period of time, but then go back to face to face therapy and see how they’re progressing and move forward with the next period.
It will never replace individual therapy sessions. It can complement them and reduce the number of face to face sessions you need. So, if you have a complex child situation in which they require weekly speech therapy, weekly occupational therapy, or weekly psychology – this can stretch out your regular therapy.
Because your insurance may only cover a certain number of therapy sessions, so using CoordiKids programs can stretch that number of individual therapy sessions out over the course of a whole year until insurance kicks back in.
Liz: Speaking of insurance then, do most insurances cover CoordiKids programs?
Marga: Insurance depends very much on your own insurance. If your insurance covers occupational therapy, it will often cover CoordiKids programs just the same.
Sometimes people have private insurance that will pay for therapy. Whereas in public insurance, you have to have a referral from an OT.
For instance a family in Germany, many in Australia, some in the US, it depends on a therapist there in the country that is registered in their own country and in some cases in their own state. That’s in order for insurance to cover it. If it’s private health, it depends on what you’re covered for.
Liz: Are you able to do a virtual evaluation to pass along to insurance? So, if a family is trying to get their insurance to cover OT or get an IEP for their school, can you do an official assessment virtually? (I know that you’ve mentioned that there are remote parts of Australia, and remote parts around the world where there isn’t a conveniently local OT. And also for the rest of us, it might just be convenient to have a virtual consultation rather than getting to an office)
Marga: If you’d asked me 5 years ago, I’d say no. But I’m so surprised at what we can do virtually now. I’m doing a lot of assessments now virtually.
In Australia I know they can get funding to pay for an official OT evaluation with me viaTeleheath because I’m registered here in Australia. Zoom, WhatsApp, Video chats, all of it – there are so many possibilities and it’s so effective.
It’s actually lovely because I can be in another person’s home but not in their private space. If I go into their home, I often feel a bit uncomfortable.
I’m in their private living area. But being on Zoom, I know they have the opportunity to just turn off the screen if something is going on privately or personally that they don’t want me to see!
*A splinter skill is a skill that can be taught to a person/child. But it doesn’t transfer to functional life. So, for instance, you teach a child to stab his food with a fork, but it doesn’t develop the brain to manipulate a pencil or toothbrush.
It’s a single skill. That’s not what CoordiKids is. We develop the child. It transfers and generalizes to other functional areas of life. All five motor skills will improve, not only the few that are used in each exercise.
That’s why the program is a year long – which is very long – but it changes the wiring of their brain to generalize these skills to the rest of their daily life.