Update
So we were able to find an OT that was a preferred provider with our PPO, and she's right around the corner from our house. Yay! We had our first appointment this morning and I think it went really well. The OT seemed to click really well with dd and I could tell they both really liked each other. We actually had another appointment with a different OT earlier in the week (there was a mix up because I tried to cancel the appointment with less than 72 hours notice, and she was going to make me pay for 50% of the appointment anyway, so I just decided to go and hope that our insurance will reimburse for some of it) so I was able to compare the two. The first place was more state of the art looking, but it was really busy which was very distracting for dd. At the OT's today dd was the only one there and she seemed much more calm and able to focus (she still was distractible and hyper, but it seemed like she was able to get more out of the experience today with less going on). Also because the other place had several therapists working with different clients at the same time, there were a lot more kids with issues that seemed much more severe than dd's and dd seemed to feel a lot of anxiety around those kids (particularly the ones running around and making really loud noises) ironically dd can dish it out, but she can't take it. I also really liked how relaxed and easygoing the OT we saw today was. I was wearing ds (1yo) on my back but he was crying to get down and she said it was fine to just let him wander around and explore. She'd incorporate him into whatever she was doing with dd and then after a minute he'd go back to exploring and leave them alone. In the future I'll probably drop dd off so I don't have to entertain ds there the whole time, but since it was her first time I didn't want to just run out on her. At the beginning of the session the OT explained that it would probably take several sessions to get a full picture of dd's issues. This first day seemed to be more about determining if she would benefit from services. At the end of the session the OT started by saying that it was obvious dd has a lot of skills, but that there was definitely something else going besides dd just being a spirited child. She said that we were in the right place and that over the next couple of weeks she would be systematically looking at each of dd's senses to see where she is over-responsive and where she is under-responsive. She also showed me a couple books that would be helpful to look at. Anyway I feel like we're making a good start, and I feel really hopeful that this will be really helpful.
We also have our appointment with the developmental Ped tomorrow. The first meeting is just parents and then we'll be bringing dd in for an evaluation the following week. I hope it proves beneficial as there were no dev ped's in network for our insurance so it's going to cost us a bit and if she doesn't find anything wrong with dd I think my husband will be mad that we spent the money. He gets really mad about doctors that don't accept insurance and he really feels like its all a racket.
