Writing Occupational Therapy in a 504 plan

This blogger notes the lack of consistency including occupational therapy in 504 plans. http://community.advanceweb.com/blogs/ot_8/archive/2012/05/08/part-ii-advocating-implementing-and-writing-504-plans.aspx

This is an extremely important concept when considering the relationship between problems with processing speed and homework that is given without time limits. Here is my response.

I consider the issue of occupational therapy central to my own recommendations regarding 504 plans. Homework is one of the major issues that gets students tripped up. Children with poor handwriting necessarily require more time to do their homework than others. As they more up the grades, the problem mounts, as there is only so many hours in a day, and they get mislabeled as children with behavioral problems. My recommendation for these students is a 504 with homework relief. If this is coupled with occupational therapy, then the focus is to work on remediating the problem with the goal that the child can complete more work as the problem gets resolved, rather than get more work done by working all night long. Kenneth Goldberg, Ph.D. author of The Homework Trap: How to Save the Sanity of Parents, Students and Teachers. www.thehomeworktrap.com.