E.I. visit yesterday- need more therapy???

Yesterday, the new O.T. (from North Branch), Mona, and Gavin's regular E.I. teacher, Emily came to see him together. Mona brought a large piece of construction paper with 2 smaller pieces of paper cut out to make a flower stem and leaf. She also had a cupcake liner to make the flower. This liner had been cut a couple of times to let it lay down flat. Emily started by asking what this was, what could Gavin make out of it? She finally switched gears and asked him what this was, and pointed to the leaf. Gavin responded "a football." We all agreed that yes, it did look like a football. Emily kept going back to the same question, asking it pretty much the same way every time--"what is this? What can you make with it?" Gavin even had the pieces in the right order to make a flower, but didn't respond. I don't think he knew that it was supposed to be a flower. So I asked him if the cupcake liner was the sun. He didn't answer, but did pick it up and look at it, and try to fold it back together. Mona helped him fold it back together and said that it had cuts in it to let it lay flat, and they could make a couple more cuts even. I saw her give him some scissors, which he picked up and started to try to use 2 handed. Mona showed him the correct way to hold them, with his thumb in the little hole, and other fingers in the bigger hole. I left the room to make a phone call. I returned to find that the flower was done, which means they had cut a couple more slits in the cupcake liner (flower petals), and pasted or glued the pieces onto the larger piece of paper. They also had written his name in crayon on the paper, but I think they probably had him hold the crayon, while they helped him write. Anytime Emily asked Gavin a question, he wouldn't respond, but would repeat exactly what she said. Even at times when he needed help, he wouldn't ask for it (which is typical of him right now), but even when she asked him if he needed help, he wouldn't reply. The only verbal interaction I saw him do, was to repeat everything that Emily said or asked over the course of the 45-50 minutes they were here. The last thing they did with him, was had a lunch tray which they sprayed shaving cream on (which Gavin hates, but is good therapy for him), and had 2 cars to play with. One for Gavin, and one for Emily I guess. I know he did start playing with the car, although I think they had to coax him into driving the car through the shaving cream (which would be typical at this time since he doesn't like that activity.) I wasn't really paying attention, but all of a sudden heard Emily say to Gavin "excuse me." When he didn't respond, she said "Gavin, excuse me." I guess he still didn't respond either verbally or to whatever she was wanting him to do (I think she was saying it to have him move his car so her car could get through someplace in the shaving cream.) He didn't do whatever or verbally respond, so I kept hearing her say "Gavin, I said excuse me" and that type of comment. I never heard her tell him what it was she wanted him to do. She just kept repeating "excuse me." Now, the only time Gavin ever hears us say that phrase, is if we burp, and we have taught him to say excuse me when he burps (although we have to remind him most of the time.) I'm aware that we should teach him that "excuse me" can mean different things and be used at other times besides just burping, but we normally tell him what it is we expect of him. The reason that Gavin is in speech therapy, isn't anything to do with his pronounciation, it's because he doesn't seem to know what we're saying sometimes. He doesn't always know what we're asking, so we have to model the correct answer for him if he doesn't answer us. Instead of giving an incorrect answer, normally what he does if he doesn't know what we're asking, is just repeat the question. I've decided that maybe that's how he copes with stress sometimes, is repeating what people say. Lonnie agreed with that idea today. In fact, she's the one who brought it up today. Anyway, the point is that he never spoke to Emily yesterday except to repeat everything she said. When he wasn't doing what she wanted when she said "excuse me" to him so many times, she should have explained what she wanted from him. She also had asked him different times to use his words, to let her know what he needed or wanted, and asked him if he needed help. He never responded when asked if he needed help, and he certainly didn't ask for it himself. So at the end of the session, she asked me "He's in speech therapy twice a week, right?" I responded yes. Then she asked "And feeding once a week?" I said no, twice a week, same as speech. And she asked if he was getting any O.T. So I said "just as part of feeding therapy. They take the first 20 minutes to do climbing, running, jumping, etc." So Mona interjected that of course that would be to get the body warmed up to eat. Emily didn't tell me why she asked those questions, and they didn't have any Home Visit Logs with them to write up what they did on the visit and what they want him/us to work on so I don't know what she was getting at. I'm assuming she thinks he needs more therapy, but if that's the case, that should be the school's responsibility. They've been seeing him for 3 years now, Emily has been working with him for 2 years now. Just before last summer, she did increase her visits from twice monthly, to once a week (an hour each time.) The O.T. is scheduled to come out once every 2 months. If they think he's so far behind, then they should increase his scheduled appointments. I would object if they think we should have our insurance cover more therapy instead of the school picking up the extra therapy. Especially when his current independent speech therapist hasn't indicated a need for more therapy than he's currently getting. Normally I would be upset about Emily questioning how much therapy he gets, with the implication that he needs more. But considering how much they've been wanting him to go to preschool, I think it was good that he didn't respond to her questions and didn't ask for help, etc. They certainly can't expect him to go to school on his own (preschool), without someone there to help him. As Kasarah says "he needs someone to be there to facilitate communication with others." Emily had said last fall when they did his evaluation and IEP, that there would be a special ed aide in his classroom, but no individual aide for him, because they don't think he needs one. She then at another time said that the special ed aide may not actually be in his classroom, but there would be an aide that may be shared between his classroom and the other preschool classroom, so that the aide may be across the hall from him, but would be accessible to him. Now, for a kid who doesn't respond to people when they ask him questions, and won't ask if he needs something (bathroom, food, water, help, etc.), I would think he'd need an aide in the room WITH him, specifically paying attention to him for the most part. The aide would need to be trained to recognize when he needed something, instead of just assuming that he'll ask if he needs something. Of course, the school doesn't know about his autism diagnosis, but even if they don't know that, they are aware he has problems with speech, which is why they're providing therapy for him in the first place. And that's why he still qualifies for special ed. So maybe Gavin not responding to Emily is a good thing. Because then in a few months when I go to the preschool director and talk to them about not sending him off to school without me, I can at least refer back to yesterday's visit and say "See, you could see that he didn't respond, he didn't ask for help when he needed it, etc. You can't send a kid like that off to school without someone who knows him, to help him." So maybe it was a blessing in disguise.