Ot-spd

We don't go to the OT on a regular basis, but rather do a sensory diet at home. At the OT: Pulling herself up an incline on a scooter board Bouncing in stretchy material like a huge hammock Rotating on tire swing, spinning board Blubber/play doh like stuff At home: Bean box (digging through beans to "find" objects) Different types of walks for "heavy work" (crab walk, bear walk, ostrich walk, jumping, hopping, crawling, etc.) Pushing medicine balls through a tunnel by crawling Pulling self across the carpet while sitting in a sled Brushing protocol (brush skin using a surgical brush) Sitting on a "wiggle seat" Using a chewy necklace Having a theraband on her seat for her feet to "play" with Chewing sugarless gum Monkey bars Joint compressions Use weighted blanket when sleeping etc. My understanding is that a sensory diet helps her get the sensory input that she needs so she doesn't seek it in inappropriate ways (e.g. chewing on her chewy necklace instead of chewing on her clothes, pushing at a theraband with her feet rather than kicking other kids, having pressure of a weighted blanket at nap/sleep time rather than not being able to sleep because she doesn't have enough sensory input). Hope that helps!

Do you get to go into the OT sessions with them? Have you considered ECI (early childhood intervention)? They can come to your house & work with you & the children together. ECI works with children up to age 3.

We had EI and were pretty pleased with the services, except that on our last kiddo, we should have INSISTED on OT much, much earlier. (The co-ordinator didn't think our dd was ready for OT, but she was SO wrong and only one of two with this opinion.) My dd has other issues as well; but, I would strongly encourage you to have EI if your child is under 3yrs old. Additionally, I would also encourage you to attend each session (or as many as you can) to see exactly what the OT does with your child. I agree that OT can seem overwhelming as these areas are 'strange, but there'...and OT has definately helped our own dd. Still, I worked with special needs kiddos, but found I really needed to see the OT 'do her thing' a lot in order to understand how OT helps children. And finally, your OT should be open and willing to answer any/all of your questions and concerns. If he's not doing this well, I'd consider asking for another OT. Good luck! Sincerely, Linny

Trust your instincts - they're good enough for you to question the behavior and get the assessment done. Don't be like me and think that the therapy approach doesn't seem right, but then not act because, after all, they're the experts and must know what works. I don't know what kind of SPD your kids have My daughter is sensory seeking, mainly proprioceptive. She had an OT come to her daycare 1x/wk for a year to do puzzles with her. Sometimes the worker wouldn't show. She never stayed the full hour. It would take weeks for her to get back to my inquiries, either by phone or email. But the year mark, voila! my daughter is healed! Hrm. I saw no improvement. I took her back in to get assessed by a different OT provider, and she's now going to a center once a week to work on their trampolines, swings, ziplines, etc- the stuff I can see really working for a sensory seeker. It's too early to speak much of progress (we had our second appointment this week), but it feels a whole lot better. She's happy. And I love the fact that I can actually have a dialogue with this OT, and feel that she really is invested in my daughter. You need to have a level of comfort with the care they are getting- you will know when it's working, because you can see it in their faces. If I had to do it all over again, I would have done it differently. Luckily, we only wasted a year and she's still just 3 yo, so there's still lots of hope.

Exactly. We are continually annoyed by how many service providers want to work with our children without us around. We fire anyone who won't let us be involved. Some of them don't really like having us around. I think it makes them feel more accountable and adds pressure for them to actually get results instead of the usual routine where a kid is in therapy for years with no more progress than what you'd normally see due to increasing maturity. The methods they use are real and good but aren't effective when only done for 30 minutes a week so these people are used to seeing no results while lying to parents about progress. Therapy is much more effective when Mom learns what the therapist does and makes the kid practice at home. The therapists are frequently surprised by the success they have and we end up being their favorites.