sensory processing

Occupational Therapy: What We Have Learned In The First Three Months

Every three months I plan to update you on our progress and journey through occupational therapy.  As Declan was diagnosed just four months ago and we started therapy in July I wanted to jump right in.  But first I think we need to go back to, what I will call terrible uneducated times.

Recently I shared our journey to diagnosis but the time between diagnosis and beginning of therapy were some of the hardest.  Declan was miserable and so were we.  Before we began therapy, and even several weeks in, we had NO IDEA what we were doing.  As a former special education teacher I thought I was familiar with occupational therapy and what to expect.  Boy, was I wrong.

Occupational therapy for kiddos with SPD looks like a padded indoor playground/jungle gym.  I was under the impression occupational therapy (OT) would be a quiet hour where my son would sit and work on fine motor skills; like writing, cutting and pencil grips.  In the past three months I have learned a tremendous amount and realize how stupid uneducated I was.  As a side note we have the most AMAZING occupational therapist who has not only worked with my son but worked with us.  Without her I believe we would still be in the “uneducated” and drowning stage.

Breaking this down into a month by month will be easiest.  For several reason; for newbies to be able to anticipate what to expect, to really detail out the progress points and to remind myself that we have made progress.  One of the hardest things about having differently wire child  is that sometimes it is really really hard to see progress.  When one day is fantastic and then three are bad you forget that there used to be zero good days.

MONTH ONE

We saw our occupational therapist four times in the first month.  Luckily for Declan his therapist was the same person who did his assessment meaning there wasn’t a lot of time wasted with getting her up to speed.  We jumped right in with a program they used that helped kids isolate and understand different elements of their sensory disorder.  She read books the first week and talked about the different “characters” that took over Declans body.  He seemed to latch onto this… until we were sitting at dinner after our first therapy and he told me “there is something wrong with my brain so we have to go to therapy.”

My emotional reaction was STOP.  STOP ALL THE THERAPY. The next week I addressed this with our therapist and we have not used those characters since.  And no longer does Declan think there is anything wrong with his bran.  That was a scary situation for us.  I NEVER want him to think there is something wrong with him.

During weeks two and three she really spent her time watching what activities seemed to give him the best stimuli input and then gave me tangible ways to meet them at home.  For example, Declan has a strong desire to spin as his vestibular system is one area of weakness for him. So she recommended some toys to help with that and parks with spinning equipment.

Week four was used to prepare him for our upcoming travels.  We worked on ways to give him input in public places, we introduced a visual thermometer that he can use to show us how he is feeling as well as bunch of sensory break ideas that are good for on the go.  It was a very hands on session for me as I learned the best ways to provide both calming and stimulating experiences for Declan.

MONTH TWO 

We took a break during the month of August as we were traveling and so was our occupational therapist.  We resumed just before school started up again. And thank goodness.

Week one was a preparation and refresher on how to maintain appropriate body awareness at school.  Our therapist read him books that he could relate to and that we can use at home.  She gave him ideas on things he can do in the classroom when he begins to feel the need to wiggle! Additionally, Declan really struggle with personal space and while I am not too phased at home by this we did not want this to become a problem at school.  We did a lot of activities inside a hula hoop – to mimic the space someone needs!  It was extremely helpful.

Week two and three were during the first weeks of school and she used this time as a way to let him release and get all the sensory stimuli he could. Declan has both proprioceptive and vestibular needs so we did a lot of swinging, spinning, jumping, crashing into ball pits, obstacle courses and deep muscle compression. From these sessions I was able to see things that really helped Declan get the input he was craving.  From these sessions I took ideas home to try.  I also took ideas to share with Declans teacher.

Week four was after our therapist did a school visit. Therefore a lot of this sessions was spent discussing the things she saw, how we can help facilitate change in his classroom and what sorts of things we can do at home to set Declan up for a successful school day.  Our therapist suggested a wiggle cushion for seat work (which we bought this one), as well as a compression shirt to be worn under his clothes (we bought this one) and activities to do before we walk into school like skipping, jumping and bear crawls.

MONTH THREE

During this month our sessions were focused on struggles we were seeing at school.  Things like difficulty staying in centers, keeping his body still during prayer time (he goes to a Catholic school) and impulse control.

Each session in month three was dictated by what we were seeing at school during that week- normally from notes his teacher would send him.  Our occupational therapist and I would chat and she would then design his session (quickly) around our 5-10 minute check in chat.

A few of the things we saw that were very successful was in the way she set up her sessions to mimic his center time at school.  They would move between propriceptive, vestibular and fine motor centers.  He was getting all his sensory input while being required to stay in one place!  It really helped out at school and we saw a significant decrease in behavior at school.  During our occupational therapy time she also had him working on impulse control through games like “red light, green light”.

As we are into month four by now we are continuing to see massive improvements in his sensory needs.  We have, as a family, worked EXTREMELY hard at integrating sensory into our lifestyle.  The fact is that in order for Declan to be successful it has to be a team effort and techniques learned from therapy need to fit seamlessly into our lives.

Mama- I know there are tough days with you kiddo with SPD and sometimes you are not sure there is an end in sight.  But I promise once you start with some occupational therapy and really get educated you can and will see a huge difference.  Occupational therapy has been so incredibly successful for Declan; and in turn for us as a family.

With Love,