New Occupational Therapist (OT)

[Jamieh]

My 5yr old just switched to a new Occupational Therapist (OT). And I couldn't be happier. She is amazing. I really liked his old Occupational Therapist (OT) but she never made him finish anything or set boundaries for him. I just felt like he wasn't benefiting from that. He has a hard time finishing anything so that was really important for him to work on. The new Occupational Therapist (OT) is so great with him and firm but also loving with him. He also will be starting vision therapy because he has an eye turn on one eye. His vision is really bad and he's had glasses since he was 3. I have heard some great feedback on the vision therapy and that sometimes it can improve attention/focus. Tomorrow we meet with a counselor for our family to help with discipline methods and some behavioral issues. Also he has started doing this weird thing with- his hand. He takes his finger and like moves like he's writing in front of his face when he's talking. this JUST started like a few weeks ago. And it worries me. He fidgets a lot with his hands anyways but this is new...

 

[TeDo]

Glad the new Occupational Therapist (OT) seems like a good one. Hope they can help him. Our 3rd one was a godsend. She was awesome and I was sorry to see her go. As for the vision therapy, I hope that helps as well. Now the therapist to work on behaviors and discipline, be wary. Many of the traditional methods "professionals" push don't work with special needs kids. It never hurts to try but don't get discouraged or worse, even more determined to continue using it, if it doesn't work or makes things worse. Tread carefully.

 

[buddy]

So great! A good Occupational Therapist (OT) is worth their weight in gold in my humble opinion. I am an Speech Language Pathologist (SLP) and always felt like an Occupational Therapist (OT) at heart....(funny one of my best co worker friends was an Occupational Therapist (OT) who felt like an Speech Language Pathologist (SLP) at heart so we worked great together!)

It will be interesting to see if your child ends up on the spectrum somewhere with the idiosyncratic hand movements, sensory processing disorder (SPD), adhd like stuff, etc. So many kids get individual symptom label types of diagnoses when younger then when older the larger umbrella diagnosis becomes more evident. In any event, the fact that you just march right in and do the therapies that work is amazing, lucky boy you have!

My son had a full vision evaluation (a visual processing evaluation....much like an auditory processing evaluation....not looking at only visual acuity but how the brain interprets visual stimuli) It was very very interesting. Sometimes in treating one thing they start to see other issues, its nice you already will have a contact. I hope they work out well!

 

[TeDo]

When we found a "good" Occupational Therapist (OT), it made all the difference in the world. She was able to test so many things that I would have never thought of that were severely impacting difficult child 1, especially in school. She was awesome with difficult child 1, getting him to do things and cooperate. She was skilled, patient, and could think "outside the box". That was what difficult child 1 needed. Glad you found a good one.