Okay, here is the latest update:
I have been soooo busy shuffling ds to appointment after appointment for the last several months and going from Early Intervention services to the local school district because he turned three. I haven't had any time to come on here!
I just want to say how excellent all the people have been who have worked with us- the therapists and teachers have been sooooo awesome and knowledgeable.
First of all, as soon as he started OT, at the age of 2 yrs 10 months, he was like a different child. He slowly started tolerating more and more situations that he would really freak out about prior to the therapies.
He still has physical delays. He moves like an 18 month old at the age of 3, has a lot of muscle weakness and low tone. But he actually started participating in some teacher-led activities at preschool like Ring Around the Rosie. He also plays with children that he feels comfortable with (he has known 3 of the girls in his class since birth, and just this week has started following them around and actually playing with them!)
We opted not to send him to the preschool collaborative class that the school district recommended this year because his class is a toddler to preschool transition program which has a very small class size and because he knows some of the kids. The school dist is sending a 1:1 with him, and we thought it would be a lot less overwhelming for him with less kids. Plus he isn't starting Kinder for 2 1/2 more years. We will probably send him to the dist class in Sept.
But I take him a local school for Speech, Adaptive PE, and at some point OT. We are still negotiating the OT hours because they only aproved 1 hr or in-class OT and his doctor and current OT are recommending 2 hrs of clinic-based. So right now we are paying for it ourselves, which is VERY EXPENSIVE. But WORTH EVERY PENNY, because OT has made the biggest difference for him.
I know they say that OT makes the most difference before the age of 3, but he has received most of his OT after he turned 3, and it is still making a difference. I highly recommend it for any child who seems a little more sensitive.
Also a wierd thing that is really helping him is gum chewing. His teacher recommended it, even though he is so little. He swallowed several pieces at first, but it is really helping him regulate his sensory input. He asks for a piece right after school, whenever he gets stressed out, or whenever his senses get overloaded. He goes through a pack in 2 or 3 days, but it really helps.
Anyway, I really feel like all his issues have been sensory all along. I'm starting to wonder about the other kids I've met on the spectrum at his therapies, etc, as well. What if their little nervous systems just can't tolerate and make sense of all the input they get from this crazy world? Here we are giving them these bright colored, flashing toys from birth, hustling them around from here to there, exposing them to all kinds of noise from t.v., radio, etc, and maybe all they really need is to be wrapped in a sling and rocked all day until their nervous systems are mature enough to handle everything.
I swear ds's OT consists of swinging, crashing, and some fine-motor stuff at the end, but mostly swinging and crashing. And somehow, he comes out of there like a new kid- alert, smiling, and ready to take on the world.
30 Aug 2006, 2:32 am
