Occupational therapists

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Have you ever been to one?

Been diagnosed by one?

What sort of therapies do they perform for people on the spectrum?

I am thinking of going to one. Im not sure what might come out of it. Perhaps I will try and get a dyspraxia diagnosis.

Yes,am have an OT as part of the social services learning disability team.
she is not a specialist in ASD though.
She adapts everything am assessed as needing,such as specialist padding on the walls [for headbanging], bed specially attached to the wall to stop am breaking it up or getting underneath for pressure,special alarms etc.
She deals more with physical stuff,and am being assessed by her for a hoist when back home again [am have temperary paralysis from waist down when too sensory overloaded,cant get onto bed or toilet and staff in current place are not allowed to lift due to health and safety rules].

Am not sure if OTs are even able to diagnose ASDs or if they're qualified enough [even developmental OTs]?
sorry if it sounds obvious,but make sure to go to a specialist,and not a regular OT,as it's very limited in what will get unless need a lot of physical adaptions and aids.

I spent six months in occupational therapy. My insurance paid for it because my psychiatrist ordered it. I was given treatment for poor coordination and sensory integration disorder. A lot of it worked.

I did listening therapy, the Wilbarger brush protocol, walking on uneven pillows, swinging and jumping on a trampoline.

Thank you ladies for your replies .

Interesintg, it seems that OTs deal with coordination-based problems. I had childhood dyspraxia I suspect, in fine motor stuff and motor sequencing. I had a lot of problems with things like using a knife and fork , and handwriting, and catching a ball. As an adult I have developed a sort of anxiety disorder because of it and I felt useless because when I hit the employment world these problems made me get fired all the time so I made sure I was always really stressed at work because it increased my motor performance but now I cant seem to turn the stress off....

Anyway that is why I am considering going to an OT, or a neurologist. I dont know, I want some sort of diagnosis and perhaps some therapy regarding fine motor. Anyway just rambling but it is interesting that others have got therapy via OTs, perhaps it would be a good idea for me.

I had an OT, they worked with me with fine and gross motor skills issues. Mostly this was working on handwriting issues.
I also had somebody who was a visual therapist for my NLD related issues with regards to visual tracking and motion tracking. I spent most of my time with my visual therapist. I was actually ordered to play video games when I was 7.

On top of that I had a speech therapist briefly for Semantic-Pragmatic Disorder issues.

I was all sorts of messed up...some of the issues, especially the visual issues, were resolved.

By the way zen...my therapists really did help me, looking back, but I was not really a big fan of going to them. I had to work on these issues constantly from 7-9 and then pretty regularly afterwards.

Thanks for your reply, Starygrrl. The visual therapist- is that another type of OT?

I think that is the sort of person I would need to see. Whan I was a child I would stare into space a lot without blinking. I did a lot of computer work as an adult and now whenever I try and watch TV or read my facial muscles go stiff. I also forget to blink. I know it all sounds really weird.

What sort of problems did you have with visual tracking? I wonder it if is an NLD thing to have problems with this.

I'm not familiar with the term "vision therapist", but it sounds like a job an OT can do, rather than being a type of OT. OTs are certainly trained to look for problems with vision, such as visual field cuts or cognitive problems affecting vision (such as visual field neglect), but probably people from other disciplines can do vision therapy as well, such as eye doctors. At least that's what the name sounds like- it sounds like an additional certification you can get in addition to whatever your degree is in. Kind of like how an ABA therapist can be a psychologist, teacher, speech pathologist, etc.

Yes.

Maybe. I was a kid when I went to OT.

I played the game of Rush Hour, did blow pens, swung on the swing picking up balls, walking on the tape line, reaching for the ball in the air, did other games like spinning the top and moving it through the maze without it falling into the gaps on the board, that rough brush to rub on your skin, that's all I can remember.


OT treated my sensory issues and balance problems.

The visual therapist was an eye doctor who worked with an occupational therapist and speech therapist. They had a highly specialized practice and were pretty cutting edge at the time.

Visual tracking is a hard thing to explain, but yes, if you probably have it you do have some form of NLD. Visual tracking is the tendancy to look at one line of text at a time, instead you read multiple lines together, the result is the sentances get mushed together from and shift around. So while you can read the words from the particular sentance right, the order of the sentance is incorrect and you may miss or skip over other parts. This also applies to math and music. The way somebody with NLD visually processes things can be very weird, but from what i know this is part of the reason why some struggle with math. For me I struggle mostly with written music, which my visual tracking problems still linger, which is I think ironic because i was considered musically gifted since age 5. This is the best way I can describe visual tracking.

I had limited visual range, and still have visual field neglect. The severity and number of visual deficits I had was pretty extensive. I was diagnosed in a period where things had to be glaring for you to be diagnosed with NLD.

i need one for driving. i want to drive now but only at night, and never ever on the freeways. maybe just to get to the mines, or the beach

I see that there are some therapies for visual problems. I have tried to go to eye doctors but unless the problem is related to the eye itself, such as a squint, they cant detect anything, so they were not very helpful.

I really dont know what the heck is wrong with my vision. It is a sort of dislike for looking at things close to me, and when I try and look at something I seem to overfocus, hurting my eyes. I also scan things compulsively. It all sounds odd even to me. I feel like I must be like some mutated human experiment out of a science fiction novel, especially when I see people around me coping fine with all the stuff I struggle with.

i have always had fine motor problems though and attentional problems. I dont like doing the same thing for very long and I cant stand repetitive activities. I think a certain amount of my visual problems could be due to poor coordinatiion of eye muscles.

But thanks for the info, I will definitely look into seeing an OT. It is interesting that there are specific problems that people with NLD get.

It took me a long long time to learn to drive. What helped was learning in an automatic. I cant drive a manual, lol, too much going on.

thats exactley why i cant drive. too much going on, first of all my feet. i'll get them confused, #1 and #2 i might even think my hands are my feet and try steering w/ my feet. crashing into a cake

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Getting a diagnosis of dyspraxia from a neurologist (M.D.) can be difficult based on my (limited) experience.

The one I saw was very uncomfortable with the word dyspraxia because the term dyspraxia did not fit neatly inside the narrow neurological protocol he used as a workup.

My feeling was the neurologist would not attempt to objectively measure dyspraxia at all but would pass dyspraxia onto occupational therapy.

http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/dysp ... praxia.htm
http://www.dyspraxiafoundation.org.uk/

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Sensory Integration and Praxis Test (SIPT)

The Sensory Integration and Praxis Test (SIPT) by A. Jean Ayres is the most
complete and flexible assessment of sensory integration on the market. The SIPT
allows you to evaluate sensory integration and praxis functions.

http://portal.wpspublish.com/portal/pag ... ema=PORTAL

(Source: Google)

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http://www.infinitywalk.org/
http://www.balametrics.com/
http://www.bal-a-vis-x.com/

Yes for my sensory issues and it did not help.

I went to one when I was 11 and 12 and before that it was rare. It was to help my dyspraxia and my sensory issues and they helped. They got less and my dyspraxia went away my mom said. I couldn't even wear jeans as a kid and I hated things tight but now I can wear them.

When I was in elementary school. Both of my brothers, went to OTs as well.