Sadly, this was another short visit. My son had a low grade fever and was just miserable. I thought he could hold it together long enough for his OT visit, but he only lasted halfway through.
This visit, we saw C. the COTA and D. a student. My son just loves D. She is very patient and funny. I hope D. goes on to work with children because she will be outstanding.
This visit focused on functional play and attention.
I got very excited because C. brought a bag full of toys. Then I got even more excited because she had a parachute that she pulled out. I do not know if kids today have gym class, or if said gym class uses parachutes but back in the 80s you knew gym was about to get awesome if a parachute was on the floor. C. and D. tried to engage my son in playing with the parachute with hand over hand play. At first he was very hesitant. He wanted to walk on the parachute and C. was worried about him slipping and falling. (The last time C. came over he accidently hit his lip on a toy and bleed a little. She felt incredibly bad about it.) C. helped my son climb onto the parachute and set him down. She and D. then flounced up the edges making waves. They then both stood up, securing the sides and swung my son gently side to side. He did not like that at all. They picked up some of his stuffed animals and put them on the parachute with him, and made waves again. Then they took him off the parachute and swung just the stuffed animals. After he saw that nothing happened to his toys, he allowed himself to be swung again. He was feeling sick so he expressed frustration at this point and C. and D. took a break.
C. asked me if I thought the session had to come to an end. I said that I think OT is very important and I would like to try to continue. I gave my son some water and pulled him up on my lap to remove him from the activity. I told her about my son's new habit of eating non-food items.
We have a pussy willow tree outside and he ate a bud off the ground. It must have tasted as delicious as it looked because he promptly spit it out. We went to visit a friend who has a dog, and my son petted him. He came back with a large tuft of fur. The same thing happens when he pets our dog so I thought he would drop it on the ground. Instead he tried to eat it. The fur had to be wrestled out of his mouth. We went to my mother's house and she has a gravel driveway. My son was walking up and down the driveway, then he sat down to play. Boys play in dirt so this was ok with me. I was talking to my step-father then out of the corner of my eye, I saw my son's hand go up to his mouth. I went to go investigate and he had all sorts of goodies in his mouth. He had sand, pebbles, bits of twigs, and bits of plants. She said to try to work his mouth the electric toothbrush. She asked if he could have been hungry or thirsty when he did this. I know when he ate the dog fur he had just drank two cups of water, but for all the events I could not remember how long it had been since he last ate. She suggested instead of using these events to give him a snack, maybe just add an extra snack into the mix everyday and make sure he is hydrated.
After my son had a good rest, C. and D. played with him with nesting/stacking cups. He tolerated that for about 5 minutes. He doesn't always like being guided in play and he doesn't like stacking. He likes knocking over stacks. He started flinging cups over his shoulder which upset me. That is another thing he started doing recently. He flings toys backward, over his shoulder. He walks around the room doing that. He just paces and picks up toys and flings them over his shoulder. He does it with all toys though, and he has hit me a few times with wooden toys and some of the electronic toys I am worried he will break. Once he breaks a toy, it is going to be all over because I am not replacing toys simply because I don't have the money to do so. I asked C. why he is doing this and she said he gets some stimulus out of it. She also said it is his signature move and she doesn't see any other kids doing it.
C. then pulled out moon sand. My son was hesitant to touch it, then he gingerly plucked a small amount up with his thumb and forefinger. He loved it. They played with it for almost 15 minutes when he then attempted to eat some. The only problem was, all the moon sand went on my rug and I have a cat and a dog and a toddler so our rugs no matter how much we vacuum are always covered in something. The moon sand had a melange of animal fur and my fur and crumbs in it. I felt really bad and that stuff isn't coming out of sand. I asked C. if she wanted me to buy it off her because of the fur and she said no it was fine. Then I think she thought about it and then she said we could just have it. Since she gave it to us, we have played with it outside on an old sheet.
The visit came to a very grumpy end after the moon sand was done with. Hopefully the next session can be full length.
