First Occupational Therapy Visit 04/13/15

     Mom fail, I completely forgot OT was coming yesterday. We went for a nice long walk, ate a late lunch and then my friend called. I was putting him down for a nap and chatting with my friend when someone knocked on the door. It was A. the Early Intervention coordinator. I was kinda surprised and let her in and then she said C. the COTA was on her way and should be here shortly.

    While A. and I were waiting for C., we discussed my son's weekend. Friday we went to the park with a friend and her daughter who is roughly six month older than my son.  He engaged in some parallel play but was far more interested in the wood chips on the ground than the little girl.  We did try the slide, but he wanted to lay down, not sit so I went down with him. He was laughing his head off.  We tried the swings but it got bad fast so we stopped that.  Saturday he went to the park with my husband while I scanned 173 old photos for a family tree project. He just wanted to walk around mostly.  Sunday, we went to the park as a family. He loved the slide, but the swing he is now deathly afraid of.


    When C. arrived, we discussed my son's history with A.  My son walked around, picking up a toy, looked at it, tossed it, repeatedly.  We have the Fisher Price Stride to Ride Puppy and my son played with that and one of those wooden activity cubes.  He also played with this A's help.
     (image from ebay)

A. read him The Very Hungry Caterpillar about four times.  My son loves turning pages and after each reading he would just sit and turn the pages.

    C. and I discussed my son's sleeping habits.  C. suggested giving him milk before bed as opposed to at supper which I meant to try last night, but fell asleep my self and messed up his night time routine. (I have been not feeling well at all for the last two weeks.)  C. also suggested writing down my son's schedule and scheduling in two snacks a day.

    We also discussed the sensory issues my son has. I discussed the terror inducing swing experience of this weekend. C. suggested taking my son to the park and having him help me push and empty swing to get used to how it works.  She also said taking a toy and putting it in the swing and showing him nothing bad happened to it.  She also suggested us sitting together on a regular swing and slowly working up to swinging together.  We also discussed bath time. My son shrieks in terror while having a bath. I am not using hyperbole. It is not the whiny cry kids use when they don't like something, it is full on blood curling shrieking and howling.  He clutches at you when you try to bath him and he tries to angle every part of his body out of the water.  She asked what temperature bath he gets and if we adjust it. We have tried everything from freezing to lukewarm baths.   She asked if we adjust the depth of the water. We have tried from a tiny puddle up to enough to float boats around the tub in an effort to make him play in the bath. It didn't work. She suggested not filling the tub prior putting him the water. She said put him in an empty tub and then put the faucet on. She also suggested showering with him, or turning the shower on when he is taking a bath. I will try all her suggestions and write about how things go.

   We also discussed me playing hand over hand with him, which I already do.  We discussed our weekend with his cousins and she suggested I play with the kids to try to engage my son. I told her I did that. I got on the floor and played with the toys with the kids to show my son how much fun it was, but he walked away.  I told her we do hand over hand play with all his toys but when he is done playing with something, he is done.  I showed her a sensory box we have:

She likes this because everything has a different texture. She suggested mixing up what is in it. Adding tissues and scarves for example.  I am going to do this several times a week. I will add/subtract items.  On her way out she saw this puzzle in a stack of toys I want to get rid of

She said this is a good sensory puzzle.  Instead of getting rid of it, we will keep it now.


   All in all this was a great visit,  I think working with C. is going to help us a lot.

In Praise of Melissa & Doug

We have a collection of Melissa & Doug toys as you can see from above. We also have this:



But when my son realized that the point was to pound the pegs through the hole, he went to level two by removing all the pegs, tossing them under the loveseat, and hammering the floor. We had bought the peg pounder on the recommendation of the pediatrician to hone his fine motor skills.

I have previously written about this puzzle, also not pictured:

I love Melissa & Doug toys. They can be pricey. I did not pay full price for any of our toys. Most were hand me down, and I bought some on sale. The rest came from Bluum boxes (http://bluum.me/16QJhAC).

I love them mostly because they are durable. They are made from wood and whatever paint is being used has lasted for years on the hand-me-down puzzles and almost two years on the turtle, giraffe, and penguin. The colors are very vivid and enticing. My son is not gentle on his toys. They get tossed everywhere and they lasted. The puzzles were gifts from his daycare so they have seen many years of rough play.

The other reason I like them is, they help with motor skills. So many toys now are electronic it is disheartening. All you have to do is push a button and the toy plays with itself. We even have an electronic toy that all you do is turn it on and it never shuts off and it  plays without being touched.  Having a child who needed help with motor skills it was hard to look for toys. The giraffe in particular is one of my favorite toys. It is easy to manipulate and you can move it into several different poses. My son has some problems with the lock puzzle, but it is helping him to move his hands correctly. Children like looking under things which make the lock puzzle, and the farm puzzle particularly fun.

The toys are pricey, so if you want to purchase them, I suggest sales and yard sales. Benny's often has the toys on sale and from time to time so does Toys R Us. They are worth the price and they will withstand anything your child puts them through.

Ummm?

So I don't know what Little Critter did, but it must have been bad....

My son did this at some point today.

Some of our favorite toys.

I wanted to share some of my son's favorite toys. It is so hard for me to pick toys for him because it has been a long time since I was a child. (I am in my mid-30s) It has also been a long time since I have been around children. (My youngest brother is in his mid-20s). Also, I am pretty tomboyish but I don't really know what boys like to play with. What are your children's favorite toys?

 Why yes that is a sock. I undressed him the other day and he took the sock from me and has been playing with it non stop for over a week now.

So for this toy, its the ears and string he likes. He likes to spin the ears and fiddle with the end of the string. I keep telling him its a doggie, but he looks at me like I am nuts.

 These are Kohl's Cares stuffed animals. He sings to them.

This toy was what the physical therapist and early intervention coordinator played with when they came this week. Melissa & Doug toys are amazing, I will write about them soon. I paid $1.00 for this because yard sales are awesome.

This is from Ikea. He plays with it for hours.

This is his Little Man. He calls it Daddy. My husband has dark brown hair and olive complexion and we both love he calls the toy Daddy. This guy came with a car but the car is forgotten in the toy box for right now.