Quick question about OT...

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-24-2005
Quick question about OT...
4
Fri, 09-23-2005 - 12:48pm
For those of you who have children in OT, do you do a lot of work with them at home? Chase's OT wants us to do three 15 minute sessions of muscle work throughout the day. In the summer it was easier to accomplish but with school starting it is hard to find time. I'm starting to feel guilty(naturally) about not spending enough time on this. Vicky
iVillage Member
Registered: 12-24-2004
Fri, 09-23-2005 - 1:27pm

Vicki,

Yes, we do lots of work at home, but then, I worked in early intervention before I became a mom. I also taught preschool at one point in my life, so I have a good idea of what a young child needs to do during the day to keep on track developmentally. It comes naturally to me to provide a schedule for our home that includes "homework" to suppliment our various therapies with Cassian. I make up most of the activities myself. DH helps out a lot with this by doing an hour or so each evening and more on weekends when he is home. He is a very involved Dad. Cassian also attends a 1/2 day Kindergarten program, and we have a young baby. It's not easy to get everything done now that we have the new baby, but my house is usually not the cleanest and we eat a lot of frozen entrees ;)

Here's a sample of our daily schedule with Cassian:

Eat Breakfast
Watch Video (1/2 hr; this is when I shower)
Fine Motor or Tactile Work (20-30 mins)
Floortime Play (30 mins)
Snack
Go to School
Come Home from School
Video or Computer Time (1/2 hr)
Snack
Fine Motor or Tactile Work (20-30 mins)
Gross Motor Activity (30-45 mins; often Tim does this with Cassian and it may double as a floortime episode)
Eat Dinner
Floortime (30 mins with Tim)
Bedtime Rituals

Cassian is hyperlexic, consequently I don't schedule book time for him. Most of his free time is spent reading books and interacting with us in a scripted dramatic play sort of way. We also will often do an outing before or after dinner that doubles as a social skills training activity for Cassian. On weekends, we do swimming and other fun things, like going to museums or zoos. In between activities, I am usually nursing the baby, preparing food of some sort, or doing housework (laundry mostly). I have found that if I keep a written schedule, which lists more specific activities than the one above, Cassian is much more likely to transition to the activities and do them willingly with me. The schedule also helps me keep track of what we do. I have also used a checklist method to keep track of what we do during the day with Cassian. I can email you the checklist, if you are interested. Just email me at mom2cassian@yahoo.com and request it.

Suzi

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-25-2003
Fri, 09-23-2005 - 6:23pm

Vicky,

Ir si specific muscle work, or just to ensure gross motor activity? If it is nonspecific, and he likes to climb, he is probably gettign at least 15 minutes during recess.
If it is specific, you shoudl push for him to get OT at school. I am thinkng you may be able to arrange for at least one session to happen at there.

Lastly, at home you do what you can do. I don't think it is reasonable to try to fit 3 15 minute, structured one-on-one sessions in between school and bedtime, and it probably isn't what the OT had in mind anyway.

I don't remember what age Chase is, but here are some muscle building activities you can have him do while 'multitasking':

If he can still sit at a kiddie table, remove the chair, and substitute an oversized playground ball for him to sit on while eating/drawing etc. This will help build muscles in core and legs, as well as provide lots of movement for kids who crave it.

Keep a large excercise ball in front of the telly. Peter watches TV in constant motion, on a big ball, hugging, rocking, leaning/rolling on it. it is all good muscle /vestibular work.

Make him a "helper". He can help to carry bags in from the grocery store, carry books to another room, help take out the reyclables, whatever -any kids of heavy work; carrying, pushing pulling.

Sports: particularly karate, gymnastics or swimming are excellent.

Playground: swinging (if he 'pumps" by himself), climbing, monkey bars are all excellent.

HTH

-Paula

-Paula

visit my blog at www.onesickmother.com
iVillage Member
Registered: 02-24-2005
Fri, 09-23-2005 - 7:31pm

Paula,

Actually she did want 3 sessions. Specifically she wants to build his core strength and recommends wrestling, push/pull activities, deep pressure and crashing. We invested in a nice playsystem that has monkey bars, rock wall and of course swings. It seems to me, like you said, a lot of his needs are met in natural play. He attends a private school so doesn't receive any special services at school. I have two other children, 3yo and 6yo, and the three get along splendidly for siblings. One of Chase's favorite things to do is load them up in the wagon and pull them around the yard, pretending it's a train making stops along the way. That's why I don't put great effort into scheduling one-on-one sessions with him but then when she asks me about it I feel like a kid who hasn't done my homework for class.

Suzi,

You're schedule makes me tired just reading it. You must be exhausted!!!

Vicky

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-11-2003
Sat, 09-24-2005 - 8:49am

The entire last school yr we did 30 mins of theraputic listening and 15 mins of exercises 2X day. We still should be doing the exercises for ds but we've kinds of fallen off the wagon. It could be contributing to ds difficulty in school now that I think about it.

Samantha

Samantha