Starting to have "issues" during therapy
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Starting to have "issues" during therapy
| Tue, 02-21-2006 - 1:52pm |
Hello, my Jacob has been doing great in therapy and now the last few weeks he's been uncooperative...he just wants to lay on the floor and do his own thing. When helping pick stuff up hand over hand he gets SO mad and then starts throwing things and screaming...I get upset by this because he's been so good until now. His ot tells me he needs more deep pressure therapy to calm down. Jacob loves this and will do good but that's all he wants then. He lays on the floor and we roll a big ball on him...he also requires more rough play and tons of jumping...any suggestions? It's just hard, especially when he was doing so good until now...
Thanks!
Keri

Hi Keri,
I wonder if he gets frustrated because picking things up, even with hand over hand therapy is hard for him? I have found recently that Eric somewhat rebels with his OT when they are starting to do fine motor activities that he finds to be hard. She usually does like your OT, starts with something active, deep pressure things. Then she asks Eric to pick something he'd like to do as a reward if he works hard with fine motor. He usually picks some sensory seeking thing (a cool whirling chair they have, swings, etc.) She gets him to "work" on the the hard thing, in order to get the sensory "pay off."
But this took a good couple of months of laying on the floor being uncooperative before she could even get him to focus. And this was after doing really well for months too. It was almost like he got comfortable enough with her to act out (like he does with us at home) and it coicided with an activity (holding crayons, chalk etc. and tracing)that was challenging.
In the same vein, recently he became stubborn with the ST who was working with teaching him to ask questions, which Eric found hard. There, Eric just clammed up and said he wanted to be quiet. The ST went back to a visual reward schedule. Similar method to the OT, Eric picked a reward, the ST gave him stickers for each good response and a certain number of stickers won the pay off.
Also, I've seen that if Eric is having a hard time with one therapist, he gravitates to the other, which has sometimes cause wonderful growth in skills.
It sounds like your OT is doing a good job. But it is frustrating and like one step forward, two steps back often. I feel like that all the time, but just have to keep remembering how far my guy has come!
Hugs,
Katherine