OT: Day 10/30

ORGANIZING ONESELF

Ms. Renee gave him a jar of "stuff", and I'm not sure what it was but it was the consistency of Silly Puddy. Hidden in the silly puddy were beads. He was to dig through the puddy to find the beads while using his thumbs/fingers. This was to help strengthen his fingers for writing. At first, he was reluctant as he thought he would get messy and was very adament about having a paper towel close by. But upon examination, he realized that it wasn't necessary.



This was the theme for today; although it didn't start out that way, was to continue work on self-care. We started with our work on applying lotion and chapstick. We had success last night with the lotion, but we are not out of the woods yet with it and we have a long ways to go with the use of chap stick.

Using the bust of a Barbie, she asked if he would apply lotion to her face. Without a blink of an eye, he opened the bottle and squirt some on his hands and rubbed it on her face. But, it didn't stop there! He actually put some on his arms and rubbed it! But when asked about chapstick, he wasn't about to go there....another day then.



This morning, Turbo really struggled with ORGANIZING HIMSELF. He was all over the place. Too much visual and auditory stimulation was going on around him that he couldn't sit still! (Sounds familiar) But when it really came to a head was when we were in the gym with another little fella and I think they were watching each other and may be even trying to compete with each other. The therapists blocked their views from each other with their bodies, but the stimulation was just too great. Hard to keep their attention, but very good practice for the real world, nonetheless.

Playing a game with the large ball that was suspended from the ceiling, he laid on his back while using his "swords" (legs) to kick the ball when it came to him. It did provide the deep pressure that he is constantly on the lookout for, but it also help strengthen his core muscles to help him sit still longer as fatigue of those muscles is suspected.


When that lost it's appeal, and lets face it, with the state he was in, it wasn't long, she moved on to him swinging on the ball while holding on to it. Again, strengthening his hands, upper body, core and legs. All something that will help with the fatigue he is suspected to have; and also the problem with him being able to sit still.


While his engine was definitetly still in the red, we moved on to the zip line. As he rode the zip line down, he crash landed into the ball pit to retrieve his weighted frog (which is 5 pounds!). He did this a few times, but it helps with his tactile differientation. He really wanted to use his feet, but was encouraged to use his hands.


One piece of advice Ms. Renee gave was to use my gut instinct. A lot of the times Turbo will just have too much energy and he needs to get it out. To fight him on it by trying to get him to do a GREEN or a BLUE activity to calm down might just counteract what it is that I am trying to get to occur. She said that I just have to make that choice. Let him go outside and ride his scooter, run around, jump, etc. BUT I HAVE TO MAKE TIME FOR A CALMING ACTIVITY AFTERWARDS! I cannot just let him go rev up his engine to RED and not help him or provide him a GREEN OR A BLUE activity to slow his engine down. Something I need to work on!

She also encouraged me to do the brushing and joint compressions 4x a day! WHEW! I don't even have time to shower half the time...but alright...I'll try it! It helps with calming, desensitizing his skin to different sensations so that he can begin to tolerate those sensations. It is hard, but a lot of the times, it is super helpful.

To end the session, she had him climb into the hammock swing and crawl back and forth to grab a specific amount of small lizards and bugs to bring back to her. It cut out the visual stimulation and muted the auditory stimulation but really gave him a cognitive task to help bring his engine down. It worked! He still was "giddy" when we left, but nothing like he was when we got there.

Things for me to think about:
1) Brushing 4x a day or at least work up to it.
2) Knowing when he just needs to run!

Well....off to brushing!