OT: Day 9/30

Friday was Pirate Adventure Day in OT. To begin with, Ms. Renee had him swing from a rope to land onto the pirate boat. Although, I am pretty sure that this was not a part of her plan, Turbo's impulsivity paid off and served a good purpose. Later, she told me that having him jumping and swinging was a good way to set things off. First off, he received the proprioceptive input by bouncing, vestibular input by swinging and then worked on his hand strength by holding onto the rope which will help improve his handwriting.


As his boat (actually a swing) floated near him, he was to commandeer the vessel and climb aboard to hunt for pirate's treasure. This was another way for him to have fun with lotion (or cream as he refers to it). She had placed a number of lotion tins around the swing and he was to open them and fish out the gold coins. At first, he wasn't too keen on the idea of putting his hands in the cream as they would get messy. But the idea of getting treasure was too strong and he overcame his desire to be clean and not messy. While he was doing thing, she was swinging the swing slowly to help calm him down after swinging on the rope.



Keeping with the pirate theme, she created an obstacle course for him to go through to save the animals in the ball pit from the evil pirates who kidnapped them from the zoo. Using his pirate's lens, he was to spot the animals (really just an eye exercise), overcome the obstacles in his way, dive into the ball pit and rescue animals and bring them back to his ship. He had a great time, but of course, you can see all of the Sensory elements coming into play.


To help with Tactile Differentiation (Semantic agnosia: Those with this form of agnosia are effectively 'object blind' until they use non-visual sensory systems to recognise the object. For example, feeling, tapping, smelling, rocking or flicking the object, may trigger realisation of its semantics or meaning - Turbo struggles with this. Because he is so visual, he is very dependent upon looking at something to find it, see it or identify what it is, rather than using other senses to identify it), Ms. Renee asked him to dive into the balls (again a lot of proprioceptive and vestibular feedback/input) to find the animals. This way, he would use only his sense of touch to find the animals.

After that, she introduced him to the rock climbing wall. This proves to be a calming activity, almost a GREEN (Just Right) activity because of the feedback Turbo gets on his joints or the deep pressure. This has the potential for Turbo to be a RED activity, but with constant redirection and supervision, it can be GREEN. The idea was for him to climb up to find hidden animals to rescue, and then climb back down. This also encourages him to look before he moves, which helps with impulsivity, as well as to devise a plan for his next step.



To help bring him down to a BLUE activity for the ride home, she gave him a weighted lap pillow/blanket and had him wear a weighted vest while blowing bubbles. Breathing exercises help calm him, while wearing weights provides deep pressure.






She told me that there is an older lady who volunteers her time and sewing abilities who makes these vests for kiddos for specific weight amounts and fabric choice for $25. But looking at it, I think I can sew one myself...ehem...I mean...show the picture to a friend who is a seamstress and buy the material myself. For those of you who really know me...my sewing machine and myself DO NOT PLAY NICELY TOGETHER!