NEW Ocupational Therapy

We decided to change both OT and PT at the same time to a new facility with fewer distractions.  Last week we had our OT evaluation and today was our first therapy session.  The first two sessions we will be seeing the company owner - a well versed therapist.  From there we are scheduled to work with a younger, less experienced woman.  I have plans to discuss this with the owner (who we saw today).  I love young therapists - I appreciate their energy and knowledge of new practices and their newness  prevents pigeon holing Jayden based on his diagnosis.  I also appreciate the skill that comes with experience, however.  Having been around the block, an experienced therapist knows what to look for and has a variety of tools for treatment.  In this case, I'm just not sure if I am comfortable with a younger therapist - when I met the younger therapist during the evaluation the owner treated her much like an intern giving me the impression she is pretty "green". 

So today we saw the experienced therapist.  At first, I had mixed feelings her: she doesn't put up with any misbehavior and is very strict.  In the beginning I was taken aback by this but by the end of the session I saw how well Jayden responded to her that I would like to work with her more and try to incorporate some of her strategies into my daily interactions with Jayden. When Jayden didn't like doing a task, he would throw the object which she would make him pick up.  She would also ask him to use words or signs to communicate.  At the end of the session, he signed all done beautifully then signed all done again tonight when done with his meal!  This is a sign we have been working on forever but it is now clear that he is using it. 

Its amazing how much can be accomplished in a 50 minutes session (rather than the 30 minutes we have had the past year and a half).  The session began with several hand activities - playing/squeezing a ball, pushing buttons, gripping toys and placing them in their slots.  Its clear Jayden has week hands and needs more strength in his fingers.  He also needs to work on his oppositional something or other -- basically, he should put his forefinger and thumb together to do work. I really liked how in tune the therapist was to sensory issues.  We weren't able to get into much detail in today's session but she is clearly very experienced in sensory integration.  I would like to discuss the results of a sensory profile I completed during the evaluation - put that on my list of topics for next week!  She did some oral motor work and would like to see Jayden making more mouth shapes - she feels his upper lip is tight and showed me a few exercises (hopefully I can replicate them at home!!).  Then we finished with balancing on a wedge like contraption and putting together puzzle pieces.