amo_mea_filiis. Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 Feel free to skip the update and jump down to the bottom for the question. :D Ds started with a new OT 3 weeks ago. She is a wonderful peds OT but also does feeding and vision! She watched ds eat a yogurt, donut, pretzles, and gave me some great insight. When he eats, he stuffs his mouth, she said he is looking for input. For this I got him a vibrating toothbrush to chew on before meals and some baby spoons so he can't get too big of a bite. He also has very poor oral motor skills and doesn't use his tongue like he should which is more than likely why he has such poor teeth. The vibrating toothbrush will help here, too. I also got a bunch of balloons, different straws, and some blow thing that makes farting sounds. :glare: It'll drive me nuts but should help. When he eats I have to have him open his mouth and tell him to get the rest of the food. He'll be dry brushing after eating to try and protect what's left of his teeth until his tongue is stronger. His tongue pretty much only goes up and down. We're looking into getting him full body Theratogs. This would give amazing proprioceptive input, and its purpose of course will help with his hip and left side weakness. I just ordered a pressure vest and got him a leotard. We have to add a lot of vestibular work too. I got Pin the Tail on the Donkey (doing something with eyes closed). While at OT he does a lot of swing work, and I'm trying to get him sitting on a ball more. How in the world do I fit all of this in?! We have multiple types of OT homework, PT homework, VT homework, ST homework, and school! So far school is only taking him about an hour (but I need to increase that). I know I can work oral motor before and after meals, and maybe get some language in at the same time. During the day he can wear his leotard, pressure vest, and eventually theratogs. Which therapies would you try to attack daily? VT for sure. Any others? Overwhelmed and want to get in as much as possible without going completely insane! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennifer-72 Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 (edited) I always try to look for tasks that can do double duty. For example, when we were working on speech goals regarding sequencing, I would use a cut and paste sequence book that would help work on our fine motor goals as well. If the majority of your speech homework is focused on articulation, then I would probably scale back until he makes some gains with the oral motor. It sounds like the OT is really trying to throw a whole bunch at him and see what sticks (which is great!), so I would probably go full tilt on it and the VT. My guess is in another month or so, you and the OT will have a good idea of what is working. That will most likely lead to refinements in his program and it will become easier to incorporate. Edited October 7, 2011 by Jennifer-72 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walking-Iris Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 Sounds like my son!! Oral motor sensitivities that affect his diet big time. You could give him the oral exercises (straws etc) to fiddle with while he does any seat school work. (Not sure how old your son is) Also you could have him do his seatwork while bouncing on the ball. And while watching tv etc. My son needs a lot of fine motor skill work. So I give him things that require use of scissors and staplers, hole punchers etc daily. Anything requiring the use of those tools he has to do it----and lord does he hate it. I've wanted to try Theratogs for years---but so pricey. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amo_mea_filiis. Posted October 7, 2011 Author Share Posted October 7, 2011 I've wanted to try Theratogs for years---but so pricey. Have you seen the PTA system? They're about 1/2 the price of the full system. They also have SPD theratogs, but they're just as pricey. None of them are in my budget which is why I'm aiming for insurance coverage with all of his labels. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amo_mea_filiis. Posted October 7, 2011 Author Share Posted October 7, 2011 Thank you for the ideas! I need to get a smaller kids table so we can use a ball for seating. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barbara H Posted October 8, 2011 Share Posted October 8, 2011 I agree with the suggestion to work on double duty activities. If you are doing any activities involving flash cards that works well sitting on the ball - leaning off to one side to reach the card. We did a lot of math on the minitrampoline - jumping out the answer to the problem. Skip counting can work with rolling a ball. You can also incorporate sensory activities into to the transition from one activity to another such as commando crawling across the room or taking a minute to use one of the irritating blowing devices or to push on the wall. One thing we found was that more than the duration of the activities it was the frequency that made some of them effective. For us five sessions of five minutes of sensory activities worked a lot better than one half an hour session. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walking-Iris Posted October 9, 2011 Share Posted October 9, 2011 Definitely daily sensory activities are important. Sometimes if i have a hard time "fitting it all in" or life gets busy---I can always just observe my kiddo. Our OT said all kids do self therapy and sometimes just watching what they do gives clues about what they need...and a spontaneous sensory activity can be created on the fly. I'm not even positive our insurance would pay for anything like that---bears looking into. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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