Our just turned 3-year old has always had issues using his hands. The OT says the usual "unaware of where his body is in space" but I just feel like there's more to it? He never has balance problems. Doesn't bump into things, he can jump great (better than my 4 year old), he loves to spin to the music and then stop without losing any control.
BUT he acts like his hands don't even belong to him. At this point he has a GREAT thumb control (thanks to gaming systems) but other than that, we can't get him to do anything else. He will try but everything goes flying across the room because he can't manipulate his hands well enough. I do see a slight improvement from when I first noticed this about a year ago but very little. He won't hold a crayon unless you hold his hand so he can hold it tight, he still doesn't use utensils and only eats with his hands, he loves to do puzzles but can't do them on his own. He tries but can't put the interlocking pieces together so then he either throws it out of frustration or guides my hand to put it where he wants it (at which point I reverse the strategy and guide HIS hand and help him put it together so he can get more practice out of it). He can have a very strong grip but just can't really get much use of it. I know a lot of kids here have fine motor skills delays but I just can't stop thinking there's more to it?
On top of the hands he also has very little use of the muscle in his face. When he talks (finally starting to talk a little!) he hardly moves his mouth and just now when he's three he's starting to make some faces at us thought very limited. He can smile really well when he's happy but other than that, not much facial control. I am getting him an independent evaluation by a local speech pathologist as I am not satisfied with what the local school district SLP came up with. But I wonder if these two things could be connected? Or two separate issues?
It certainly isn't happening for the lack of trying. I'm home with him every day and work on it every day. I'd imagine things would be improving by now it if was just a normal out of sync delay. He'll stand by our white board, I can see him wanting to grab the crayons and write something but then he just walks away from it. It's limiting him in so many ways. He right away dismisses any activity that would require use of his hands.
Oh, and not sure if this might be related or not. He was very early climber but would start using the stairs really late. He just now recently started walking up the stairs himself and going down the stairs is a 5-15 minute ordeal where he sits at the top stair planning his way down (he still kind of side scoots when he's finally ready). So some kind of motor planning problem?
Does this remind you of anything your children have been through? Any advice???
