Yes, my DS7 has 'body in space' issues; he had 5 yrs of ot/pt and 2.5 yrs of vt; and more recently water therapy and neurofeedback. He had the oral, feeding, and speech issues and severe SPD too.
The part where your son's hands don't belong to him are 'body in space' as well as the hand-eye coordination, which you're seeing with puzzles. Late jumper is also an indicator. Dismissing any activity that requires both hands is another dead ringer. My DS7 avoided using both hands like the plague, but then he was born with torticollis (neck) and it was like he had a stroke with one side of the body. We've had to really force him to use the left side (which was the torticollis side).
Imo, it's all sounds related. It's probably due to a snag in neurological wiring. In our case, it was tied to severe uterine constraints during the pregnancy and DS7's torticollis. Yes, sensory processing and/or dyspraxia could be an issue too.
What would I do? I would seek out an OT eval asap if you haven't done so already. I would see a behavioral optometrist for a full perceptual eye exam and possible vision therapy asap; no, it's not too early either. I would also look into the Burdenko method for water therapy and/or use some of his techniques like making snow angels in the water.
I'd also work hard on doing anything using both sides of the body evenly and to enhance bilateral integration. This includes crawling through tunnels, swimming, balance beam work, making snow angels on land and water, etc. What you want to do is make sure the arms are crossing the midline and thus both hemispheres of the brain are being used. I'm still trying to do exercises with my DS7.
thank you for the tips! He has been in OT for about 9 months now but it wasn't really targeted towards any of this. It was more about tolerating sharing, etc. He did love any deep pressure that his OT guy did with him and we're continuing with that. He just aged out of Early Intervention this week and will be getting 60 minutes of OT through the school district but I don't know yet what exactly they have in mind for him. He didn't have tortocollis (or older one did and still has some minor issues) ... really, any of his issues didn't start until he was about 12-18 months. Sometimes I wonder if any of this could be somewhat related to very high fevers he had when he was about 12 months old (spiking up to 105F for about 48hrs). Strangely enough, as hard as any fine motor activity has been for him, he has NEVER had any problems turning books page by page ... since he was a baby. He was always so good at it we never realized he might have issues with his hands until it was actually time to really start using them. Crossing his midline is definitely a problem too. He started jumping in one place pretty much as soon as he learned to walk at 15 months but jumping DOWN from steps or places didn't start until the last two weeks. At least things seem to be improving! But it takes a lot of patience waiting for him 10 minutes at the bottom of the stairs until he finds the courage to climb down. Once he tackles that first step at the top, he's fine. It just takes a lot to get him going.
I guess I will see what the school OT will work on and if I don't see much benefit to it, I will look into private OT eval.
