KFP - Another tort mother? Hooray! I'm kind of shocked that your son was born with tort and then released from ot within a few months.
I've been on a torticollis yahoo group board since my son was born and we're always say/recommend that tort kids should be in ot/pt until they are walking well (i.e. no head tilting, hiking the shoulders and with good, steady balance and posture). Even with us, my son had tort surgery at 18 months. I thought the tort was resolved then, but it wasn't fully resolved until he completed vision therapy during the winter holidays this year.
The reason why we recommend this is that tort kids are at greater risk for developing asynchronously and developmental delays (fine, gross, speech, feeding, vision, etc). Tort kids can compensate so subtly (ie. slightly placing their head off midline) that you need someone well versed to spot them and intervene to correct it. Tort kids usually have difficulty with crawling, crossing midline, bilateral integration. This can cause a host of problems, including preferring one hemisphere of the brain over another. Personally, I think that tort kids spend so much time trying not to use their tort side, neck, and core muscles that their brains go into overdrive and ultimately can enhance their cognitive skills; this is what happened with my son.
Somerdai - my son's ots worked out quickly that they had to constantly change the exercises and involve more complexity/challenge to keep him engaged. With the ot, my son spent a lot of time in an ot sensory gym so there was plenty to keep him engaged and a lot to work on.
The ots/pts were very observant of his body language and adapted the exercises accordingly. I admit that I also went out of my way to find ots/pts/speech/feeding therapists who would do this and got rid of those who didn't. I never had an issue with the vision therapy because the optometrist specially devised the program for him, was top in the field, and was a master at observing my son and picking up subtle body cues.
Article:
" intense sensitivity to the environment might also create a vulnerability resulting from an overload of information that can contribute to challenges with their social interactions." - This statement is absolutely true - or was in my son's case.
1. My issue is that if you have a baby born with severe sensory integration (that covers many facets) - your child needs ot, period. My son couldn't function in daily life without ot and a sensory diet; it was affecting everything. Today, the SID is considered mild and you'd never know he had so much therapy and severe SID.
2. SID exists on a range from severe to moderate and mild. I didn't see the level of SID in these children.
3. A study on 80 children classified as gifted. This is a can of worms. My son is eg/pg but he actually hasn't always had test scores to reflect this.
4. OT might unwittingly make kids un-gifted. I don't think this is possible. Ot can help a child with processing sensory information. It can help a tactile defensive child be able to tolerate playing with sand, for example, or help a child handle loud noises or vestibular input (i.e. swinging.
5. Vision therapy - yes, that I believe can change the processing patterns, perceptual skills. I've seen that happen with my son. With vision therapy, you're basically forcing a child to accept a new reality or version of the world with glasses and daily exercises.
