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I'm not sure if you're asking if the positive effects don't last until the next OT appointment, or if they diminish with time after the prescribed course of OT is completed.

I can't give you any advice that's directly relevant to your dd's situation, but I've had two of my children go through OT - one for handwriting and fine motor skills and one for sensory. I didn't see *immediate* results with either child (as in, they wouldn't come home from a single appointment with an immediately obvious positive benefit - instead they usually came home from appointments with assignments for us to work on that related to the therapy. The one exception to that is when my dd started listening therapy (through her sensory OT) - and that produced a completely immediate change in my dd. The other changes happened much more gradually, but both my ds and my dd benefited from their OT and neither regressed after the therapy had ended. I'm trying to think through the set of other children I know who've been through OT, and I can't really think of any kids (just out of the set I know) who lost the gains they made through therapy after their treatment was completed.

I especially appreciate having sent my dd through sensory OT - it not only helped calm her down quite a bit, it also gave us a great set of tools to use in future situations when she faced new types of sensory overload or when she was stressed out - and I've used those techniques with *all* of my kids, not just dd

polarbear

Moomin -
As the parent of a child who did OT in school and privately around age 7 for 6 months, he seemed to 'mature' physically 'a lot' during the time he did OT. It's hard to know if the OT sparked that big jump in gross motor coordination, or if it would have happened anyway at that age - we'll never know, but we'll always be grateful that it happened.

Smiles,
Grinity

My son is in a similar situation. His ability to function in a classroom has improved but it is hard to say if it is OT, age or a new teacher.

My preemie twins were in OT for sensory issues for 5 years in the case of my son, and 4 1/2 years in the case of my daughter.

The head of OT who evaluated my son cautioned me that his sensory issues were so severe that he might be a child who I simply could never take to the store because the overstimulation would be too much for my child to handle. Similarly, he looked like a poster child for ADHD up to the age of 3. Though ADHD is not diagnosed in children that young, the attentional issues were striking.

I wanted to be able to look my children in the eye and say I did everything I could to help them. I aggressively pursued therapies. For us, therapy worked. It wasn't perfect; issues remained. But, by and large, I consider my aggressive pursuit of therapies for my children one of my wisest decisions and acts.

Now, at age 7, my former poster child for ADHD has never behaved in a manner that resulted in even one person raising the possibility that he has ADHD. The twins still have sensory issues, but they are relatively mild with minimal to no impact on their lives.

My son did have an exacerbation of gravitational insecurity that resulted in a lot of anxiety -- to the point a child psychologist suggested he might need an SSRI. I had heard that sensory issues and anxiety issues can overlap. I told her I wouldn't consider medication before first seeing if treatment of the gravitational insecurity provided relief from his anxiety. I decided to enroll him in gymnastics, and then if that didn't work, resume OT. Gymnastics and then swimming worked like a charm. My son no longer struggles with gravitational issues, and his anxiety has dramatically improved. I've concluded that gymnastics and swimming help my children's sensory issues immensely. Supplements for a not uncommon metabolic disorder helped immensely, too.

I also respectfully submit a different interpretation of your students' experience that may warrant considering. Rather than believing OT only provided a short-term relief, I would interpret that relief as demonstratating that those OT activities could help -- and that the OT activities needed to be repeated. I never broached OT as something we did once a week; when I did during times of acute stress, like a move, I felt like a failure. I always had understood that I was learning what activities I needed to do on a regular, on-going basis to help my children. And doing that, incorporating swinging and trampoline, etc., into our daily lives helped my children immensely.

Hope this helps.

That is funny. I have done years of OT with my older son and we did years of gymnastics and then switched to swimming.

All three of those activities have done wonders for my son.

This IS funny. My daughter just finished OT but began private gymnastics (twice a month) and that has helped immensely with her sensory issues. We've been talking about her going back to swimming, too.

we added going gluten free which improved her stomach issues as well, it seemed that everything worked together to help her over the last three months.

I certainly see my DDs swimming, piano and circus classes as theraputic.

The thing with the swimming is that it is sensory terrific for him because of the water enveloping all those nerves and the buoyancy and all the bazillion muscles that you use. And socially it is terrific because he has tons of friends yet other than a few relay teams it is an individual sport (so no one is counting on him to say hit a home run or catch a forward pass or something). And all the bilateral movement is good for him. Also, the workouts are very strenuous/aerobic. Baseball practice has a good warm up but really how much are you really exercising standing out in left field or sitting on the bench waiting to bat. Finally, he is very talkative and during laps he is quiet with his own thoughts. One time he told me during cool down he outlined his next great novel.

ITA and think this point is worth re-posting!

Sweetie, thanks for mentioning the benefits of swimming for your ds - it's got me thinking it might be beneficial in the same way for my super-sensory, always-active, always talkative dd10. FWIW, dance lessons are another place where, although she's not got the all-enveloping sensory impact, she's for some reason very very focused.

polarbear