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Joined: Aug 2010
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DS7 was considered quite low tone as an infant and we went through a lot of testing and medical hysteria as a result. Nothing was ever found and after some time in PT, he made some big improvements and walked on schedule. He is now a fairly athletic child who nonetheless fatigues rather easily and is clumsier than typical with small motor tasks such as eating and buttoning/zipping. His handwriting is okay, not great, and slow. Art skills are average to low average. I find him hard to assess because DD was extremely advanced in handwriting and art.
I am having spend a little bit of time writing occasionally this summer because I know from experience that he is going to enter the gifted magnet he will attend next year behind his classmates in writing. Expectations are high for writing in the program. One thing I notice is that he lays his head on his desk or rests his head on his hands almost always whenever he writes. When asked, he says he it makes him tired to write. He says it's not his hands, but it's hard to sit up. I suspect low tone is still there and is interfering with his writing ability. Wondering if anyone has dealt with this. I think what he may need is some core strengthening exercises? The tricky thing is, he is doing well enough that he is unlikely to qualify for anything (he can write some nice sentences with lovely vocab that make sense, but it takes him a long time and he flops and slumps and looks physically ill at ease).
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Joined: Mar 2014
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We are doing a summer bout of OT with DS4 and core floppiness is one of the issues we are addressing.
He compensates for it - but when evaluated he was ... well, floppy.
Maybe working with an OT or PT could help. Some of the things we do:
Have him throw balls "soccer throw in" style (over head with both hands) at targets to make it fun.
Slam things on the floor from overhead (we have some 14" soft medicine balls - we may still get the 2 pound one as the 4 pounder is a bit much. Even pillows or other balls will work - we play "boy hulk" and slam away).
Using the same balls as above we do "walkouts" on the hands (child lies on ball on tummy with hands on floor and walks out).
Any kind of sled pushing exercise (you can get scooter boards with wheels for this).
Maybe t-ball (to make it fun you can hit anything off a t - old plastic bottles, small boxes etc).
Last edited by cmguy; 07/23/15 08:20 AM.
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Thanks--we are assessing and treating several other things in the family right now (!), so I'm hoping to try some things at home for the moment. I am thinking maybe I can work up a little workout for him. He'll probably think that's fun.
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We had an OT eval for much the same thing, and we were given a bunch of core strengthening exercises. You might be on the right track given the other things you describe.
The recommendation didn't really make sense to us - he can swim 50 yds of butterfly, but has insufficient core strength? DS doesn't really tire that easily, either. However, DS would also describe the feeling of being tired when writing. (We since have a dx of dyslexia and dysgraphia, so the tired feeling in our case may be due to the mental effort required in writing.)
We got the biggest bang for our intervention buck by making certain that the seating arrangement was at the perfect height and the feet were comfortable.
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I've seen OTs have children write, draw, or exercise other hand skills when laying prone, propped up on their elbows.
...pronounced like the long vowel and first letter of the alphabet...
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geo, doing butterfly and weak core strength are not mutually exclusive... a lot of issues with core can be coordination, balance and/or endurance. Swimming is a good exercise but does not cover all areas of core strength at all (not even butterfly). It means he can do well in what it takes for butterfly - but still have weak core in other areas - including sitting to write.
From the session I watched with DS's OT, it is not one set of exercises but a wide range of seemingly unrelated excersises to cover the many areas that falls under the general "core strength".
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We have also started target shooting and archery (albeit with NERF guns and arrows). You have to stand up straight and hold a posture for these to be accurate.
For older kids old fashioned jumping rope might be good too.
I was surprised by the core strength deficit. I was expecting fine motor issues but he was fine there. It's interesting the things that can turn up from an OT eval.
Last edited by cmguy; 07/23/15 08:39 AM.
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DS7 has DCD and also has trouble sitting and writing. The OT suggested to make sure he has support for his feet (i.e. feet not dangling) - this seems to help a lot. Also taking mini-activity breaks during a task seems to help.
She also suggested doing a little warm-up before doing a task like writing. Some of the suggestions were: * Push on wall as if to move wall * Lean on desk for “desk push-up” * Do “chair push-up” in sitting by lifting bottom off floor or chair, holding self up with arms * Weight-bearing through arms via wheelbarrow walk, crabwalk, bearwalk, etc.
DS was doing some core exercises at school this year, but I don't know exactly what they were. He enjoyed them though.
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geo, doing butterfly and weak core strength are not mutually exclusive... a lot of issues with core can be coordination, balance and/or endurance. Swimming is a good exercise but does not cover all areas of core strength at all (not even butterfly). It means he can do well in what it takes for butterfly - but still have weak core in other areas - including sitting to write. Interesting, and point taken. However, we really don't see much of anything that indicates core strength or endurance problems ~ swimming is just one of the areas we see strength. I watched the evaluation, and I'd agree that maybe coordination was more the issue, as he was able to do the exercises with ease beyond the goals set. However, all the exercises were strength/endurance based, not coordination, as the performance in the evaluation looked like a lack of strength. Maybe we just got a shotty OT eval? It wouldn't be the 1st time in our experience...
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ultra, our older dd had low core muscle tone when she was younger - one of the recommendations from her OT was swinging - does he like to swing?
I also think it might be worth asking for a med referral for an OT eval - although the issues you're seeing are most likely not severe enough to qualify for school services, if he had medical concerns and low tone as a younger infant/toddler, I'm guessing you could get a follow-up OT assessment covered through insurance now (citing the concerns you've noted), and even if it didn't result in a referral for therapy, it might help you unravel what pieces of core strength needed work, and the OT might be able to give you a list of suggested exercises that would be focused on your ds' specific needs.
One other not - spaghetti mentioned vision. Our dd also did the head-laying down thing when she was having trouble with her eyes, and writing does make her extra tired when she's having vision issues. When she was your ds' age (just prior to her vision diagnosis), she also had sloppy handwriting, was a really messy eater and was rather clumsy. Addressing her vision issues resulted in neat handwriting, and a much cleaner place at the dinner table, as well as many less "bumps" and clumsy issues.
Best wishes,
polarbear
eta - one other thing that helped with sitting up straight when dd was your ds' age was to sit on a big ball rather than a chair.
Last edited by polarbear; 07/23/15 10:35 AM.
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