Wow, OT's are diagnosing kids with low tone on the basis of a lack of strength? That's really odd, and very troubling.
I believe you misunderstood my post Aculady. I have a teenager with hyptonia and with a lifetime in OT and PT we understand the difference between strength and tone. What I was saying is that in my experience a very large percentage of kids with fairly mild motor delays are said by OTs to have hypotonia. I'd say probably 90% of people I've met who has a kid in OT or PT for any motor delays is told the kid has low tone. They may well have a very minor degree of low tone so that may be accurate or maybe it is inaccurate but it is very widespread. At any rate, it is of course a totally different situation from children who have more severe hypotonia and may be unable to learn to walk or be years behind in motor skills. Unfortunately many kids even with very significant challenges will not be able to get a more precise diagnosis than the rather vague descriptor of hypotonia.
So, that makes it tricky when we are talking about hypotonia are we talking a kid with fairly mild problems who may struggle a bit and benefit from OT or are we talking about a totally floppy kid. For the totally floppy crowd it is hard to imagine a lot of fidgeting.
For the poster who asked about treatments, improving strength has been very helpful to our child. It is a long slow process that requires a commitment. The most important thing here has been smaller but more frequent doses OT and PT assigned exercises with ongoing reassessment of the exercise plan. Unfortunately gains that take a long time to happen can be lost if you don't stick with it. The main benefits we've seen from improved strength are overall less fatigue and less difficulty with sitting and standing - so less flopping over and resting the head on the desk, etc. Activities with patterned movements (horseback riding, swimming, dance) were also helpful in part as a bit of a buffer against negative feelings from physical challenges.
