I think you may need to look into getting him another OT. Is that possible? My son at age 6, also very non-violent, threatened to hit (i.e., lifted his hands in a menacing manner) a teacher's aid who repeatedly shamed him for his delayed fine motor skills and was very rigid with him - at the time no one was aware of the extent of his delays or of the fact that he has EDS and dysgraphia. She was a horrible match for a child with special needs and DS deteriorated behaviorally and psychologically drastically having to work with her. It's just my experience with my kid, but, it seems to me, once a kid like ours hits that point where they feel so threatened/powerless and loses trust in the OT/teacher/aide forcing the child to remain with that person isn't beneficial and can be harmful. It wasn't until I insisted he be moved to someone else did he begin to recover. He had a similar, but completely non-violent, reaction to a private OT who again was rigid and was not a good match. I immediately removed her from the team to work with him. All of his other therapists he has loved and have loved him (both his vision therapist practice and his last pt/ot practice told me the therapist fight to get to work with him ) and he also almost always enjoys his therapies. Personally, it takes some talent to work well these kids and a poor match or a poor therapists can be very detrimental.
Again, just my experience, but if I were you and had kid who is normally so rarely violent that felt that threatened with someone who is suppose to help him in fun and supportive environment I would do whatever to get a new therapist. HTH.
ETA: Can you have a heart-to-heart with your son about how he feels about the OT and what is going on? That will help. I know my DS, if asked, will tell me when he feels teacher/aide/therapists is not a good match, is disrespectful of his disability/intelligence/feelings (sometimes therapists, teachers and aides can not, at the same time, respect both the intelligence and the disability of a 2e kid, ykwim?), etc. He could also tell me that he usually likes someone but was just having a off day or whatever... Can you explore how you DS feels about this OT and his relationship with him/her?
Last edited by Irena; 11/15/13 04:30 PM.
