Hi
Sorry this is longer than I though it would be!! I am not sure what is going on so I thought I would see if anyone had any insight. To recap, testing revealed a fine motor delay and possible vision issues for my DS 4.5, we decided to go forward with OT and haven't yet gotten him evaluated for vision hoping the OT aspects would deal with it for now since VT sounds tough for a little guy.
Here's the issue, the therapist is great, good rapport, but after every session she is telling me something that DS was unable to do that just sounds weird. She is convinced that all his issues are about core strength and from what I can tell from hearing other therapists and parents its a common thing - strength the core and arms and the writing will get better. Okay fine. So the first thing, she wants him to get PT because she doesn't like the way he goes down the stairs - this place has steep stairs and he takes them with 2 feet on the step, but not on other sets of stairs, but she doesn't seem to believe me that he doesn't normally do it and he is just being cautious because he fell down a set of stairs once. So that's just an annoyance - here is what I don't know what to do with. Either as part of an obstacle course or separate I am not sure, she game him a stacker - like the kind he had as an infant - with colored rings to put around a post. He could do it easily before 1, so she tells me he couldn't do it! He couldn't put it in size order. I said come on, he was messing with you, she said she asked him and he said he couldn't do it. So I said after to DS, what were you doing, he said a level was missing so he changed the order, then he said he put in color order. You can't lose the capability to tell size and shape can you? So this morning I got 4 legos, a 4 piece a 3 piece a 2 and 1. I said put it in size order, so he correctly but the 3 on the 4 and the 2 on the 3, then with the 1, he put it on the 4 next to the 3 to make the size of the 4. I said is that right, so he moved it up a level to do the same thing. Then I said what if we do this, and took the 1 and put it on top - then he turns it to the side and said look it makes a stair. So I asked him did you put it on that level to see it make it equal, he said yes. So I said but it wasn't completing size order. So when putting it awayn I said, next time a teacher asks you to do something, even something really simple, do what they want first and then you can play and move it around. He seemed to accept that.
So not sure what I learned I pulled out the tangrams jr and asked him to copy a pattern not on top of the picture but separate and he couldn't do it without the lines of the shapes being shown, the easy level. But he did manage to do it. And said you had to have all the magnets down, so turned them all so they matched. He does seem to have some slowness in recognizing when you need to turn a shape to get it to fit, but he does get it eventually.
But here is my question - its the same mistake he made on the initial OT testing - not completing the stair. Although on the initial test he had to copy a stair, here I just asked him to stack them with no picture. Is there something going on here or is he simply trying to make this horrifically boring task more interesting? On the testing it seemed like he could not do it which just struck us strangely. The reason I am asking all this is because she clearly doesn't usually work with the gifted. At this center there are a lot of kids with much more serious disabilities although there are plenty with just fine motor issues. But then maybe its me just refusing to accept this block he has? I am baffled.
On the positive side, he is now willingly writing and writing his name and doing much much better. I think the OT is helping but it might just be that at preschool he is expect to write and color everyday. I am so glad I talked to his teacher because I think she is gently requiring him to do it rather than letting him give excuses and by doing that initially it became habit and I think he might now be enjoying it. He is making more of the stuff in his head and more accepting that it doesn't look like what he wants it to. I think I will follow up with pre-k teacher and see what she thinks, maybe she can direct him to more block building?
Sorry so long, I am just not sure what is going on, whether this OT is right, whether we should do the VT eval, or just keep making him do things with shapes and sizes which just seems ludicrous to me.
DeHe
