Occupational Therapy - Finally!

Monday's appointment with our new OT, Lyndsey, went extremely well! We talked about Joey's issues and what we hope to address in OT, and of course feeding (or lack thereof) is a huge problem. However, I told Lyndsey that I'd rather not focus on feeding because what's happened in the past is that it becomes the ONLY thing we deal with, and we wind up not addressing his other OT needs. So we're going to work on some oral sensory issues, but it won't be the focus. Joey's other challenges right now are that he doesn't yet have a pincer grasp, has difficulty grasping objects when they are handed to him and he is not self-feeding at all. He also seems to have some sensory aversions with his hands.

Within 30 minutes she had him holding a vibrating toy with both hands and voluntarily opening his mounth to try and chew/suck on it. This is huge...Joey does not put ANYTHING in his mouth voluntarily! He had a wonderful time and was fascinated immediately by the giant inner-tube swing in the middle of the room. When we put him on the floor he immediately crawled over to it and was pushing it to make it swing, which of course made him laugh. The we put him in it and started pushing gently; once he got his balance and felt steady he was in heaven!

So I've added some pictures of our session. At one point Lyndsey put shaving cream on his hands to play with. he was a little unsure at first but it became fun. Of course as soon as he saw me pull out the camera it was big grins all around :)

We'll be seeing Lyndsey again in 2 weeks and hope to get in a regular routine of OT at least bi-weekly. April will be a bit off-schedule because our little jet-setter will be in Florida for 2 weeks; the first week with Grandma and Papa and we'll be joining them for the second week. We've all had enough of this winter weather and can't wait for some sun and beach fun!

Here's a video clip of Joey at OT: