A Side of Autism: Occupational Therapy

Remember how I wrote recently that I had a really inspiring and wonderful meeting with V-Man's occupational therapist?
We'll call her Mrs. OT!

Anyways, at the end of that wonderful one-on-one meeting, she suggested I come to one of V-Man's therapy sessions to have a firsthand look at what they do together and hopefully, he'll be in a good mood.

Sounds good and it's not something we did (or considered doing) the first year because it took that long to get him used to Mrs. OT and getting a rhythm down and so on.

Now, thanks to the PECS (picture exchange communication system), V-Man was advised that he would have his therapy session with Mrs. OT and I joined in at breakfast time and we went there together.

Some things you should know:

1. I don't drop off or pick-up V-Man from day-care.  So for me to show up went completely against everything he knows.  Sorry V-Man...
1. Remember, he takes a taxi due to our schedules and location!
2. We were in a small room - which is ideal because there's less distraction and the other children couldn't get to it either.  
3. Turns out he was ill and had a fever later on this evening - so he wasn't in his most co-operative behaviour.
4. I didn't say a word and kept my facial expressions neutral because I wanted to give Mrs. OT and V-Man 100% each other's attention.  I tried not to move much either.
1. Not that I wasn't excited or proud of him for several things - just trying to be the fly on the wall!

If you ever get the chance to watch your child's therapy sessions - I truly recommend it!

It's one thing to have those chit chat type of meetings (or communicate via e-mail or phone) and go over things, usually without the child there - but it's a whole other level to actually join in on a therapy session and actually see for yourself what happens. :)

A fairly new toy - the wheels spin and it plays animal sounds if you fit them in the back!
*I found this second hand tonight and am super excited.

Here's what I observed:

• Routine - clearly there were some favourite activities!
• Excitement - He knows their little room and loves the huge bags of toys she brings with her.
• Experimenting - He managed to get his Smurf sock on his big toe!  BY HIMSELF!  Then he experimented with removing it every time we put them back on.
• He also tried a toy where you press shapes into the console and it played music.
• PECS exchanges - he cried/begged/tossed cards for crackers.  Then the routine kicked in and he got to have crackers after doing an activity.
• Constantly changing - V-Man went from one activity to another and back to the first activity from five minutes prior in a blink of an eye.
• Love - he adores her in his own way and she is just as loving/caring and kind to him as any parent would be to their own child.
• Patience - one thing needed when working with special needs children! :)
• Hard work - both therapist and child were really pushing their limits with each other and realizing a few hours later that he was super sick with a nasty fever - I really admire my V-Man so much for continuing!
• Exhaustion - Again because he was sick...
• Happiness -  when he got a cracker or when he tried to do something new or if he did something successfully - lots of happiness was going around! :)
• Contact - this being one of the most important when it comes to autistic children.  There was a lot of eye contact, physical contact (tickling, games, toys, assistance) and communicating.

Some activities they did:

• PECS
• Blowing a balloon up and releasing the air
• Opening and closing containers
• Playing harmonica (she played, he held it) and then putting them back in boxes
• Opening and closing jars of body butter and smelling them
• Playing tickle games and songs
• Playing with stackable cube/boxes
• Playing with musical toys
• Playing with a drum
• Sitting in bean bag chairs
• Cuddling

I made a collage of some of their photos but either Blogger or my phone is being dumb and I can't upload it currently.

Well, I leave you with this one photo instead.

BIMU :D