OT Evaluation ~ Check

Today we officially met our new Occupational Therapist.  She was so sweet and had so much fun working with Thomas that is was really nice.  She let me talk about my concerns and discuss his progress and she was prepared having talked with our PT before we met and what he is currently working on with her.  It so nice when I don't have to start from scratch and explain everything.

So how is he doing?  Well, overall he is doing Great!! Both the PT and OT agree that he is doing very well based on his medical challenges.  The concern was that he had sensory issues, the testing today proved that he does not have a sensory issue but that all of his 'issues' can be medically explained.  He still show weakness in his muscle tone and we need to continue working on that with different exercises including a lot of pushing/pulling objects that are weighted.  I love that most of this stuff just looks like playing to him!  He also needs to build of strength in his hands.  He has a good grasp, but not a lot of strength.  He also uses his left hand for strength and his right hand when coordination is necessary.  I had never really noticed this before, I mean I have seen it, but I didn't know the reasoning.  For example, he colors or eats with his right hand but will pick things up with his left.  He doesn't use both of his hands bilaterally either.  We have some exercises to work on bilateral usage of his hands.  We had to alter some based on his neck limitations as well.  She also thinks the fact that his hands are so small that they are more difficult for him to work with and get the type of grasp that he really wants.  I have several items to get for him so that we can work on this including the resistance puddy.  We are also going to work on attention span and body awareness.   I have to read over all of my sheets and get to work.  The good news is we only go to her once a month at this point. 

The funny story today, in my opinion, was that she was asking if he was small for his age.  I said yes and rambled off his height and weight.  She began laughing and said that was the same size as her 8 month old.  She then made the comment that this is what her baby would look like walking!!  I thought it was quite funny myself.  I had already compared Thomas to where my other boys were for the size and my oldest was about 8-9 months old and my middle child was 12 months old.  For all intents and purposes Thomas is just over two months away from 2 years old and is still wearing 12 month clothes and his shoes are 4.5.  But I can honestly say he still can fill a room!!

Thomas doing as all children love to do, playing in Mommy's clothes basket!

1 Thes 5:9   "give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus"