Charlie's OT Evaluation

Charlie had his OT evaluation today. Both Adam and I liked the center and the owner very much. She seemed very knowledgeable and spent a lot of time with us. Charlie and Addison had a great time "playing" in the gym.

She shed a lot of light on behaviors we see in Charlie. She thinks he is high functioning and said more than once that he seems to be quite smart. Like Dr. Carnavale, she felt the biggest hurdle was his attention span (or lack thereof!!). She explained a lot about sensory integration and how kids on the spectrum have issues and what it means for their behavior. In a nutshell (and I will NOT be able to explain this correctly), she observed that Charlie often does not know what to do. For instance, he was in the gym and you could tell he was excited and interested, but it was like he did not know what to do with a lot of the equipment. So, he just kind of walked all around the room, sort of aimlessly, until he was directed to do something. He did go for equipment he knew such as the swing and balls.

She also introduced us to a new word: praxis. She said this is common with kids on the spectrum and observed that Charlie often acts like he does not know what to do in a new situation. For example, today he was on the big swing in the gym. There was a big, inflatable tire on it and she asked him to get out. You could tell he understood what she wanted and he moved to try to get out, but looked very unsure of himself. Once he was shown how to get out of the swing, the next time he did it on his own. Adam and I have observed this on many occasions, but obviously had no clue. I always just thought he was overly cautious about trying new things, climbing things, etc. It's kind of interesting to learn new things about your child.

We also discussed sleep issues and she assessed his fine motor skills. We know he is pretty behind in this area so this will probably be a large part of his therapy.

She was pretty familiar with the public school system's programs so we also discussed that. Based on her observations of Charlie today, she does not think he should be put in a "spectrum class" (as she called it) with only other autistic kids. She said you never want your child to be the top performer or one of the top performers in the class because they won't get enough out of it. She made some suggestions for us to consider, including possibly keeping him in the preschool he is at now since he is not considered a behavior problem. We could explore getting him and aide or a "shadow" to go to school with him 1 or 2 days a week to try to keep him focused and on task since the teachers won't be able to work with him 1 on 1. It's a lot to think about and process. We will have to explore a lot more to figure out which path we want to take.

Charlie has a speech evaluation tomorrow at the same place. Hopefully we can start OT and ST in the next 1 or 2 weeks. I know I will feel better when we get the ball rolling.

On another note, I received a phone call today from an acquaintance here in town. Her son was just diagnosed with autism this past Tuesday. He is about 6 months younger than Charlie. We are going to try to get the kids together soon.

Keep cheering for us!