He is now in the process of doing an evaluation to determine where her needs lie, and what his course of treatment will be. Initially, he's not thinking that her group-performance-shut-down issues are so much sensory, as they are situations in which she is taken out of her comfort zone, her routine. We have always prided ourselves in the way we've set Samantha's routines, starting with the day she was born. When babies are born, you're told, "get them into a routine ASAP." And I'm certainly not saying a single negative thing about that - wow, how wonderful routine has been for us! Samantha has always been a great sleeper, and thrives on knowing what to expect. But perhaps now we need to try to shake things up a bit, try to get her to respond to situations that are not expected, not part of the daily routine. Try to bring a bit of flexibility into her life. But it's not like we don't do things that are different, but I guess school, itself, is a routine, and things rarely change up much in the way things are done. For several hours a day, she knows pretty much exactly what to expect, right? Now...how to break those routines...? It may just be a case of allowing her to mature before she learns to work with different types of situations.
Of course, this is all just initial speculation based on an initial day of evaluation. He'll work with her more next week, and will learn more about my girl then. On the typical OT-type stuff, he was impressed with her grip, saying she works well with her right hand, but then switches to her left occasionally, possibly because she gets tired. Makes perfect sense. She's actually quite adept with using her left, although much more proficient with her right.
I'll keep updating as we gather more information. In the meantime, here's a photo flashback from Christmas Day, 2007, with my mother, when Sammi was a year-and-a-half old.
8 comments:
Sounds like a great visit that left you with good things to think about. And I just MELTED at that little Sammi pic! Oh, so sweet! Wish Cora would have gotten some of those good hair genes!
Can't wait to see how she soars in OT. Love this pic, so cute!
That sounds great! Routine is something that is very comfortable to us...Maddie has thrived...Max not so much...but likemyou said with school came routine and that actually has helped Max! We are looking into private therapy...not sure but think it could be good! Smiles
so little and cute!!!!! :)
glad you are having a great OT, and yes the rutine thing, Elias works great with routines and with his ideal of how stuff should get done and when its done different, oh no, he doesnt cry but he gets really mad because thats not the way doing x thing, we try to tell him that 'its nothing' or 'its ok' or 'there are several ways on doing x'
Eva on the other hand, she didnt had any routine, so she is very open to changes, and she doesnt freak on that, but she also is starving for some structure on her life, so we are combining schedules and routines with bringing new situations or teaching her different ways of doing x
It sounds like you have a great OT!! I am ALL about routines, too! I have had both of my girls on routines from day one.
I love seeing the older photos of Sammi! She is just so gorgeous! I wish my girls had her hair....wow!!
Aaaack! So super cute!!!
That starry-eyed start might be exactly the thing to make sure she buys in to the program - so glad you found someone that did that right off the bat!
The routine thing is hard for Claire too. Yes, it's been great in some respects. She is a great sleeper too, but some things outside of the routine cause MAJOR meltdowns. There is a balance and we are still working on it as well. I guess this is a good reminder that we all need to get out of our comfort zone sometimes.
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