OT evaluation

Last Friday Ryan had an OT (occupational therapy) evaluation. We had been concerned about his increasing sensory issues and wanted to find out if it was truly something to be worried about. Among the issues we had a concern with were his need to still "mouth" everything--he always seems to want to put things in his mouth even though we constantly tell him no, that it's not food. Also, he dislikes having his hands dirty..not all the time or with everything but it was enough to notice. That coupled with his toe walking and the fact his physical therapist also mentioned it was probably sensory issues.

Without going into too much detail and making this post long (and possibly boring to some) I will be short and to the point as much as I can. The way it was explained is basically, there are several categories (or types) of Sensory Processing Disorder and several sub-catagories under those all having to do with each of the 5 senses. Some people have very minor & very few symptoms and others have very severe & many symptoms. Have you ever seen a child who can't sit still for even 5 seconds? Or covers their ears for every loud sound, even vacuums or hair dryers? Or won't put their hands in anything messy? These all may be due to a sensory disorder. Some people may wonder, well don't we all have a sensory disorder to one degree or another and the answer is No. We have "preferences" to things. It becomes a disorder when it impacts a functionality of one or more areas.

So onto Ryan's evaluation. The OT asked lots of questions and observed Ryan toe-walking- which wasn't hard to see since he now does it regularly with and without shoes. Based on what Ryan is doing, she determined he has an Oral Input Dysfunction (aka Oral Sensitivity). There are two types of Oral Sensitivities, hyper and hypo and he has characteristics from hypo. Children with Oral Hypersensitivity tend to dislike having their teeth brushed or face washed, will gag easily when eating, & will often have "tactile defensiveness" such as disliking being touched or dislikes messy play. Children with Oral Hyposensitivity tend to love & crave intense flavors (sweet, sour, salty, etc) and tend to become "condiment kids", tend to overstuff their mouths with food, take large bites and not chew their food thoroughly before swallowing, drool execessively beyond the teething stage and always tends to have something in their mouth inclyuding inedible objects. Ryan has ALL of those symptoms! The good thing is, it should be fairly easy to get him beyond his sensitivities. By simple, fun activities we can do every day, hopefully within a couple months we will see a decrease in his sensory issues and he won't need OT.

The OT wrote down a huge list of cheap, simple but fun activities we can do with him and I'm excited to get started. I can't help but think if we had him in a daycare setting, he might already be doing some of these things. The list includes things such as :
messy play to include fingerpainting & making edible playdoh for him to play with (I will have to get over my issue of it being messy and getting everywhere but should be okay since we could do this outside)
getting a medium sized tote and filling it with pasta noodles or rice and hiding objects in there for him to hunt for and also having him sit or stand in there with bare feet (he does this at PT), when he stuffs his mouth at mealtime put a mirror in front of him so he can visualize what "too much" really is, stimulating the mouth with an electronic toothbrush (for inside his mouth) & a small massager (for the outside of his mouth/his cheeks), playing games with him to have him stand on his heels (for his toe walking) such as painting his heels and having him walk on his heels thus making an imprint on the sidewalk or driveway. Also, after he does these and other's that we'll do with him, ask him the "W" questions. What did you just do? What did you eat?..things like that will stimulate his processing. I believe I mentioned in another post that he has a slight processing delay and since he needs to be a hand on person to understand, asking him "W" questions sometimes gets silence. Did you have fun today, did you play outside, how are you feeling are other questions that most always get silence or he says No to everything. Hopefully soon he'll be able to communicate a little better and in the meantime we'll have lots of fun with the activities provided for us and helping him get over his sensory issues.