Occupational Therapy

We finally got the call for Riley to start occupational therapy. We started on July 15th and the OT was able to give us some good pointers.

The first day we talked about some of the things that had changed since he was evaluated. This OT was honest with me and stated that Sensory Issues were not her specialty, and she was not sure why she was given Riley except that he might not have had a specification on his OT scrip. She was helpful in providing me information and activities for Riley to do, but eventually, we will have to change OTs in order to help Riley more. I was just glad to get off the waiting list. The pointer from this day was to have Riley use a broken crayon to write with so that it would make him use his fingers more and strengthen them. We also talked about the use of obstacle courses and the crab walk to help with the motor planning and development.

The second visit the OT tested Riley's grip strength and the strength of his fingers. At the age of six the grip strength is suppose to be 32 lbs. Riley's, at five and a half, is 16 lbs. The OT gave us some putty to work on finger and grip strength. She also gave us some ideas for heavy work activities and proprioceptive activities to work on Riley's awareness of his body position.

The last two visits I have not been able to take Riley to. I have had to work. But, from what I have seen from his homework, it seems like she is continuing to work with his fine motor skills and obstacle courses for gross motor skills.

Gymnastics Camp

Riley went to gymnastics camp for two weeks. He had a great time even though he was the only boy and he is not very talented in gymnastics. He remembers the teachers from last year when he went to camp there and from when he took gymnastic lessons. They think that he is very comical because he talks a great deal.

The camp has a show every Friday when the children show what they have learned during the week. Riley is usually able to do about half the things that he is taught properly. This past week he would not try to go on the balance beam, I think because they were using the taller one this time.

His favorite things are the bars and the cheese pit.

Smell v. Hear

I was in the bathroom this morning, and I asked Riley to come into the bathroom to brush his teeth. When Riley got to the bathroom, he told me that he could not brush his teeth because the smell in the bathroom was disgusting. I turned on the fan to air out the smell, and Riley turned off the fan because it was too loud. He tolerated the smell and brushed his teeth without the fan.

I think the smell was the lesser of the two evils with regards to his senses. He could tolerate the smell better than he could tolerate the sound of the fan.

Preschool Graduation

Riley graduated from preschool on Wednesday night. He was very cute and did a great job. Even though he did not sing any of the songs, he did do the hand motions. He looked so grown up and will be going to kindergarten next year, half day in the afternoon. I think that he is excited about this prospect.



We got his final progress report yesterday in the mail and it seems that Riley has improved in many areas with regards to communicating and listening to others as well as making his needs and wants known to his peers.

From preschool graduation class of 2008 to high school graduation class of 2021!