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.