More On The OT Thing...

Because I am lazy: a copy of an email I sent my aunt regarding Julia and OT:

I had an OT evaluation done on her last week at Health South, the same place where she has PT every week (in addition to PT through Early Intervention). She has what the OT referred to as an "immature chew" as she only chews in the front of her mouth and even at that she mostly just mashes it with her tongue, not so much her teeth. She also has some sensory issues with specific foods. For example, she will take at least a bite or two of toast before mashing it but swallows macaroni whole, without even so much as mashing it. The OT explained to me that something like toast which is more easily felt in the mouth because it has a crunchy, rough texture is easier for Julia to actually feel and that something like macaroni gets "lost" in her mouth and she just swallows it. She also said that she sees a lot of kids that have low tone that also have feeding issues because they low tone includes the muscles in their mouth, which I had never even considered.

I also told her about some motor planning issues Julia has sometimes...like she will see a toy sitting across the room and will sit there and cry rather than crawl/walk to it...almost like she forgets or doesn't know how to get herself from where she is to where she wants to be. This isn't a huge issue all of the time, but worthy of a mention I thought.

The last thing I talked about with the OT was how Julia, when she is outside walking around and falls, she refuses to stand up because she has to use of her to push off and hates the feeling of the dirt, grass rough ground on her hands. So, she sits there and cries. She seems to be getting better with this, as I have been encouraging her and helping her with one hand (so she still has to touch the ground other, eventually I will just have her use both) but still, I thought it was worthy of a mention as well.

So, the plan is OT once a week, in which we will focus mostly on the eating thing but also a general sensory overview to help with the other minor concerns. Amy (the OT) will be calling me within the next week to schedule our first appointment.

In the mean time, I am starting to set up some sensory type activities around the house...sand, cornmeal, rice, brushes etc. to try and work with her at home. Amy also gave me some ideas regarding some things I can try with the feeding concerns.