I got the results of Liam's private OT re-evaluation. He has been doing private OT for nearly 2 years now, but had a re-evaluation as he has been with his current therapist for a year. I always find the testing interesting, and it certainly shed some light on why we are struggling to get Liam to qualify for OT in the schools. The testing showed that his visual motor integration skills are above average, but his grasping skills are average. I personally find this surprising as Liam still cannot use the correct grasp for holding a pencil/crayon. His fine motor skills testing were similar as a toddler, he did not use a pincer grasp but tested above average as he compensated for it. I still worry that lack of pincer grasp and inability to properly hold a pencil will be to his detriment down the road as he is expected to build on those skills.
The evaluation showed that Liam is on the low end of normal in self-care skills. He made huge progress in this area this summer, so that shows how much therapy is paying off.
The evaluation noted that he has low muscle tone and recommends physical therapy to address this need.
The sensory profile showed where Liam's greatest OT needs are. It noted whether a sensory processing area showed "typical performance," "probably differerence," or "definite difference." Liam did not have a single area of sensory processing that is in the normal range. He shows a probable difference in sensory processing in areas of: visual processing, multisensory processing, activity level modulation, modulation of visual input affecting emotional response & activity level, and emotional/social responses. Liam shows a "defnite difference" in sensory processing in the areas of: auditory processing, vestibular processing, touch processing, oral sensory processing, sensory processing related to endurance/tone, modulation related to body position and movement, modulation of sensory input affecting emotional responses, and behavioral outcomes of sensory processing.
He has made significant progress through OT and will continue to do so, but he clearly needs the focus on sensory integration.
Now, for the cool Liam story or one of the ways that autism is cool.....
Liam has an amazing memory. Liam also loves numbers and patterns. This weekend he was counting in a specific pattern. He started at 90 and counted up to 99. I thought maybe he didn't know the number "100" yet so I told him "100" after 99, and he responded "No!" and then said 80. Starting at 80, he coounted to 89, and then counted 70 to 79. So he was counting forwards by ones and backwards by 10s. Earlier this week, I discovered he knows how to count to 15 in Spanish. I have no clue where he learned this, so I told Dave. Dave thought it was cool and counted to 10 in German ONCE. Since that one time, Liam can now count to 10 in German. He has recently started making up songs to include numbers in all three languages.
The general update is that based on Ben's forthcoming developmental evaluation, the base clinic has processed referrals for private speech, OT, and PT (physical therapy). Based on Liam's OT re-evaluation, he will have a PT referral coming. That means FOUR more weekly appointments. During the Monday-Friday time, Liam has the following schedule: 8 hours of special education preschool (should be 10 but I pull him out one day for private therapy), 2.5-3 hours of time on the bus for transport to special ed preschool, 8.5 hours of church preschool, an hour of transport to and fron preschool, 3 hours of ABA, 1.5 hours of private speech and OT, 1.5 hours of transport between those appointments, and 1 hour of karate. That makes for 28-29 hours of school, therapy, and driving. That doesn't count the 3 hours weekly that Ben does for Early Intervention (total is now up to 31-32 hours a week). In addition to that, I have time to feed both boys breakfast and lunch, and transporting them (getting outewear on/off, etc). We will soon be adding 4 more hours, and who knows how many 45 minute driving triups between our house and the therapy center....when all is said and done in a 40 hour work week, me and the boys do 40+ hours of work/driving. :-(
No wonder I am often craving more coffee.
4 comments:
And to think I wimped out on just driving to the grocery today. You are, and always will be, such an inspiration to me Michelle.
Great job Liam! Fantastic that he's making such great progress!
Yay Liam! Sounds like he's really making a lot of progress. I'm wondering if I need to start OT for Kate? You are such a good Mom. Your boys are so lucky they were born into your family. :-)
Kelly, I am going to comment on your blog, but a private OT evaluation for fine motor skills will be helpful. The schools really fight back on providing OT so you might need to provide the private evaluation.
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