Oscar Goes to Therapy
Oscar has been going to his new therapists for about three months now, and it’s been fabulous. His therapists are amazing women who are very tuned into his needs. They’re flexible and very creative about finding the best ways to draw him out and get the most out of our sessions. More importantly, they’re very optimistic about his future and see how bright he is.
The first twelve sessions or so that we had with our speech therapist, and maybe the first four with the occupational therapist, were really focused on assessing Oscar’s skills. Since establishing a baseline, we’ve moved to treatment, where we have a list of goals to work towards.
Right now, in speech, one thing we’re working on is building up a set of stock phrases for Oscar that will enable him to communicate with the outside world. In the past two and a half years, we’ve developed a special language at home that has allowed Oscar to get his point across fairly effectively. Sadly, that language, which is composed of a mixture of American sign language, gestures and single nouns that Oscar speaks, is not spoken by anyone other than Nanny Norma and myself.
Our first phrase is “I want _____”. We’ve been working on this phrase for weeks. Weeks. It’s been agony for everyone involved. Why this is so difficult is still a mystery. Oscar appears to have a processing disorder that makes it difficult for him to comprehend what people are actually saying. When asked to repeat the words “I want the car,” Oscar initially would say something to the effect of “pinkabunkacar”. When we’d break it into distinct words, with visual cues for each word, he’d be able to repeat it one word at a time, but could not put it into a sentence.
- ST – I
- O – I
- ST – want
- O – want
- ST – the
- O – the
- ST – car
- O – car
- ST – I. want. the. car.
- O – Pinkabunka car.
Today, though, we had our first co-treat session (with speech and OT combined) and he got it. He wanted to spin on the trapeze and said “psin.” This, by the way, is a huge accomplishment. Three months ago Oscar would have grunted and leaned towards the trapeze and become frustrated when we didn’t know what he wanted. He understands now that words are more effective, so when Miss M opened her mouth to say “I want to spin”, Oscar beat her to it and said “I want pins”. Not the greatest grammar or articulation, but we can work on that next. Even better was that the next time he wanted something, he went to her and said – “I want climb, I want climb, I want climb,” which is kind of funny because Miss M usually makes him repeat things three times, so he’s clearly getting this stuff.
One phrase down, what, a bizillion more to go? Baby steps.
This was the other major breakthrough of the session. Oscar got messy. Really messy.
Oscar hates to be messy. Loves to make a mess, but the world comes to an end if he gets something on him. As you can see from the pictures above, he isn’t really sure that he likes to have a mixture of shaving cream and paint on his hands, but he loved smearing it around on the table. When we got into the car, after he’d been cleaned up, I asked him if he wanted to do that at home and he yelled “paint fun!” Take that Sensory Processing Disorder.
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Sooooooo cool!
does he wear prizm glasses?
i am so stoked for you. Lulu really took off when we spun her, or when we swung her. I think (I could be wrong) it’s like pet therapy where the distraction/sensory distracts from the stress/work it takes to talk. Lulu is doing awesome, and I asked her if she had her cup today and she said in my hand. She usually repeats us out of order. My husband says it sounds like broken english, and I say it sounds like spanish (you know how spanish has the verbs in a different place and nouns then in english.)
I hope you continue to have the progress. When you work at it, you will make it. He will make it with your love and support. I know how hard it is when you can’t understand your child. I think you guys still do a lot of signs, and I will tell you, the sign for I LOVE YOU is the most used one in our house, and, it’s really nice.
We did signs for “I want”
We are also trying to work on inflection and voice level/sound.
She’s doing so well so soon! If you’re already on inflection and level/sound, that’s fantastic – great job to you both!
I get the spanglish thing, actually. Oscar will say “airplane, where are you?” instead of “where is the airplane?” For me, the first step is just getting the words to come out of their mouths. I am just happy to hear him speak.
We’re doing the co-treatment just because of what you mention. Oscar loves the physical nature of OT, so when he’s doing all of that, he doesn’t mind as much that the SLP is “forcing” him to talk.
Does he like therapy itself? He looks kind of stressed out in the pictures. I ask because my lil one is supposed to go to OT, but I’m not sure that it’s the best thing for him. Seems pretty physical to me.
He loves it, really! He’s very serious in some of the pics, yes, but that’s because he works extremely hard during his sessions. Oscar goes to OT primarily because of Sensory Processing Disorder; he craves additional sensory stimulation. So, in OT, he gets it. A lot of it. And then I try to take some of the skills home and apply them during the week.
I’m not sure why your little guy needs OT, but I am a big fan of it. I’d just make sure I was comfortable with the therapist and that you’re on the same page with respect to the approaches to be used. I stay in the room with Oscar, which is ok with our team, but I know other parents who were forced to watch from the observation room. That was a big deal for us. You need to find the right people and understand why they’re recommending the therapy to see whether you’re comfortable with doing it.
I’m happy for the all of you and I’m glad things are coming along fine.
Sen
BTW; love the club ideal… Enjoy!
Fantastic!!!!!!!
This is just fantastic. So happy to read that you have both found therapists you trust and get how bright and wonderful your son is!
This is just awesome! So happy for all of you!
AWESOME!!!! Sam’s verbal speech is still lacking in 100 ways, but I feel every time he says a word we can understand (even if no one else can) it’s a huge victory. His sign is blossoming but of course, few people speak ASL. That’s for giving us huge hope that we’ll see breakthrus soon. (Sam’s been in ST and DT for 6 months.)