{"id":1078,"date":"2021-07-23T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-23T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/autismwish.org\/?post_type=podcast&#038;p=1078"},"modified":"2022-12-09T15:33:41","modified_gmt":"2022-12-09T20:33:41","slug":"107","status":"publish","type":"podcast","link":"https:\/\/autismwish.org\/podcast\/107\/","title":{"rendered":"EP 107 &#8211; Occupational Therapy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Considering Occupational Therapy (OT)? Learn more about what you can expect in OT and some common reasons your child may be referred.  We discuss examples of activities your child may work on during sessions to include heavy work, feeding therapy, and sensory regulation while sharing our personal insights and experiences with OT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-create-block-castos-transcript\"><div class=\"ssp-transcript\"><div class=\"row\"><div class=\"col\"><div class=\"tabs\"><div class=\"tab\"><input type=\"checkbox\" id=\"chck1\"\/><label class=\"tab-label ssp-transcript-title\" for=\"chck1\">Transcript<\/label><div class=\"tab-content ssp-transcript-content\"><strong>Occupational Therapy<br><\/strong>Show Notes for\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/autismwish.org\/podcast-2\/\" target=\"_blank\">Embracing Autism Podcast\u00a0<\/a>\u2014\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/autismwish.org\/podcast\/107\/\" target=\"_blank\">Ep. 107<\/a><br><br><strong>Intro:<\/strong><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0In this episode, we focus on what you can expect at occupational therapy and touch on the common reasons your child may be referred as well as discuss examples of activities your child may work on during their sessions.<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0Welcome to\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/autismwish.org\/podcast-2\/\" target=\"_blank\">Embracing Autism<\/a>, a podcast for parents of autistic children seeking advice and support, while spreading awareness and acceptance of Autism Spectrum Disorder. I\u2019m Lia!<br><br><strong>Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0And I\u2019m Matt!<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0And each week, we will discuss our journey of autism and talk about how to embrace your child\u2019s individuality while providing guidance, tips, resources and sharing our personal stories. This is-<br><br><strong>Lia &amp; Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0Embracing Autism!<br><br><strong>Discussion<br>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0So I wanted to do an episode on occupational therapy as our first therapy that we are going to review because we actually found occupational therapy to be the most beneficial of all the therapies our children have done. Both of our girls were in occupational therapy for similar reasons, and also slightly different reasons. We mostly put them through it because they had fine motor delays, and one of our children had hypotonia, which is low muscle tone. So she needed it for that as well. And most importantly, I would say they went there primarily for sensory integration, right?<br><br><strong>Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah, I think it was a combination of what actually got us referred for our oldest daughter, I remember, she was having trouble. I think we first started with eating food, feeding therapy. And I think that\u2019s what first got us kind of on the list to take part in OT.<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah, so OT is a common abbreviation for Occupational Therapy. And just in a little bit of a nutshell, Occupational Therapists essentially work with both children and adults that are autistic. And what they aim to do is help them better perform activities that are part of daily living and daily tasks. So they might work towards a bunch of different goals that are custom tailored to your child\u2019s specific needs. And this could be something as basic as improving their handwriting to help them out in school, or some play skills to help them socialize with other children to things like sensory integration, which is what our children focus more on. And they also try to help the child improve their ability to participate in activities of daily life. So that might include anything from being able to complete their schoolwork or being able to brush their teeth, or tie their shoes or anything like that. They give a holistic approach to how to get your child to successfully go through life through various components. So including a little bit of gross motor, fine motor, sensory integration, and all sorts of things like that.<br><br><strong>Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0I would say it\u2019s interesting, because it seems like OT is kind of an overview of a combination of multiple different therapies. So we would have components that would probably touch on physical therapy, as far as kind of working with, like the swing, for example, because our daughter had low muscle tone. So it kind of worked in a little bit focusing on some of the core in that component. It also touched on some of the speech components for speech therapy as far as having her requesting things as well. And then even I think we had thought about that it also brought in the floor time therapy as well. So it seems that it is kind of a broad overview, incorporating many different therapies. But then at the same time, it is very selective on individual components that are important for whatever your child is struggling with at the time.<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0Right. So what\u2019s interesting about occupational therapy is, like you said, it does overlap a lot with other therapies. So it overlaps a little bit with speech therapy, it overlaps a little bit with physical therapy. And it overlaps with Floortime therapy, which is an alternative to ABA therapy. And the reason though, is because there are components that are similar, but OT tends to do a more laser focused assessment of that area. And it tends to be more specific to the sensory integration aspect of that thing. So for example, physical therapy; in physical therapy, they might focus more on gross motor activities, and they might put your kid on a swing, right. But in occupational therapy, they will also put your child on a swing. The difference between occupational and physical therapy, though, is that the occupational therapist is looking more for sensory regulation input or vestibular input, which is basically they\u2019re putting your child on the swing to help them with their sensory integration. So if your child needs more sensory input, because they are under sensitive, they might put them on the swing to get that sensory input, whereas the physical therapists would put them on that swing to help them with like, for example, core muscle strength or something like that. So they do similar things, but they\u2019re looking for a different outcome, if that makes sense.<br><br><strong>Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0Okay, yeah, that\u2019s a good clarification there.<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0It gets tricky because they do do a lot of similar things. So in sensory, they also do some kind of core stabilizing activities. So one of the things that our child did is they had these little suction cups that you might use to pluck off of window. And they were working on fine motor skills. And so she was learning on doing the pincer grab to be able to grab it and pull off the suction cup from the window. But ironically, they also use the same thing in physical therapy, but for a different reason. So it does overlap.<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0So in occupational therapy, they have a bunch of different focuses, one of them for us was due to our first child\u2019s hypotonia, which is low muscle tone, that results in weak muscles. And because of that, she had difficulty with body posture and being able to sit properly and things like that. She had difficulty feeding herself because she couldn\u2019t quite work a spoon or utensil very well. So in occupational therapy, they were finding ways to help her accommodate and work more efficiently with being able to, for example, feed herself.<br><br><strong>Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0And I think it even went beyond that. So I mean, when we think about feeding ourselves, we must think of the, \u2018Okay, can I use a spoon or fork or my hand to put the food in my mouth\u2019. But even once the food is in your mouth, we still had the Occupational Therapist actually look at how she was actually chewing the food. From the very start, she preferred very soft foods that were kind of bland. And then even then, we weren\u2019t really sure if she was using her kind of back molar, where her molars would be- to kind of chew the food. We thought she was just chewing with her front teeth. And we had to work with the occupational therapist to make sure that she was actually chewing a little bit tougher foods, like chicken nuggets for example, that she\u2019s actually using her back teeth actually chew and grind the food a little bit better.<br><br><strong>Lia:\u00a0<\/strong>Yeah, we were having a hard time because she didn\u2019t technically have the back teeth. So we don\u2019t know\u2026she was gumming her food. And that was something that we wouldn\u2019t have caught if it wasn\u2019t for Occupational Therapy. So the Occupational Therapists, they basically were able to see that she did in fact, have hypotonia. And they saw that it was actually affecting her ability to eat, because low muscle tone affects different parts of your body. And one of them was her jaw. And they said that they could kind of tell because she had kind of chubby cheeks on the lower jaw area, which meant that those muscles weren\u2019t really being worked efficiently. And they found out that essentially, when she was trying to chew the harder foods, she had a harder time because her muscles weren\u2019t able to do that as efficiently. So they gave us a bunch of tips, I remember one of the things that they said was getting her to chew on chewy tubes. And they were telling us to do like a daily activity at home, where you would take a chewy tube and get them to bite on it from left to right all the way across. And just get her to practice using those muscles in her mouth.<br><br><strong>Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0Right. And then even as far as her being able to use a utensil to feed herself, we were having trouble with that, because we would have a standard spoon that\u2019s straight. And she wouldn\u2019t understand if I turn the spoon, I can get it in my mouth instead of just smashing it into my face and having all the food fall off of it. So we had to work with her very slowly to transition as far as being able to turn the spoon. And we actually went out and had gotten some specialized spoons that you\u2019re able to bend. So we\u2019re able to bend them at a small angle, which allowed her to scoop the food and then she didn\u2019t have to turn the spoon as far as she normally would with a regular spoon, she would only have to turn at a fraction of a degree. I\u2019m not sure I don\u2019t really explain that-<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0What it is, is I actually had the idea of the spoons, because I had seen them on Amazon at one point I thought it might work out. So what we did is we got these spoons that bend and because you can bend them in increments, you can essentially start with a very, like almost 45 degree angle bend and gradually straighten the utensil until she learns to turn it the proper direction. So the issue that she\u2019s having and still continues to have to this day was a motor planning issue, which they also work on in occupational therapy. And the motor planning is basically having a difficulty in being able to initiate movements with your body. So it\u2019s like you have the idea in your head, but you have a hard time initiating that movement. So in occupational therapy with the feeding therapy in particular, we were practicing on initiating that motor movement of picking up the spoon, scooping some rice in it, and then turning it and bring it towards your mouth. So if you think about that, for us, that\u2019s really easy and kind of instinctive but it actually has a lot of steps. So we worked through the OT to gradually get her step by step to be able to do that. And now she eats with a spoon like a pro.<br><br><strong>Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0Right and I think the helpful transition that we started off with at first we would be feeding her with the spoon, then we\u2019d be holding I think \u2014 what you hold her hand with the spoon?<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah, I think they call it fading.<br><br><strong>Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0Okay, right, and then you move your hand back. So you\u2019re holding her forearm as she\u2019s holding the spoon. And then finally, I think you\u2019re at like elbow or something. So she\u2019s doing the majority of the work and you\u2019re just kind of guiding. And then from there, basically kind of a hands off, and then she\u2019s kind of flying on her own like a baby bird.<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah, so that technique is used a lot in occupational therapy. It\u2019s like a prompting, like a physical prompting to help them kind of get it going. And then you gradually fade out until they\u2019re doing it on their own. So for her occupational therapy initially was mostly focused on feeding. But the feeding wasn\u2019t just the fine motor skill, it wasn\u2019t just like the motor planning issue. The other issue with the feeding for her was the sensory component, where she was very much focused on specific textures of foods that she could do. She really liked carbs and things that were kind of like plain or crunchy. So feeding therapy also integrates helping the children expand on that sensory aspect as well.<br><br><strong>Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0So it was interesting, because both of our kids actually had feeding concerns, but they were kind of drastically different. For her, it was kind of the bland foods, and she didn\u2019t want really much kind of exploring new flavors and things. And then for other ones, she didn\u2019t want solid food for the longest time. And I remember it was quite a struggle just to get her to try and eat anything \u2014 it was very limited. But it\u2019s just interesting, because each of the occupational therapies is tailored very specifically to the individual child. And it\u2019s not just the standard \u2018okay, let\u2019s go on a swing. And let\u2019s see how things go\u2019. It\u2019s granular, they\u2019re looking at the very specific struggle that your child has, and working with them on that, which I thought was fantastic.<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah, that\u2019s one of the reasons why OT is one of my favorite therapies, because both of our children went to occupational therapy. But they both had completely different sensory profiles initially. Now, they kind of overlap, but initially, they were very different. So our second child, she also went to feeding therapy with an occupational therapist, but it was for very different reasons. She didn\u2019t have any sort of fine motor control issues at all. But she was essentially refusing to eat solid foods. So she was on baby food purees for gosh, almost two years. She was basically two; she was eating baby food, basically, up until like, early two year old. And so we were working with occupational therapists, mostly with her to get her comfortable with trying different textures of foods. So we weren\u2019t even worried about the flavors, because it didn\u2019t seem like she had issues with flavors. But she had issues with textures.<br><br><strong>Matt:\u00a0<\/strong>Right. And I mean, that just kind of shows you that it goes beyond just the concept of the physical component of feeding yourself. It also goes to Okay, the sensory versus a puree versus an actual food that you actually have to chew for our other daughter who\u2019s focused on the flavor of the food, but it\u2019s actual food. So it\u2019s just kind of interesting to see how the sensory component kind of plays a factor there.<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah. And the other interesting cross comparison is that our first child had hypotonia. But our second child did not. Our second child actually was gross motor advanced, she actually started walking at nine months old, I think. So she didn\u2019t have any of those issues. But the other thing that we noticed that was also kind of opposite that was worked on in therapy was also their reactions to water. So like our first child, she was a huge water-baby. I mean, it was to the point where she\u2019s the type of autistic child that you really have to watch around bodies of water, because she\u2019ll run straight to it, she\u2019ll go into the beach or the ocean, completely disregarding any danger. But our other child was terrified of water. And we we didn\u2019t really know it until that one day where she accidentally spilled a cup of water on herself.<br><br><strong>Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0Right. And I don\u2019t think it actually clicked that day, either that that\u2019s what the situation was. She had picked up a glass of, I think ice water that you were drinking or I was drinking, and she accidentally tried to drink it herself and spilled it on her entire front. And she just froze like a deer in headlights. And we thought it was just she was just shocked that she had spilled the water. But I think it took a little while for us to realize it was the water and not necessarily that she was just in shock. It was she was just terrified of water.<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah. So at our last place, we had a shower that didn\u2019t have a bath. So we had to have her take showers essentially. And I remember the bottom of that shower had a pebble floor. And because it had a pebble floor, it was really bumpy and honestly I didn\u2019t even like it. So when she went in there, she would kind of walk with her hands up, look down on the floor and just kind of freeze when we would give her a bath\/shower. And I always thought that it was just the textures of the rock that she wasn\u2019t liking. So when we moved to a new place, and we no longer had that texture, we had a standard smooth textured tub. I was really surprised when we then tried to give her a bath there. And she was in like full blown panic. Like she, as soon as she heard the water rushing into the bathtub, she would be climbing us and trying to climb out, she\u2019d be freaking out like she did not want to touch the water at all.<br><br><strong>Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0Right? I remember it took at least a couple of months working with the Occupational Therapist kind of slowly transitioning, kind of changing one element of bath time until she was actually sitting in the bath and didn\u2019t have any trouble from there. But remember, it\u2019s a very slow approach. It\u2019s first you\u2019re getting her in the bathtub without any water, just to kind of get used to \u2018Okay, this is the dimensions of the bathtub. And this is how everything works.\u2019 And then slowly getting her exposed to \u2018Okay, this is water, it\u2019s safe.\u2019 We actually found out that we had to I think \u2014 what, change the temperature?<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0We had to make it lukewarm. So it wasn\u2019t either hot or cold. She just wanted lukewarm.<br><br><strong>Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0And then the other component was she would be taking bath time with her sister and her sister loves water, so she\u2019d be splashing. So we had to remove her sister until we kind of got her used to just being in the bath on her own. And I just remember, it was very baby steps until she\u2019s actually able to be in the bathtub. And I mean, now thankfully, I was laughing the other day, when we were giving them a bath. They\u2019re both in the bathtub kind of lying down.<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah she goes nuts now.<br><br><strong>Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah. So I mean, thankfully, we were able to get over that hurdle. And I mean, thankfully, she\u2019s okay with doing bath time with her sister. So we kind of were able to get over that.<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0And that is why we are such huge fans of occupational therapy because with our kids, they went into occupational therapy having pretty significant issues. I mean, they weren\u2019t eating, we couldn\u2019t get them to do any sort of fine motor type of tasks correctly, we couldn\u2019t get them into the bathtub, at least for the younger one. With the older one, we couldn\u2019t get her away from water. So it was dangerous. They were both elopers, we had all these issues that for the most part have been primarily resolved. They still go to occupational therapy, because they still have ongoing issues. And I know the Occupational Therapist said that for the youngest one, her sensory needs are so extreme that it seems like she might need OT for a large portion of her life. But just the progress that we\u2019ve seen so far that now she goes from terrified from the bath to being able to do it. It\u2019s been a great help for us. But the one thing that I did learn from occupational therapy is you really need to be patient about it. Because for example, the water thing, it took us at least a month, if not a month and a half of slow starting off giving a bath with no water and just using baby wipes while she\u2019s in the bath, to get her used to the tub to then adding toys to then adding a fraction of water just to get wet and just gradually increasing the water over time to get used to it. So it\u2019s not like a quick overnight fix.<br><br><strong>Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0I think that honestly, the thing that I love about our particular occupational therapist is she\u2019s very playful with the the new thing that she\u2019s trying to expose her to. So she was giving us advice because when she was playing in the rain, she\u2019d freeze and be terrified and not move, she\u2019d just stand still in the rain as rain is pouring down on her. And she was giving advice as far as how to get her to be comfortable with the rain. So she would say okay, take her out with like an umbrella, and then kind of move the umbrella and kind of say, \u2018oh, we\u2019re getting wet and move the umbrella back\u2019. So you turn it into a fun experience that you show her you\u2019re perfectly safe. I\u2019m taking care of you I am well aware that it\u2019s raining out. I know there\u2019s sounds that might be scary that you\u2019re not used to the loud sound of the rain, I am just kind of doing it in a playful way. And I think we\u2019ve seen kind of throughout the process that any new experience that we\u2019re trying to expose her to, she is doing it in kind of a playful way. So our daughter is kind of interested or she\u2019s, she\u2019s curious, at least I would say at least to try the new exposure just a little bit and then keep going from there.<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah, and a good OT will gamify therapy with your child. They\u2019ll make it fun. They\u2019ll make it light hearted, and they will let your child lead. That\u2019s why we mentioned Floortime. A lot of occupational therapists are trained in the floortime method, which is, again, our preferred alternative to ABA therapy. And it\u2019s basically kind of like a child led therapy. So it means that the occupational therapist is not forcing your child to do anything that your child doesn\u2019t want to do. There\u2019s no drilling, nothing like that. They kind of just feel out what your child likes and if your child is attracted to a particular toy or anything like that, they\u2019ll just use that moment as an opportunity to teach something to your child or help them with a certain task. They don\u2019t ever tell the child what to do. They just give them a bunch of options and whatever the child chooses is where they add. So that was one of the reasons I really liked that.<br><br><strong>Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0And I think it\u2019s an ongoing therapy for them basically, just because I mean, yes, we were able to get over a few obstacles that we\u2019ve been struggling with as far as the food and the water. But I mean, we\u2019re still working with our occupational therapists for our youngest one as far as putting on and taking off shoes, socks, kind of getting dressed. And I mean, I think even for the older kids, it would still play a relevant role in a day to day life exposure.<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah, so some possible goals that they might do in occupational therapy, they range from things like academic goals. And these can be things like how to use scissors properly, how to print letters legibly for your homework assignments, how to use a paintbrush correctly, so that you can participate in art class in school, to things that are more like daily living. So that\u2019s more like how to brush your teeth independently or button, your jacket, how to zip up your coat or tie your shoes to be able to do it on your own without support. But the third area that people don\u2019t think about either is social functioning. So some of the things that they help or focus on is some autistic children lack imitative skills, which means usually a baby has like mirror neurons, which means like they mimic what they see. So when you\u2019re doing a social interaction, a lot of children will learn just by watching their parents or siblings do something, and then they\u2019ll mimic that that\u2019s something that tends to be lacking in autism. So in occupational therapy, that might help children learn play skills and other skills that normally a child doesn\u2019t have to be taught, they just learn. But again, since that\u2019s difficult for the autistic child, they might get that through occupational therapy. And the other thing that they do is help children engage in socialization by teaching them how to engage in physical play activities in group settings. So it\u2019s not social in the sense that they teach them how to communicate with another child specifically, but they teach them things like, \u2018Oh, this is how you play, throw and catch\u2019. Or \u2018this is how you jump on a trampoline\u2019, or \u2018this is how you use a swing independently\u2019. That way, they are capable of going out to your local playground, and they can play with other kids, because they can do all those things independently.<br><br><strong>Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0And I guess I felt that when I learned that I kind of felt dumb, because I always thought, okay, socialization, are you able to talk to another kid? And that\u2019s kind of it. And then I was thinking it was like, Oh, no, okay. I mean, if a kid invites you to go on the merry-go-round, for example, and you can\u2019t, because you lack the various components of sensory components to being able to climb onto the merry-go-round, hold on and be okay, spinning around, then you\u2019re not able to socialize in the same way that a peer might want you to; I mean, it\u2019s the same thing. When we go to the park we\u2019re kind of on top of our girls \u2014 because they have struggles with spatial awareness and their judgment might be a little off \u2014 making sure that they\u2019re not falling off of the playground getting hurt. We have to make sure that they see that there\u2019s a step down, and that they actually are stepping down holding a railing or something. So it is very helpful to know that that is one of the areas that they focus on moving forward.<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah, actually, that\u2019s great that you mentioned that because that\u2019s another fantastic thing that we\u2019ve gotten from OT is they do work specifically on spatial awareness and coordination. And they will do it in specific contexts that are relevant to your child like playing on a playground, how to work on spatial awareness while swinging or while climbing. And when they do that, they actually give you a little bit of bonus physical therapy in there by accident, just because you kind of have to have physical work when you\u2019re climbing things. But they also work on emotional cognitive skills in the sense that they\u2019re trying to train your brain to be aware of your spatial surroundings. So like one example is like our kid, we initially brought her to the playground one time, and her spatial awareness was so off, that when she went running down the playground equipment, there\u2019s actually a part of the playground that is like the gym that\u2019s actually opened, because there\u2019s like, some sort of climbing equipment there that kids use. But she didn\u2019t realize that it was open. So she just kept running and just kind of fell right off. And it seems obvious to somebody like, \u2018oh, there\u2019s a giant gap here. Obviously, you\u2019re gonna fall if you go through it\u2019, but she had no sense of spatial awareness. So she just kept going with the faith that something would be there to catch her.<br><br><strong>Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0And I remember both my parents had gone with me to the park with the two girls. And I remember them not thinking about it at first, but then they became ultimately terrified because \u2014 and they told me later \u2014 they were saying that she wasn\u2019t noticing that there were openings that she could easily fall out of. So they became \u2014 I mean, they were going to the park similar to how they would with me when I was younger \u2014 and then they realized like, \u2018Oh, no, okay, I need to make sure I\u2019m actually paying attention to where all the different openings of the playground are\u2019. If you\u2019re going on an elevated ramp, for example, making sure that you don\u2019t fall off. So I mean, it is just another element to just consider if you\u2019re with people who don\u2019t necessarily live that on a day to day that they are aware that this is a struggle that some children need to work on.<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0Yes. So that\u2019s definitely something that our eyes were opened to during occupational therapy. And then some of the ways that they might help your specific child out as well can be simple things like helping your child strengthen their hands, their legs, their core, they might do this through different activities that they have for your child that will focus on these areas, they might provide your child with tools that can help them like weighted vests, or let\u2019s say they need like a larger pencil to help accommodate while they work on the fine motor skill. They might do some techniques or give some sort of assistive devices to help lift, focus and make tasks just generally easier. There\u2019s also some occupational therapists that will work directly with parents, that was something that we got to do our program that was extremely beneficial, because the OT would work directly with us, and then show us exactly how we can continue the therapy that\u2019s in the clinic and practice that at home so that we could continue working with our child.<br><br><strong>Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah, I think it was big and actually, I think it went even beyond the OT. I think if you have a good therapist, and they realize, the point of the therapy isn\u2019t just \u2018oh, I want to take your money for the hour that you\u2019re in the session, and then come back and get the therapy next week\u2019 that they actually bring you in and actually show you the different techniques so you are able to continue the therapy outside of it. So you think about Okay, if I have therapy once a week for an hour, versus if I\u2019m basically living therapy every single day, because my parents know how to work with me, because they learned the different tasks I\u2019m working on in therapy, you\u2019re going to cover much more ground just naturally.<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah. So like that was super beneficial to us. And then the biggest thing that I think that we got from there was a really good understanding of the sensory system and sensory integration. They taught us a lot of techniques that were relevant to our specific children. So if they were hypersensitive, or hypo sensitive, which is basically over or under reactive to certain set sensory input, they taught us how to handle it. So things like swinging, brushing, jumping, pushing, squeezing, rolling them on the ground, or slowly exposing them to different sounds like whistles and things like that, we were taught all these techniques to help for things like my child spinning in circles all the time and needing to crash into the couch all the time. They gave us techniques to be able to minimize the spinning because she was getting hurt. So it was really important for us to get all those techniques, especially with our second child who is extremely hyperactive to help her get the sensory input that she needed. And now she\u2019s much calmer, because she knows how to get that input.<br><br><strong>Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0I think it was a real game changer because I don\u2019t have a problem as far as stimming. But when it becomes dangerous, and you\u2019re worried about them getting hurt when they are like our youngest daughter spinning around or just running and falling on the ground or running into objects, I mean, that might not be soft. It kind of takes it to another level. And you you have to think okay, how can I use her stimming in a way that won\u2019t get her hurt? And that kind of touched on, I think, was it called heavy work?<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah, heavy work.<br><br><strong>Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0That we had kind of worked with our occupational therapist on as far as trying to get her to do, I guess work in a way that slows down her motion. So she\u2019s actually doing something that causes a lot or takes a lot of energy to do at a slow pace. I\u2019m not sure-<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah, yeah, no, that\u2019s good. It\u2019s like putting books in a basket and having her push it because she would have to exert a lot of energy to push heavy, you know, well, heavy to her. It\u2019s not very heavy to us, because it\u2019s for a toddler, she would have to exert a lot of energy to do that task. So it\u2019s called heavy work, because it helps her do that. So one of the things we did is like we have this spinning Lazy Boy. And I mean, it\u2019s really not that heavy, but for a two year old, just pushing it to spin it. That was perfect for her because she got both the spinning sensation and the heavy work, and it would calm her down so she wouldn\u2019t be running around and falling. And one of the major things that OT helped us with this was actually her head banging behavior. So she used to head bang and we were really worried about it because we couldn\u2019t really stop it. And we realized that it was happening at night. So we weren\u2019t even aware of it until we caught it on camera one time. And we learned that essentially it was sensory seeking behavior and through OT and the tools that they gave us we were able to address it. So techniques they told us were put tight fitting clothes on her put like a little hoodie on her head or like little cap, give her socks, give her mittens give her sensory input during bedtime and put like pillows around her bumpers, things like that. So that when she\u2019s in bed, she has sensory input and doesn\u2019t go seeking it through head banging. And as soon as we did that, it stopped. Like, it took a little bit of a transition time where she was doing a little bit here and there. But eventually, it just completely stopped.<br><br><strong>Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0And I think even somewhat recently, as well, we actually moved like a little bouncy horse into her room. So at night, if she still if she wakes up in the middle of the night, we noticed that she would be crying and calling out for us because she wanted to be like rocked in a rocking chair. And it would be like midnight, one in the morning. And we were working with our occupational therapist, because we\u2019re like, she\u2019ll wake up and be crying for 20 minutes, half an hour, just straight, just requesting to be rocked. And so she had recommended, because she knew that we had a little bouncy horse, to move that into her room. And we also moved a little plastic slide in her room as well. And we noticed that sometimes when she wakes up during the night, she might get out of her little bed, she\u2019ll bounce on the horse a little bit, but she\u2019s tired. So she\u2019ll kind of just fall asleep right on the pillows on the floor right there.<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0Right. So the key was us providing her with alternative avenues to get the sensory needs met, without her needing to have me go in there and bring her to a rocking chair, rock her and give her that sensory input. So by putting the bouncy horse, the slide and this little rocking boat that we had in her room, she was able to learn to self regulate. And these are things that the occupational therapist will work with you and your child to give you techniques on how to specifically tailor those to your child\u2019s. So with that said, again, we think occupational therapy for us specifically was probably the most beneficial, but we will talk about the PT and ABA therapy in future episodes as well, because we do think it\u2019s important to talk about different ones. But we started off with this one because it was definitely, in our opinion the most-<br><br><strong>Matt:<\/strong>\u00a0It\u2019s the MacGyver of therapies.<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah, it\u2019s like the most beneficial, so highly, highly, highly recommend occupational therapy, if you feel like your child needs it or would benefit from it.<br><br><strong>Outro<\/strong><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0To recap, in this episode, we discuss various skills your child may work on in occupational therapy to include heavy work feeding therapy, sensory regulation, and particular problem areas, such as head banging. If you think your child may benefit for Occupational Therapy, contact one near you.<br><br><strong>Lia:<\/strong>\u00a0Thanks for listening to Embracing Autism. Join us next time when we discuss physical therapy and answer questions such as \u2018How can my child benefit from physical therapy?\u2019 \u2018What are some common activities my child may be asked to perform?\u2019 and \u2018What are some potential goals?\u2019 This has been Embracing Autism.<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Considering Occupational Therapy (OT)? Learn more about what you can expect in OT and some common reasons your child may be referred. We discuss examples of activities your child may work on during sessions to include heavy work, feeding therapy, and sensory regulation while sharing our personal insights and experiences [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":8,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"sync_status":"","episode_type":"audio","audio_file":"https:\/\/episodes.castos.com\/6067cc60525ae0-11655595\/Embracing-Autism-07.mp3","transcript_file":"","castos_file_data":"","podmotor_file_id":"587651","cover_image":"https:\/\/autismwish.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Embracing-Autism-Cover-Art_Cover-Art-3000x3000-1.jpeg","cover_image_id":"958","duration":"00:32:40","filesize":"26.2 mb","filesize_raw":"27443993","date_recorded":"2021-07-23","explicit":"","block":""},"tags":[23,22,61,65,64,28,53,52,62,63,50],"series":[30],"class_list":["post-1078","podcast","type-podcast","status-publish","hentry","tag-asd","tag-autism","tag-early-intervention","tag-feeding-therapy","tag-fine-motor","tag-neurodiversity","tag-occupational-therapy","tag-ot","tag-sensory","tag-spd","tag-therapy","series-embracing-autism"],"episode_featured_image":false,"episode_player_image":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/autismwish.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Embracing-Autism-Cover-Art_Cover-Art-3000x3000-1.jpeg?fit=3000%2C3000&ssl=1","download_link":"https:\/\/autismwish.org\/podcast-download\/1078\/107.mp3","player_link":"https:\/\/autismwish.org\/podcast-player\/1078\/107.mp3","audio_player":null,"episode_data":{"playerMode":"dark","subscribeUrls":{"amazon":{"key":"amazon","url":"https:\/\/www.audible.com\/pd\/Podcast\/B08JJPDQGX?qid=1626277344&sr=1-1&ref=a_search_c3_lProduct_1_1&pf_rd_p=83218cca-c308-412f-bfcf-90198b687a2f&pf_rd_r=SXD0A1WCBBTYHSS83ATJ","label":"Amazon","class":"amazon","icon":"amazon.png"},"apple_podcasts":{"key":"apple_podcasts","url":"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/embracing-autism\/id1567815239","label":"Apple Podcasts","class":"apple_podcasts","icon":"apple-podcasts.png"},"google_podcasts":{"key":"google_podcasts","url":"https:\/\/podcasts.google.com\/feed\/aHR0cHM6Ly9lbWJyYWNpbmctYXV0aXNtLmNhc3Rvcy5jb20vZmVlZA","label":"Google Podcasts","class":"google_podcasts","icon":"google-podcasts.png"},"pandora":{"key":"pandora","url":"https:\/\/www.pandora.com\/podcast\/embracing-autism\/PC:73138","label":"Pandora","class":"pandora","icon":"pandora.png"},"podchaser":{"key":"podchaser","url":"https:\/\/www.podchaser.com\/podcasts\/embracing-autism-1901089","label":"Podchaser","class":"podchaser","icon":"podchaser.png"},"rss":{"key":"rss","url":"https:\/\/autismwish.org\/feed\/podcast","label":"RSS","class":"rss","icon":"rss.png"},"spotify":{"key":"spotify","url":"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/5LtFSpYK31jTAgRTKa8sCI?si=mT38lgU4TWqrP7AR7-Zn4A&dl_branch=1&nd=1","label":"Spotify","class":"spotify","icon":"spotify.png"},"stitcher":{"key":"stitcher","url":"https:\/\/www.stitcher.com\/show\/embracing-autism","label":"Stitcher","class":"stitcher","icon":"stitcher.png"},"tunein":{"key":"tunein","url":"http:\/\/tun.in\/pkmkV","label":"TuneIn","class":"tunein","icon":"tunein.png"}},"rssFeedUrl":"https:\/\/autismwish.org\/feed\/podcast\/embracing-autism","embedCode":"<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"W7pKGvCDhy\"><a href=\"https:\/\/autismwish.org\/podcast\/107\/\">EP 107 &#8211; Occupational Therapy<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" src=\"https:\/\/autismwish.org\/podcast\/107\/embed\/#?secret=W7pKGvCDhy\" width=\"500\" height=\"350\" title=\"&#8220;EP 107 &#8211; Occupational Therapy&#8221; &#8212; AutismWish\" data-secret=\"W7pKGvCDhy\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\"><\/iframe><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n\/* <![CDATA[ *\/\n\/*! 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