Evaluation Time

Last week we received T’s evaluation after 18 months of OT and it showed some significant improvements. It also showed several areas that hadn’t improved at all, and some that had even gotten worse. His OT suggested a few things to try, a PT evaluation, a full function vision evaluation and starting a cognitive program called, “How Does Your Engine Run?”

His biggest improvements were in his fine motor skills. This makes sense because he gets two OT sessions a week dealing with fine motor skills. Once in school and part of his private weekly OT appointment covers the fine motor stuff.  He also improved slightly in the length of time he was able to focus.

Pretty much all of the other issues he has have either stayed the same, or in some cases gotten worse. Now, to be fair, I don’t actually think he’s really gotten worse. Here’s my hypothesis on why he’s showing some sliding in certain areas: now that we’ve had the label of SPD, I’m more educated on what is SPD related, and what is normal kid stuff. So when I filled out the parent questionnaire this time, I was able to provide more complete answers, so in reality, I’ve gotten better at recognizing SPD symptoms. Ones that he has had all this time, but I never included them on the parent evaluation form before.

T’s occupational therapist agrees that this is likely true. She also points out that he is coming up on his 5^th birthday, and is going through some significant changes physically and developmentally. These are often times of regression at worst, and stagnancy at best. We have a bit of both.

I took T for his evaluation to see if he would benefit from physical therapy, and in the 2 weeks since the OT evaluation was done, some of the concerns have righted themselves. Still, he will probably need some form of physical therapy for his core strength and balance issues. He is also slightly behind in his cross body coordination. However, the Physical Therapist only believes that he will need PT on a short term basis of 3-6 months. They believe that with the OT we will see a marked improvement in his gross motor skills.

As for the other sensory stuff, the stuff that has shown the biggest lag in improvement, we will be looking into starting the “How Does Your Engine Run” program in the next few weeks. I still have some research to do on the program, so I will be ordering the book soon. We also have the functional vision evaluation scheduled for next week.

All in all, I am very excited to see what progress T will make in the next 6-12 months with his new tools. I am forever thankful that these tools are available to him, and that he is such a great sport when it comes to participating in all of the evaluations and therapies we involve him in.

Does anyone else use the “How Does Your Engine Run?” program? I would love to hear about your experience!