Future OT

One of the services that Ali gets is Occupational Therapy. An OT usually works on fine motor skills as well as Sensory Awareness. Alyssa's fine motor skills are pretty on target and we only expect them to improve further once she gets her new glasses. She primarily gets OT to address sensory concerns. Ali is VERY active with little safety awareness. She gags easily and is apprehensive when being touched or touching different textures. Her motor planning and organizational skills aren't that well developed either. Her eye contact is improving, but still not great. Her ability to adapt to changes in her routine is getting better and better, but she is still a routined kind of kid. These areas are all impacted by a child's ability to process sensory information. One of the things that we recently started doing with her is a "brushing" program. You use a therapuetic brush (like a soft surgical scrub brush) and you systematically brush her extremities and her back. Following the "brushing" you do joint compressions which is supposed to organize the nervous system. You have to do it every 2 hours, so Emily has been quietly observing....lol. Tonight as I was washing up some dishes, I turned around to see Alyssa very willingly allowing Emily to "brush" her. Sooooo cute. Emily had the program down to a T!!! Alyssa asked her to "brush belly!" Emily gently reminded her, "no Ali, we don't brush your belly...now let's count 1.2.3. " It was so darn cute. She even remembered to do the joint compressions!! I see an OT in the making!!!

Brusha, brusha, brusha

Some joint compressions