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OT Evaluation

Well, I took my oldest son to the Occupational Therapist for the evaluation Ann Arbor recommended in their original report back in May. We're a little behind the ball on this one. Pretty much everyone who read the report back in May missed that particular line in the 9-page report we received from the neuropsych division. I guess we were a little distracted by the ADHD diagnosis and the school-related recommendations made to accommodate his needs.

I thought the OT eval would take 45 minutes. It took closer to two hours.

I thought I'd be sitting in a waiting room reading Snow. I ended up observing the evaluation.

I thought I'd be back into work before 10 a.m. I got in around 12:30.

While I'm not really qualified to make any judgements about the evaluation, I think he did really well. He didn't seem to display any of the processing speed concerns the learning disability testing had showed. However, the therapist did ask me if anyone had made any recommendations on how to handle his "sensory issues".

Huh?

No, they haven't. I didn't know he had sensory issues.

Apparently his need to roll around on the floor and crash into things - something I always have categorized as hyperness and silliness - are the result a nervous system sensory-related desire for hard contact. At least that's what I understood her to say.

Okay, weird but not alarming. Actually, if it doesn't impact his academics, I'm really not concerned. This isn't something that has been problematic for him. Certainly it hasn't impacted his social life.

However, she did mention a few techniques to dispell this need for movement (a huge symptom of ADHD). She called them compressions. Downward pressure on his shoulders while he's standing. Having him lay on the floor while you compress his joints. Apparently these things help send a message to his nervous system that it's time to focus.

We'll see if that makes any difference. I'm not really sure about all this stuff. Not sure if its necessary or needed. Just not sure.

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