Master 4, Autism his way! #3

Therapy Thursday.

Today was Master 4's weekly therapy session with his OT. So as we do every Thursday we dropped the other kids at school and the girls to the babysitter, aka Nanna. Then of we went.

I should have foreseen a meltdown coming after yesterday. Master 4 is in need of a really long break, but I assumed being that his sessions are always in the morning he would be ok. I was wrong.

He started to become stressed within 5 minutes. Our fantastic OT was so chilled with him, she was able to get him to at least attempt a couple of the activities she had planned for the session and when we hit one that was just to much she skipped over it and quickly moved into something else.

All floor exercise was abandoned. We tried to do some gross motor skills and muscles developement but it was a lost cause today. He was so difficult and jumped from manic scribbling to throwing himself on the floor.

My poor little man could not even sit on his seat properly, even after assistance from myself and the OT, he just kept sinking of the side and slumping over. He was done, we called it a day.

With still 40mins left in the session the OT suggested that she teach me some extra games and ideas to use over the up coming holidays, while we could continue his weekly session through the school break both the OT and I think a couple of weeks with a little less stress will make a world of difference.

So today, I got homework.

A list of games and toys that can develope fine motor skills.

A list of activities that can all count towards therapy time and that do not need to be structured or supervised so they don't place any pressure on Master 4.

Plus a list of several apps that we can try out and see which ones he gravitates to the most.

I will be using all these ideas over the next few weeks and seeing how we go. First up this week is just a simple follow the dotted line without going outside the full line. The idea being that we will gradually reduce the size of the full lines thus making it a little more challenging for Master 4 to stay inside and help strengthen his little fingers and arms.

As for today, well for Master 4, it's over, it is 4.30pm and he is sound asleep in bed, I don't expect we will see him til tomorrow morning.

@mumofmany