Therapy begins

Age 4

Grace began Occupational Therapy at the hospital in late October of 2007.  The first time I watched a session of Sensory Integration Therapy I wondered why I hadn't just taken her to the park and saved myself a $25 copay.  Her therapist had her swing on different kinds of swings and jump onto a pile of foam blocks.  She explained some things to me, but I honestly had no idea what she was talking about.  I consider myself an intelligent person.  I can follow most conversations and can understand some fairly complex concepts, but she had me completely mystified.  However, Gracie enjoyed herself and she even said a couple of words to the therapist (a rare event) so we decided to make it a weekly event.  After about a month of therapy I decided that whatever it was that she was doing with Grace it was helping.  Grace looked forward to coming and was beginning to try some new things.  She was swinging in new and different ways and starting to be able to peddle on a bike.  Grace was far behind her peers in the area of motor skills as well and was not able to play on playground equipment due to this. I was hopeful that this therapy would also help her in this area.  We increased her therapy two twice a week.

After several months the speech therapist at the hospital began noticing Gracie as well.  While Grace was very verbal, her communication skills were poor.  After that fateful day when she "slipped away" we had struggled to get her to communicate effectively again, especially with unfamiliar people.  Making eye contact was very difficult for her, even with people she knew.  She seemed unable to read people's verbal and non verbal cues and struggled with being able to get her thoughts and ideas out.  She also often struggled to find the words that she wanted to say.  Even familiar words would sometimes be difficult for her to find.  Simple words like house and dog for example would sometimes just not come out.  We added speech therapy to her schedule at the hospital and began that twice a week as well.

After several months of speech therapy her therapist started Grace on eating therapy.  This was one of the most helpful types of therapy that we did with Grace.  She would systematically introduce Grace to foods.  At first this involved simply placing a tray of food in the same room as Grace and each time moving it a little bit closer to her.  There was no talk of actually eating or even touching the food.  Eventually her therapist worked toward putting a few food items on the tray that she would eat (ice cream, crackers) next to some that were "challenge" foods (grilled cheese, carrots).  Initially Grace would not eat the preferred foods simply because they existed on the same tray as the "not OK" foods.  But with time she began to take bites of the "preferred" foods even when they were close to the "bad" foods.  Now to those of you with "normal" children who eat "normal" foods this probably sounds insane.  Imagine a child who cringes, shakes, retreats, wails and otherwise acts like a wild animal simply because her goldfish cracker exists on the same tray as a single baby carrot - and this behavior is in a public place with a therapist!    Imagine the joy we felt the day Grace decided to smell the baby carrot.  This sounds ridiculous, I know, but it was a huge deal.  Eventually she graduated from smelling it to giving it a "tooth scrape".  This involves putting in your mouth and scraping your tooth on it just a tiny bit.  This was a very big deal.  Baby steps...

The eating therapy was a tremendous help for Grace.  She did begin to branch out and eat a few other things.  She began to eat grilled cheese, pizza (but ONLY Izzy's), freeze dried fruits (ONLY freeze dried from COSTCO), goldfish crackers, pancakes with sugar, McDonald's chicken nuggets (still...), and chocolate milk.

Grace continued OT for two full years (from age 3 1/2 to 5 1/2), and the speech therapy/eating therapy lasted for about the first 9 months.  I can't say enough about the value of Sensory Integration Therapy.  Any child with sensory issues whether they be autistic, have OCD, sensory processing disorder, or any type of sensory based disability absolutely must have this type of therapy.  I am a strong believer in it's benefits.  Grace learned many, many skills with her occupational therapist.  She improved her balance, coordination, confidence, tolerance, communication, ball skills, and much, much more.  It was well worth every penny we spent.