Fine Motor Control

One of the things we adults take for granted is our ability to manipulate small items with awesome dexterity. We only start seeing our ability to function in this way decline as we reach an older age, some people it's about 45 or so, some people it's not until he or she is in her 60's.

When were young, like 20's and 30's, we have no clue how important this is for everyday life. Another time we don't realize how important these motor skills are is when we are really young, like when we are 6 and 8 years old.

So this brings me to the meat of my post, occupational therapy.

I've gone over the different types of therapy the big guy does during the week, ABA, Speech, and occupational therapy, but have I think I've really only talked about the first two, not the last one. The first one helps him to behave a certain way, or as closely as he can to "normal" people (who still won’t push in their own chair when leaving the table), The second one does and will help him communicate with those "normal" non-pushing in chair people who, for some reason think he's weird when they are the ones think their social status is determined by the clothes they wear, or cars they drive. The third will help him live, and I'll explain why.

Have you ever been hungry? I know, you’re probably looking down at your belly and thinking "well, yeah, duh" but what I mean is, have you ever been HUNGRY. Every one of us has a refrigerator in our home that is stuffed full of things we might want to eat, did eat and didn't finish, or can eat if we wanted, but the big guy looks at the same fridge and only sees a few things he CAN eat.

I don't say "can" because he has allergies to food, because we haven't seen any yet, I say "can" because he has a hard time just getting the food to his mouth. We, as "normal" people find eating an easy, quick, and something we never really think about, but I'm sure it's a chore for him. Let’s take mac and cheese as an example, he can eat it, and he loves it....if it’s in a bowl with a spoon. I cannot put this item on a plate and give him a fork. I have before, but I will end up having to help him get a good mouth full, but I won’t have to do as much for the little guy, and he's only a little older than 4.

I can see when the big guy is hungry, and I mean that real hungry when you just need to get something in your stomach, and though you know you’re not going to die; you just have to get something in there to stop the feeling. When I see him like this, something like mac and cheese on a plate with a fork will not do, it has to be something he can get to his mouth and something he can easily eat. So a hot dog, a corn dog, and pudding cup, or a bowl of cereal, but never something difficult for him to manipulate.

This is why occupational therapy is so important.

He hasn't had occupational therapy for a while, but he has been approved to start anew. So soon he will have to make room in his busy schedule for another person to come and help him advance his skills. I can't wait to see how far he goes with this, and I really hope he likes the lady then send (kind of funny, they all seem to be lady's) because he wasn't too thrilled about the first lady he had. He did well with her, but nothing like his speech lady, and many times the whole family would have to participate in his occupational therapy for him to complete the action, I think he didn't see a point in the stuff otherwise.

I can only hope things will go smoothly... we shall see.