OT Evaluation (10 months)

This morning, bright and early, I took Colton to Access for his OT Evaluation. Colton was evaluated by Easter Seals when he was about 4 months old and he didn't qualify at that time. They wanted him re-evaluated at about 9 months. Colton was sitting at a bench and they'd offer him toys to see how he'd grab them or shake them. First, she started off with a block. He immediately grabbed the block. Colton's grip strength has improved tremendously from when he was born. If he's holding onto something, I usually have to pry it away from his fingers to get it back. Watch out for your hair or your earrings!! I've lost some hair in the past few months. She then gave him one block in his left hand and put a second block on the table to see if he'd grab it with his right hand. He did! They want him holding two objects at the same time. She showed him how to bang the two blocks together, but he didn't do that. She gave him a rattle to shake and he did shake it. She said that they really want him shaking the rattle up and down for 60 seconds in an arc motion, but he didn't last that long, which is ok. He did get credit for shaking the rattle.



She offered him a piece of paper and he grabbed it from her. She wanted him to crumple it up into a ball so she showed him how. She put the paper on the table and wanted him to grab it and crumple it. He was able to get the paper off of the table, but didn't crumple it. She then put two tiny beans in front of him to see if he'd grab them, and he did swipe with his hand to get it into the palm of his hand. He can't quite do the thumb, finger pincer grip, but she was proud that he could swipe them. She kept offering him things like shoestrings and toys to see how he'd manage them. He did really well!



After she was finished, she scored Colton. She said that to qualify, he'd have to have a standard deviation of -1.5. Colton scored a -1 and a -0.67. Colton does not qualify for services at this time. She said both of his scores fall within the Average range. With her report, she's going to give me Home-Programming suggestions so I can continue working on things at home. We can do a lot of practice in the highchair during mealtime. Ex: grabbing small items like puffs with our thumb and finger. Holding a toy with just our fingers allowing space between our fingers and palm. Shaking toys up and down as opposed to side to side. We've got Colton using his hands and arms better, so now we want to focus on using our fingers more.

I'm very proud of my Colton! I didn't know what to expect going into the evaluation, but I knew if he did qualify, we'd just have to find more time to take him to OT therapy. Obviously, we'd make it work, but I'm a little relieved we don't have to work that into our schedule just yet. Next year, he'll be going to school full-time, so he will receive all of his services while he's at school. Outpatient therapy can become quite a job when you have PT, OT, Speech, and Feeding Therapy. Luckily, we only do PT and Feeding (which should start sometime this month). Colton sure keeps me busy with all of these evals and appointments, but I'm thankful that he's doing so well!

**I do have to give a shout-out to our fabulous PT who has helped me over the past 9 months. She has been giving me suggestions and tips to help Colton in OT, too. She's very experienced and knows what he should be doing for OT....without her tips, we'd probably be way behind. She's the best!!!!!!!