therapy styles | Autism PDD

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My opinion...you need to get him a new o/t...I've had about 4 different people, o/t's work w/ Nicholas...the first was a disaster, he was really rough w/ him and force him to do stuff and all Nick did was cry while I cringed and bit my nails...I finally listened to my instinct and got a new one...the best o/t person who is his current one, works w/ him at school, she follows his lead, then will ask him to do something...or if she knows what interests him...ie...for you guy the mag filled w/ Disney characters...she would have used that to gain and keep his interest.  Nicholas loves the sand and water tables so they start their or he also like the big exercise ball and she'll get that out, whatever works to get him to work w/ her.

I'm sorry your little guy got treated like that, he's such a sweetie and thinking about him being so excited about the mag's and wanting to share w/ the o/t and having that fool ignore the chance to connect or at the very least be kind to a sweet child...well that's just wrong in my opinion...sorry to go on girl!

Always in your corner! hugs,

Ali

Does she not know that if an autistic child approches you and makes the effort to communicate with you that you should praise them and make a huge deal out of what they are interested in??? She should have told him what a good job he did looking at the magazine and finding the pictures of the movies!!!! Wow unbelievable.......I do not believe that this is any form of therapy and if it is I don't think it will be helpful.

                                              Nita

We recently tried out patient OT and did not have a good expierience. THe OT we have always had seemed to coax my child, give him plenty of time to warm and she praised any effort. My son has adhd, anxiety and cognitive delay (and autism). We have always tried to use diversion for unwanted behaviors and to slowly sort of tempt him into doing what we wanted him to do. THe new therapist seemed to practice what I can best call confrontation. The last straw for me was the next to last session, my son had sat quitely in the waiting room and was looking through a magizine, he found his beloved movies he is so obsessed with right now, an ad with pics of dvd's from Disney, mostly ones he has and loves. He was so thrilled, he did not cry as the therapist came (15 minutes late AGAIN) and when we went into the room, he smiled, made eye contact with her and held out his magazine for her to admire the movie ad........Are you ready?

SHe took the magazine out of his hand and put it behind her while she said, thats not what we are doing now, we are going to talk about this.....and showed him this tiny little black and white picture of shoes and socks. I was floored.......I could not for the life of me understand why she didnt use the picture he was holding up to her and say something like, yes lets look at those pictures and this one of shoes- does goofy have on shoes?..you know, ease him into talking about shoes. I am just asking for your opinions, and if this is a style of therapy that I will encounter again, does it have a name? I do not like it at all and do not want it used on my son.

Thanks for your input.

That was rude of her!!!  I don't think it is any particular therapy technique, I agree she should have responded to his initiation of a social contact. That is the precise time to increase a child's skills. He was showing that he wanted to talk to her and she could have done a little of that then put away the magazine and got onto her planned session.

Good therapists can go with the flow and use all sorts of situations to teach. I think the issue isn't whether we sometimes have to redirect our kids in therapy. If he had kept going back to the magazine over and over then we would redirect. The issue is that we need to be sensitive and reward our kids for any effort to really communicate. That is how they improve the most.


I would talk to the OT about your concerns and if she continues in this sort of behaviour could you get a different one? I know I have seen some great therapists and some bad ones as well. Quite often our instincts are correct about therapists.  Just be aware we can be over protective and sometimes therapy can be strict, but in this situation I am sure the therapist could have done it a lot better.

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