Helping Kids Understand Occupational Therapy: A Guide for Parents

Laura Petix 0:00 So you want to focus on functional, relevant examples things that your child resonates with and understands and knows the specific tasks and activities that they do in their day to day life. So I wouldn’t call out things like fine motor skills or gross motor skills, talk about handwriting drawing cutting. You want to highlight the fact that there are other kids who are just like your child and that it’s not just your childhood experiences this. Welcome to the sensory wise solutions podcast for parents, where parents can get real actionable strategies to support kids with sensory processing disorder. I’m Laura, OT and mom to Lilyana, a sensory sensitive kid who inherited my anxiety and my love for all things Disney. Consider me your new ot mom, bestie. I know my stuff. But I also know what it’s really like in the trenches of parenting a child with sensory processing disorder. Speaker 1 0:56 Okay, mom, enough about me. Let’s try the podcast. Laura Petix 1:01 Hello, hello, everyone. Welcome back to the podcast. It is still ot month here in the US. At the time of this episode publishing. And all month, I’ve been talking about all the amazing ways that OT or occupational therapy can help your neurodiverse family, I hope you have enjoyed it as much as I have. Obviously, I can’t stop raving about it. But for today, I actually want to talk to those of you who’ve already made the decision to put your child in OT services, maybe you’re on a waitlist, or you have an evaluation coming up. Or maybe your child is already in OT and you want to help your child understand why they have to go to OT. And we’ll also touch on some ways that you can help other siblings who don’t go to OT understand what OT is and why their sibling goes. But maybe they don’t because this was such a common occurrence that came up at the clinic siblings often really envied the one who got to come to OT. I mean, what can I say oh T is so much fun. But yeah, that was a very common issue. So let’s first talk about steps to get your child ready and prepared and know what to expect for the OT evaluation. By the way, if you want help on preparing your child for the dentist or doctor visit, you can check out episode 23. So head to the OT butterfly.com/ 23. It’s basically the same kind of template scenario that I’m going to talk about here. But if you want to go back and listen to that, feel free. So I will start out by saying that an OT evaluation can vary widely in terms of the protocols that they use, the setting that they conducted in and how long that it takes. You could have an in home ot evaluation, you could have a school based ot evaluation or a private clinic or hospital clinic ot evaluation. And they all take various amounts of time and maybe even split it over a few days. So knowing that your very first step would be to find out this information, get in touch with the clinic, the school, whatever the institution is, and ask to learn more about the specific sequence of events that will happen. On the day of the evaluation, you want to try your best to find out the following. So ask if the parents are allowed to sit in during the evaluation? Or are they required to stay in the waiting room. Ask them for the name of the OT who will be doing the evaluation, maybe you could even ask for a picture of the OT. Sometimes they have this on the website. But some like hospitals, or schools obviously don’t have their photos online. But I would ask for a picture and say that it is to help your child be prepared for the visit. Especially if you anticipate your child being anxious about this. Then I would ask them to walk you through the exact sequence and order of events doesn’t have to be very specific from like which test they’re going to do first, but just the sequence of the events of the evaluation. So for example, maybe they’ll say first, they’re gonna call your name in the wait waiting room, then they’re gonna go to a small room first. That’s going to be where there’s going to be a desk and some chair and you’re going to do some like paper drawing and answering questions and some block building. And then they’re going to move to a bigger room to do some swinging and jumping and throwing and catching. And then they will go back to the waiting room and say bye to the OT. Like just get as much information about the process as possible. Some places will have a very specific list of things. Some will be more vague, but don’t be afraid to like ask more questions. Once you find that information out, you want to present that information to your child in whatever way works best for them. So if you have an older child, and you can just kind of talk to them, you could just talk them through it and just say, Hey, this is what’s going to happen. This is what to expect, do you have any questions, but maybe you have a younger child or child with limited receptive language, or just a lot of anxiety, and you can tell that you really need to take more of an intentional approach to supporting them and preparing them for this. So maybe you could use something like a visual social story, which would work best for them. Again, the social story and any kind of way that you prepare your child for this will be really helpful if you can use visuals. So go on the Clinic website, look for pictures of the clinic gym, ask the person at the OT clinic to send you pictures of their waiting room. Most places are really happy to accommodate this, some places will already have a social story prepared, I’ve seen a lot of clinics that and like hospitals have a very specific like what to expect section for kids to see. So check that out. But try to get pictures and visuals as much as possible. Now, before you explain the actual sequence of events, and like how the evaluation is going to work, you’ll probably need some sort of explanation of why the child is going to be evaluated in the first place. And so I’m going to give you a few examples. But overall, you want to try to keep this upbeat and positive, obviously nothing to make them afraid of. And you can be as detailed as you think your child needs. And again, this is going to vary what you include in this conversation based on the setting that your child is going to be evaluated in. For example, if your child is going to be evaluated by an OT who’s like, affiliated as part of a hospital, or more of a traditional like doctor’s clinic that has like multiple behavioral or allied health offices, it’s probably going to look a lot like a sterile clinic setting, like fluorescent lighting, it’s going to look like a doctor’s office. So when your child gets there, they feel very anxious. So you might need to call that out. If they’re going to be evaluated at the school or like a private clinic, usually, that’s more kid friendly and less looking like a doctor’s office. So just keep those things in mind. So here’s a few examples with different ages and different reasons for going to OT so let’s do an example of an eight year old who has ADHD or suspected ADHD, we’ll start there. And they’re constantly getting in trouble at school for not staying in their seat, they’re not getting their work done, they’re blurting things out, maybe they’re even having some friendship issues. And you would say that probably things at home seem very similar. So you might say something along the lines. Of course, this, these scripts are never meant to be word for word, but just a general example of how I would explain this to an eight year old. So it would sound something like, Hey, so next week on Thursday, I’m picking you up from school early. So you know how you’ve mentioned that school feels boring to you, when you really hate sitting and you really just love to move your body so much. But that sometimes in class, you get in trouble for that? Well, guess what, there are actually a lot of other kids who have that same kind of brain and body as you. And there’s a specific kind of teacher called an OT, who knows a lot of tips to make the classroom feel more comfortable for you. And an OT can also help us know about how your brain works so that at home, I can help you more. So we’re going next Thursday after school to see this OT and when we get there, she just really wants to learn more about how your brain and body work right now, before giving us all of those great tips. It’s going to be a mix of sitting at the table doing some papers, stuff like drawing, and maybe some buttoning and things with your hands, then you could go to this big room that they were telling me and do an obstacle course. It sounds like you’re gonna love that room so much. So don’t worry, you don’t have to prepare anything for it. You don’t need to study. We’re just going to show up and she’s going to do some play tasks with you and move your body. And that’s it. Do you have any questions? Now let’s do an example of a five year old who has sensory sensitivity with clothes, and maybe sounds and has meltdowns at home? You might say something like, guess what? I just made an appointment for you to get to work with someone, a teacher named Michelle. Remember We’ve been having a hard time in the morning getting dressed. And you told me that pants make your skin feel so itchy. Michelle is a special teacher called an OT. And guess what she told me that she knows other kids who also feel itchy when they wear pants. She has a lot of ways to help kids feel more comfortable with their clothes, and in their body. And so when we go see her, she told me, you guys are gonna get to do like a ton of play things and do all these kinds of games together and do some exploring with your eyes and ears and hands and your whole body. She even mentioned something about an obstacle course and some swings. Obviously, then you just leave it there and just let them ask any questions, if they have any questions. If you have a younger child, you would just keep it really short. Like if you have a three year old or a four year old, usually for young children, they typically let parents stay with them. So you could say something like, today, you and Mommy are gonna go visit someone named April, she has an office that sort of looks like Dr. John’s office. But there are no shots and no medicines, we’re just going to draw in color and play some games. So maybe your child has already been going to OT for a while. And they’re only now asking why they have to go this tends to come up a lot. When kids start to get older, and they don’t like going there after school. Or if they just don’t like something about OT and they’re giving you pushback about it. Sometimes they just ask questions about why they go. Or maybe you have a child who’s in OT and they’re not quite asking about it. But you’ve just really decided that you want to keep them in the loop and feel that it’s important to let them know why they’re going to OT rather than keep it a secret. So whatever your reasoning, here are some general tips for talking about why your child goes to OT. So you want to focus on functional, relevant examples, things that your child resonates with and understands and knows the specific tasks and activities that they do in their day to day life. So I wouldn’t call out things like fine motor skills or gross motor skills, talk about handwriting drawing cutting, you want to highlight the fact that there are other kids who are just like your child, and that it’s not just your child who experiences this. You also want to tie in some of the things that the OT does with your child, or has done with your child that have helped in the past, and that they’re currently working towards like something bigger, something specific. So here are a couple examples. Again, let’s go back to that first example, the ADHD eight year old with sensory seeking behaviors and difficulty staying on task at school. Let’s say they ask you one day, why do I even need to go to OT? Why do I go there? None of my friends go to OT Why do I have to go? I would say something like, do you remember when writing centers used to feel so tricky to you? You would always come home and say Mom, I hate writing. It’s so boring. I remember that that feels like so long ago. But do you remember how it got easier? Yeah, you started using a wiggly chair, your teacher started giving you different paper. And she started helping you plan what you were writing in advance. Well, guess who came up with those ideas. It’s your OT. And you know how now every day before dinner, you scooter board and jump on the trampoline. While we didn’t have those things before, and guess who taught us about your body’s real need to move your OT, there are so many things that we’ve learned from your OT, and we’re still learning more. I’m not quite sure how long we’ll have to go. But I do know that we’re still learning more about how to make group work feel more comfortable for you. I think that’s why you guys kind of play a lot more like taking turns games and collaborating games and why sometimes she invites other kids to OT at the same time. It’s like you’re kind of in like a level two ot right now. So that’s something that I would say to them and that’s something that I often said to my older kids, I would make it sound really cool. I’d say like You’re like past level one. This is level two O T right now. When I’m talking about like they’ve grabbed they’ve like made progress but like there’s still room to learn room to grow. I make it sound like they’ve like past a certain level and they’re onto like the advanced level that usually helps a little bit. All right now for that five year old with sensory sensitivities. Let’s say that they’re not really asking why they have to go but you just decided you want to clue them in to why they go there in the first place. I strongly recommend that parents let kids know why they go places why they’re going to OT. So maybe on the way to the OT clinic or whatever. You’re just driving somewhere. You could say, hey, you know I’ve never asked you but do you Know why you go to see teacher Michelle? I would let them answer their answer might surprise you, maybe they like literally already know, which will be great. But for the sake of this, let’s say that they say, I don’t know, I go see teacher Michelle to learn how to play, or to learn how to jump, I would say, Yeah, play is a huge part of being five, you are certainly really, really good at playing. Teacher, Michelle has been teaching us that when you move your body, and you hang from things and swing, it just really helps your brain and your body feel more in control and safe. And guess what, when your brain and body feel more in control, and safe, it makes things like getting dressed feel easier for you. So you notice that mornings are still a little tricky for us. We are working on it. And I know you’re working hard to but the work you do with teacher Michelle is going to make it so that one day getting dressed is easy peasy. Then for anyone younger than five, I really wouldn’t say much. I don’t think they would be asking much about why they’re going. But I would keep it short, like Miss April helps us learn about our bodies, and we play lots of fun games with her to get our mind and body strong. That’s a perfect enough explanation for what ot does. Now, lastly, what about for siblings who don’t go to OT but maybe they go with you to go drop off their sibling to OT? And they asked why do you think it to go to OT but I don’t. The conversation will follow similarly to the examples that I just shared, on how to talk to your child about why they go to OT so you can definitely use some of those same wordings and examples to explain it to your non ot child. But I would also add an example of different brains and bodies needing different things. We just want to highlight differences among people, and not make it have a particular value positive or negative. So an example could be like, you know how daddy wears glasses, but I don’t, I’m not jealous that daddy gets towards glasses, I just know that his eyes are built differently than mine. And without them, he just can’t see the same way I see. And that’s not fair. I want him to be able to see things. I want him to be able to see all of your cool drawings and to watch TV when we watch TV. Sometimes I need a step stool to reach the top cabinet, but Daddy can reach it so easily. That’s because my body was built differently. I am shorter. So I need some help to reach the top. There is nothing wrong with me dad is not better than me just because he’s taller. Your brother goes to OT because his brain works differently than the way the classroom is built. So he needs some changes to the classroom and needs different ways of being taught so that he can get all his classwork and homework done. And his ot helps us learn what those things are. If you’ve noticed, your brother’s body also loves to move right? You always see him move and jump and wiggle. Your body does like moving to but not as much as his body needs it. And does that make him better than you know? Are you better than him? No, you’re both different from each other. He goes to OT because his differences are harder to feel comfortable in places like the classroom and sometimes at home. So his ot helps him learn ways to make his body feel more comfortable. And in control in those places. I know it looks so much fun. There will probably still be some feelings about it. But this is a good conversation to have and a way to explain different needs. And you can ask your child ot at usually this is more of an option at a like a private clinic. But there were many times when I would save some extra time at the end of a session to invite this sibling to come in and play in like the clinic gym and do like one round of the obstacle course with us. So they got to do some of it as well. So you can always ask your ot for that. Alright, that’s it for this episode. It was short and sweet. But I hope it was helpful for some of you thinking about OT or for some of you who are already in OT. All right, I will talk to you next week. Bye. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider rating it and leaving a review which helps other parents find me as well. Want to learn more from me. I share tons more over on Instagram at the OT butterfly. See you next time. Transcribed by https://otter.ai