Jeanne Ashley Dalan's Senior Blog: Started at "Yes I Can! Occupational Therapy Inc."

January 10, I started at a new occupational therapy clinic called Yes I Can! which specializes for kids from 0-3 with suspected autism. The clinic is a bit different from the CSC. Both clinics have a "gym" or sensory room (that's what it's called at Yes I Can!) but the clinic for the 0-3 year olds have a messy room and a feeding/fine motor room.

This is the feeding and fine motor room. Some of the kids have trouble eating, like they can eat certain textures of foods. I was talking to the OT there, Mary Ellen, and she told me that there was a child that only ate ketchup and another child that would throw-up at the sight of apple sauce and the sight of anything that had a similar texture to it. This is when and OT would intervene because since the child is throwing up with the sight of the texture, it interferes with the child's occupation to being able to eat and hold food down.
This is also the room where some of the kids will read books to help with their attention and do puzzles to practice their visual and orientation. I saw a child today do an alphabet puzzle by being about to recognize and say the letter even though it was upside down or tilted to the side. They were also able to quickly find the proper spot for the piece.

To the left is the sensory room, where the kids typically play. The goal of the room is to have the child enter the room, have a plan of what they want to do in the room, and execute their plan. Some kids won't know what to do, or will have an idea of what to do but won't execute it well. One child would chose a toy, like the blocks, dump it out and just leave it. The OT pointed out that they just had trouble executing because they were able to decide on what to play but not able to decide how they wanted to play.

Below is a picture of the Messy room(left) where typically the kids paint. A child who was nauseated by the texture and sight of shaving cream was also queasy about paint. Too get them use to both textures, Mary Ellen had them finger paint and make hand prints. For some kids she also pours rice or beans in the table and hides items, like cars of animals, in it so kids that have sensitive nerves can play in it. I did see one child recently, sit in the bean bucket (right) because their feet were sensitive. The feet would curl up when the beans were poured in it.