Re: heavy OT first and THEN speech???

[Guest guest]

My son has hypotonia also but nothing as severe as yours.??? I personally have

chosen to take the opposite route (due to finances) and give him the ability to

communication while letting some of the other things fine motor skills go.??? In

our case, I believe this eases his frustrations, the more he is able to express

himself.??? I think when children can't talk it is so hard on them emotionally.?

? I don't know how much people charge or where you live, but I will highly

recommend Debra Beckman in orlando for oral motor therapy.???? She can teach you

exercises you can do daily at home with him that will help him

significantly.???? She has recently started doing intensives where you come in

for an eval and then follow it up with 8 one hour sessions.??? I dont' believe

she could " fix " ?his muscles in that short of a time, but she can help you learn

some of the exercises to do at home that would help him eat better and start on

his way to expressing himself.?? Until about 2 weeks ago I had never seen my son

chew and swallow a piece of chicken before (unless it was pureed).??? Now he is

starting to be able to eat all kinds of new foods as well as express

himself.???? Also, make sure someone doesn't take you for a ride financially for

the oral motor.???? Someone else on this board told me that someone they called

wanted $800 to do a oral motor eval on her son using the beckman method.???

Debra herself only charges $300 for an eval.???? I've found the same thing now

that I have been researching OT, the rates are very different depending on who

you see.

I am sure there have to be other great people out there that could help with the

oral motor as well.??? Just make sure if you do decide to do the therapy that

the person knows what they are doing.???? My last 2 therapists were wonderful

people but I don't believe either of them knew oral motor that well.

If you have any questions feel free to email me at NotefrmSue@...

[ ] heavy OT first and THEN speech???

My almost three year old has apraxia with hypotonia (trunk up through facial

muscles). He has a difficult time with his tongue -- difficult time with the

rotary chewing motion but has no texture issues, etc.

We have been hitting therapy hard, but now our insurance benefits are coming to

a halt... for the remainder of the year!

Wondering if any of you had any thoughts. My inclination is do more heavy OT

with him rather than speech because he has to get his body awareness first (as

the body develops from the inner part outward) before he can get the fine motor

stuff for speech.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

[Guest guest]

Are you talking about doing OT yourself? Once he's three years old-it sounds

like he'd easily qualify for services thru your school district. Until than--he

could be getting services thru Early Intervention.

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-- In , " lisad529 " <lisad529@...> wrote:

>

> > My inclination is do more heavy OT with him rather than speech because he

has to get his body awareness first (as the body develops from the inner part

outward) before he can get the fine motor stuff for speech.

>

>

[Guest guest]

My 3 year old son has median to severe hypotonia, but also the same level of

apraxia. We tried both OT and ST. now he can speak short sentence,and he can

run,jump and kick the ball. My experience is: both OT and ST is important, and

parent's involvement are equally important. we only have one OT and one ST per

week, but I spent a lot of time playing with him.I take him to playground and

swim almost everyday. also, try to find PROMPT trained ST, my son start making

huge progress since he has PROMPT therapist.

Betty