Morning Therapy

Ethan has been having more & more difficulty pushing kids down at school. I am seeing this behavior in our home life as well. So, I thought maybe we should try switching up our morning OT routine to include more heavy work. Maybe he is pushing kids to provide that sensory input that he is needing/missing. But how to do this for Ethan when I have my nephew & niece in the mornings too??? A GAME!

So, here is the new game (OT) that Corey & I came up with to do in the mornings! I had the idea....and Corey made it fun. He is very good at that. Corey played the game with Ethan while I prepared breakfast & laid out Ethan's clothes. It was so nice being able to share these responsibilities with Corey.

Here is Ethan & Daddy ready to start the game. Ethan is in a swivel chair on wheels that is covered with the weighted blanket that I made him. He also has his weighted lizard across his lap (purchased at Dr. Temple Grandin's conference)...it was the "seat belt."

We placed tape on the floor...a starting line (under the chair), a race line (also going to be our balance beam), and an finish line at the other end of our hallway. Ethan says, "Ready, Set, Go!" and Corey pushes him fast down the hallway...that's why the picture is blurry.

At the finish line (the end of the hallway), Ethan crawls off the chair & pushes it back to the start line. This is the heavy work that he really needs. Not only is the chair weighted with the blanket & lizard, but the fact that is swivels makes it a bit more challenging & helps him use both hands. Ethan loved playing this game!

Daddy & Ethan doing morning therapy....a beautiful thing!

Go, Ethan, Go!

And ready to do it again!!!

We will see if this works as far as pushing other kids down, but we noticed a difference on the 1st day we did this game. He was much more calm & able to sit longer. I think this will be a game that we play for awhile. In fact, this morning I did this game with all 3 of the kids, and they loved it! HOORAY!

***Update! I forgot to ask his teacher to see if she saw any improvement in Ethan's pushing, but Ethan's speech therapist told me that Ethan was answering more questions for her this morning! And I didn't even ask if she saw an improvement....she just told me! YEAH!!!!