Social Distancing Survival: We could not do this without OT

Social distancing. . .Quarantine. . .Shelter in place. . .Stay at home. . .

Work from home. . .E-learning/School from home

Whatever you call it, it means a change to your routine and likely a change to family dynamics and interactions with your children.

My children lost time at school with teachers and friends they care deeply about and their routines have shifted to accommodate the balance of me working from home while they are learning from home.  We are doing our best to maintain a similar routine and have added in daily walks/bike rides and time to play outside when possible. We are continuing to socialize through social media and video calls with family. My guess is this is similar throughout many households. If I had to guess, some children are handling it okay while others may be struggling.

My oldest is taking it all in stride with occasional moments of sadness with losing competitive cheer and missing her friends and teacher. My youngest is 1 and blissfully unaware that his birthday party was cancelled and cannot be rescheduled because social distancing is now in effect. My middle son has some challenges that make him love hard, play hard and routine is VERY important to him. When I say it’s important, I mean changes in our routine completely and totally rock his world. . .and not in a good way. Change to his routine often results in meltdowns and aggressive behaviors including head butting, biting, hitting, scratching and kicking. Oh, and so much screaming, growling and yelling in frustration! Not only the screaming, but he is LOUD! We joke that he has two volumes: LOUD and LOUDER. He even whispers in a loud voice!

When he wakes, I can hear his feet slam into the floor from anywhere in my house and then he stomps all of the way to wherever I am.  He climbs and jumps and climbs and stomps and climbs and throws himself to the floor as hard as he can. Then he gets up and does it all over again. He will sit next to me on the couch and will press his body into mine as hard as he possibly can. If I scoot, he follows. Clearly he did not get the six feet apart memo. If he can only reach me with his feet, he digs his toes into my leg. He prefers to have something in his mouth much of the evening, typically a stuffed animal or blanket. When I say in his mouth, I mean as much shoved into his mouth as he possibly can. He is 3 and only in the last couple of months have I been able to confidently say he typically sleeps through the night. Now, we are back to waking at least once per night and he is more frequently coming out of his room multiple times before falling asleep. Outside time is life and we live for it daily. . .but when it rains. . .we meltdown all day long, in between asking to go outside 497 times. Needless to say. . .we are all exhausted.

"Outside time is life and we live for it daily."

I am his mom, and not his therapist, so I have chosen to seek occupational therapy services to help us address these challenges. We are currently beginning our telemedicine journey with an outpatient therapist on the Ability First Pediatrics team and the OT he was seeing at school. Outpatient OT is working to address how his body takes in sensory information and how his brain puts all of that information together and forms a response. In addition, he uses the muscles on his left side more than the right which can impact his ability to plan out and imitate some actions, so we are working to help him engage the muscles on both sides of his body. He has some weakness in his hands, so the school OT is focusing more on fine motor skills like using scissors, functional grasp on a writing utensil and completing dressing tasks such as putting on his jacket and learning to manipulate the fasteners on his clothing. Basically all of the skills that impact his ability to participate at school and complete school work. I was skeptical about his ability to benefit from these sessions due to his need for control and routine, but he LOVES seeing his therapists and was laughing, sharing his toys with them and giving high fives (his highest form of compliment) through the screen! We played a fun game on a yoga ball and got some ideas for fun activities that will engage his muscles and work through some of his sensory differences.

With your children home more due to school and day care closures you may be facing some struggles through this very weird time. You may relate to the information I shared about my son. You may be noticing that school work is difficult for your child to complete in a timely manner or that his or her handwriting is illegible. You may have a child who is struggling to start or finish tasks. Perhaps your child typically wears leggings or sweatpants because they feel better or because fasteners are still tricky for him or her. Maybe your child is a picky eater and is resistant to trying new foods or maybe he is constantly licking or putting non-food objects in his mouth. With the nicer weather, you may notice your child is having difficulty riding a bike or scooter or just prefers to stay inside. Maybe your child is resistant to touching or walking in gravel, dirt or grass. Does slime make them gag or do they seek out opportunities to touch EVERYTHING? Do they have a hard time locating objects in a junk drawer or on the page of a book that has a busier picture? Are you struggling with ideas to best support your child through social distancing? Are you missing out on opportunities to participate in therapy due to statewide shut downs? Perhaps we can help.

Occupational therapists can help with a variety of difficulties that may be impacting your daily routine. Through analyzing what parts of a task are difficult and determining the underlying reason for the difficulty, an OT can tailor treatment sessions and home activities to meet the goals identified by the family. In our case, we have a combination of sensory processing and muscle weakness impacting his performance in a variety of settings and situations. We will be working to help him better manage the information coming in, build up muscles where they are weak and encourage him to use those skills in routines throughout our day in order to facilitate carry over of what was learned in therapy.

If you can relate to anything in this article or someone has recommended occupational therapy for your child, please contact us so we can discuss how we might be able to help through telemedicine now and potentially face to face when our lives return to some semblance of normal.

Lauren Jurczak graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with a Master of Science in Occupational Therapy. She has worked with Ability First Pediatrics since January 2011.