OT for DVS

Donovan had an appointment with his Occupational Therapist last night. She had already spent time with him at Waldorf so this was his second time with her but the first time Mike and I had seen her in action. I felt like Donny was at a bit of a disadvantage as she got to our place a little bit late. By then he had had dinner and was winding down and in comes Ms. Whirlwind and Her Bag of Toys.

I’m not using Whirlwind in the pejorative sense--this gal was wonderful but she was a big personality and even I felt a little crowded out by her at first. It was pretty amazing to watch her work with Donny and she gave us some really great advice as well. First, she asked to go thru his toybox, which I was going to ask her to do anyhow. My suspicion that he’d outgrown a lot of the toys in there was confirmed, tho I had to remind myself that her enthusiasm for dismissing outgrown toys was in no way an accusing finger pointed at my mothering or Donny’s development--knee jerk reactions are such odd things… She also suggested that, to wean the kid off Binkston [that’s the pacifier for those of you not hip to the lingo] that we can let him have it but that we cut off the tip. Genius! I’d never heard of such a thing but it sounds like it might work. I hope that’s the pacifier equivalent of The Patch because he’s definitely hooked--tho his usage is probably the equivalent of the cigarette after dinner and maybe before that big test. She also showed us how to lead him in using phrases as opposed to single words--he responded very well to her when she did it and he seemed ok with Mike and I trying it too. She went on to say that she thought he was “very well placed” at Waldorf and that she was happy with how he was playing there and that he was “running around” and playing with his peers. BIG sigh of relief on that one: I’d pretty much talked myself into the idea that the freewheeling Waldorf style wasn’t structured enough for him but, according to what she said, its fine--better than fine, in fact.

So with all that under our belts I went on Amazon and ordered a couple new toys for the kid. We’ve been trying to keep Christmas to a dull roar this year but its coming at a time where he needs to upgrade so why not take advantage of the crazy ass sales out there?