How do you decide when to stop OT? DS has

[chris s]

ASD and really bad motor skills, but he doesn't like OT. I have wondered about taking a break and just doing gymnastics or swimming, etc.. but I think it is hard to go back. We have went to OT non-stop for 3 years now and DS is 5 3/4 years old.
Thanks.
chris

[lemonjen]

This was a hard decision for us...

Ian hated PT, the Physical Therapist never commanded respect from Ian. I literally had to drag Ian to PT weekly and once there he ran the show and accomplished very little. I respectly cut ties (fired) her. I am in the process of transferring his PT care. I am a firm believer in "the right fit" and our PT was not "the right fit" for DS. Maybe, you need a new OT that will be "the right fit" for your DS. It was hard decision and we have been without PT for months. We substituted with Swimming and have seen some improvement in his core muscles (not extensive).

Anyway, that is what we did. Good luck with your decision.

Jen

[danellsar]

I was taking my ds to OT for feeding. After a year, it seemed we were spending all the time on "other" things, and only a few minutes of each session was on his feeding issues. We stopped at that point because they were SO far away, SO expensive, and they weren't actually addressing the area that we were primarily concerned about.
Ellen

[jeninnc]

well, my dd loved OT (it was play based in a gym - super fun) but we stopped when she started K.

We do gymnastics as a subsititute, but she would be fine without it. Her issues were mostly sensory based so once she got over that, it just wasn't needed.

She still asks to go. We both loved her therapist.

[trek]

Well I think it based on progress and each child. A little regression does not hurt and some activities provide a lot of what OT can provide for certain issues.

My older son Grant we stopped private OT when he began to have huge meltdowns and beg not to go-last summer when he was 8.5. He had OT from the time he was 22 months old so a looong time and both privately and at school from age 3.

My younger son Holt is 4.5 and though I want to stop, I think he needs it this summer privately since they dropping to consultative OT next school year. He cannot even hold a pencil, marker or crayon correctly and though he can write his name he throws huge meltdown whenever doing fine motor work.

Let us know what you decide.

[mckenziecat]

I took breaks with both of my kids

because the schedule with two kids in pt, st and ot was just grueling when they were young. Also, when they start school it becomes tougher to work it in. It's really an individual decision. With asd, they can theoretically do it forever but you have to decide what works for you and him. I think therapists can get in a rut for these types of kids and it becomes more the same old routine instead of goal focused. For us, we basically graduated into more "normal" things that have therapeutic value. Ds does karate, dd does ballet, they both do swim. Neither of them excel at any of it but it's fun, it's much cheaper than therapy and adds value for them. When we do therapy now it's much more surgical in the sense of having a very specific goal or goals in mind and treating for a short time period. If you're unsure whether to stop, try taking a break and see how it goes.
good luck,
beth

[LandB]

We were in a similar place and hit the natural break when we switched to the school district from EI. For us, it was a matter of examining what we thought that OT would add over and above "regular" activities with sensory payoff. We opted for regular activities (in place of both PT and OT, in fact) and so far it has worked out great. Like McKenzie, we have done a couple of rounds of targeted therapy (PT, in our case) to supplement.

The one thing I would wonder about is whether your OT is addressing social skills too; that is one thing that I think it's hard to make up for when a child has ASD. But for regular sensory/fine motor OT, I am in all in favor of taking breaks.

Lisa

[chris s]

I guess we are sticking with it for now. Mostly b/c

our OT does help us w/the IEP.

I agree with the social thing, this summer I have scheduled lots of playdates (I try to make our house/yard a lot of fun) for this reason and DS has just joined boy scouts.

Chris

[amelia1]

We took a break when DD entered school. We kept her in activities like Karate, dance, soccer. Soon afterwards though, the pedi wanted a PT eval and since then she has been doing PT for gross motor, core strength and balance. She does a lot of the similar exercises, swings, etc. as she did in OT.