First OT Session

Hannah finally had her long awaited first OT session and it was glorious. I am so excited and hopeful for what is to come. The OT introduced us to a technique that she felt would be beneficial to Hannah called The Wilbarger Brushing Protocol and joint compressions. When she first did it to Hannah she visibly relaxed and just seemed more comfortable than she had been all morning (it was another rough morning!). She kept requesting that we do it more and more and gladly sat while I did it to her before nap time. Once again she seemed much more calm after the brushing. The technique uses this funny looking plastic brush with flexible bristles. What I am supposed to do is firmly brush up and down her arms, hands, legs, and back with the brush every two hours and follow each brushing session with joint compressions to her wrists, elbows, shoulders, hips, knees, and ankles. I think Hannah likes the joint compressions the best. I am really hoping that this will help Hannah and that today wasn't just about the novelty of it for her. I'll keep you all posted on how she's doing. We are also going into the OT facility on Monday to try out several of their swings. Another possible thing we might try is something called therapeutic listening. I don't know much about it at this point, but the OT thinks it also might be helpful for Hannah. I'm game to try anything that might help. I'm going to do some research on the therapeutic listening though since I've never really heard anything about it.

Here's my autism blogger for the day Good Fountain. She writes about her daughters Charlotte (formerly known as Chee) and Sarah (formerly known as Ess). Charlotte is currently in the process of receiving an autism spectrum diagnosis. She brings up many wonderful thoughts and emotions related to dealing with parenting a child on the spectrum as well as one who is neurotypical. She always makes me smile. Go check her out.