Tags: drugs, evaluated, health, medications, mental, paperwork, red, session, spinning, tape, timothy, wheels

Spinning Wheels during O.T. Session

On Health & Drugs & Medications » Mental Health

6,270 words with 3 Comments; publish: Fri, 14 Dec 2007 14:47:00 GMT; (90058.59, « »)

Yesterday was Timothy's first OT session. He had been evaluated almost a month ago, but with all the paperwork and red tape, he just had his first session yesterday.

I was *VERY* impressed that the therapist remembered ALOT about Timothy. She asked a lot of questions about how he handled Christmas and all.

I told her about his new trucks and how he first spins the wheels before he does anything else. She said that she could understand why it was concerning to us, but said to try not to worry about it.

During the session, she pulled out several toys -- one of which was a toy car. Timothy immediately grabbed that one and started spinning it's wheels. She would try to distract him with other toys and he would drop the car for a moment, play with something else, then drop it and go right back to the car to spin it's wheels.

While he was doing this, he was so intent. She said she could understand our concern but said maybe it was just an initial fascination with wheels.

So, it was kind of bittersweet. I am glad that she saw him do it. I always hate telling professionals all these things he does and then they don't see him do it. However, it was sad because he actually did it and it just confirmed that I'm not imaginging it at home.

Anyway, it's just something else they will be keeping an eye on. I am just so glad that our pediatrician already put him in OT so someone will be following him closely on a weekly basis.

How many of your children liked to spin wheels as infants? My 11 year old has Asperger's Syndrome and he was never a "wheel spinner".

Take care,

Connie

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  • 3 Comments
    • Connie,

      Hi! I'm replying to both of your posts. Your Timothy sounds a lot like our Noah. Now, granted, when I first entered the "world of autism", I hated people telling me that their autistic child sounded like my son because I really wanted to believe everything was okay. And I'm not saying your son is autistic, just that he sounds a lot like Noah. So, I hope I don't offend you by saying that.

      Anyway, like you son, Noah has a lot of medical issues. He was adopted at 10.5 months, had a very rough beginning, and due to a stroke at birth, he has left-hemiplegia (cerebral palsy). Noah also does/did that funny body tensing that you described. He had two EEG's that came back normal, but I could swear that they were seizures - until one of Noah's therapists said that a lot of kids stim by tensing their bodies. That was a huge letdown when we learned that. From the moment we adopted Noah at 10.5 months, he was fascinated with his hand and would wave it front of his face and wiggle his fingers. He would wave his arm (he can only use one arm) up and down when he was excited or does this muscle-man body tensing thing. He loved to flap the handles on his dresser drawers. He loved to spin the wheels on his toy cars. He never did any of this for hours - only a few minutes here and there, but several times a day.

      I'm so glad your pediatrician is on the ball. I think it's hard to diagnosis at such a young age. Noah's 26 months and no one will diagnosis him because of his background, but they all say he has autistic tendencies. Well, we're not sitting around waiting until they diagnosis him at age 4. We plan to have 2 years of therapy under our belt by then. Noah started 10 hours of ABA a week at age 19 months, went on the Gluten-Free/Casein-Free/Soy-Free diet at 19 months and started Super Nu-Thera and DMG at 24 months. We've seen great improvements, but he's still very behind, and new behaviors pop out alll the time. Just recently, he's become TOO fascinated with his drawer handles and banging cabinet doors. Tonight, we actually removed the handles off the drawers and we're going to remove the doors off our kitchen cabinets tomorrow. We also put those c-shaped foam things that keep the door from slamming shut on all the doors. He's pretty mad at us right now! We're also going to up his ABA to 20-25 hours a week. Don't know where the money's going to come from, but we'll do whatever it takes.

      My advice, and this is only advice, is to take him off dairy first, then gluten, and then soy. I bet you'll see a remarkable change. Keep him with OT. Maybe start some vitamins and don't get the MMR shot all at once. If you're going to vaccinate him, maybe do the Measles one day, Mumps a few months later, and then Rubella. You don't want to overload him. Just a suggestion.

      BTW, Noah learned to roll a car properly during ABA. Yea! No more spinning wheels. :-)

      Best of luck,

      Leslie

      Mom to Noah Partha - 26 months. Autism and Cerebral Palsy

      #1; Sat, 15 Dec 2007 16:30:00 GMT
    • my son is 4 and is also a wheel spinner...big time.. i mean even to the point... when he rolls a car.. he will lay his head on the carpet to watch the wheels spin... every car or truck he has goes on its side so he can spin the wheels.. i dont find it too alarming... his OT dident either.. good luck :bouncing:
      #2; Sat, 15 Dec 2007 16:31:00 GMT
    • My son spins everything. He first started off by spinning bowls. Then we got him a finger top and that has escalated to a collection of spinning tops. He just turned 4 and started this at 12 months. He would also spin wheels, toys, balls and anything that had an edge. Quarters were great for spinning too. I just built upon his interest. He will still spin but not as much. His interest have changed to watching Tom & Jerry videos and playing computer games. He has always loved Visual Stimulation. I will buy him stuff that has to do with that. He has several water and oil toys. He seems to do things repetatively. Last night he kept opening and shutting the place where you put a cd in the computer. He likes to have 2 computers (can you tell my husband is a computer geek) going at once with the same visual program. He loves classical music also. His favorite visual muscial thing lately is the M&M commercial. You can go to the site and play it. We have 2 computers side by side and he gets possessive over them and wants to play his M&M song. I just build upon his interest. :bouncing:
      #3; Sat, 15 Dec 2007 16:32:00 GMT