My son had some issues with pressure on the brain and now has a shunt. We don't know what the pressure could have damaged. He is doing really well in most areas.
He was sent for an OT evaluation for temper tantrums and transition issues at one theray clinic but I am on a waiting list for a spot. I called another Pediatric therapy clinic which has openings and they asked if he needs behavioral therapy instead. I didn't know there was a difference. I want my son to get as much help as he needs to do well in school. Right now he has a fit about almost everything.
Now I am totaly confused!
Thanks to everyone for their responses and suport!!!
The public school offered us a 2 1/2 hour program four days a week through the early intervetion program. I work so it was hard to get him back and forth to school. We decided to do his therapy at an outside clinic. Also my son does well in the daycare he is at right now. It is very routine for him but at home and to and from daycare he is sometime uncontrolable. Now he is 3 1/2 and I can barey carry him and tote my one year old around. I need help!!
He has physical therapy since his brain issue at one year old. I think because the physical weakness is notitable they focused on that and the temper tantrums were normal for a two year old (excpet that he use to throw himself down and hit his head). Now we are getting more concerned about the behavioral issues because they are not going away even though they have gotten somewhat better.
I think we got OT sugested because of the sensory overload and because the place we go for PT does not offer behavioral.
I have an appointment at North Shore Pediatric Therapy next week so I am hoping they can help us figure out what he needs. They have been very nice on the phone.
The only problem is that they are out of network for our insurance so it will be a big expense, but these kinds of bills are why I still have to work.
OT is occupational Therapy.. more with making sure he can Do the things you need to do in life. Therapy designed to enable the individual to work with their arms and hands. Behaviorial therapy is more designed to work with temper tantrums and correcting his behaviorial problems in a set way. I would definitely make sure you are getting the right thing.
C.
If you'd like another consult, I highly recommend North Shore Pediatric Therapy. They have physical, occupational, speech and Behavioral therapy offered. The therapists I've met and the staff are excellent--right down to the woman who does the billing! the website is www.NSPT4kids.com they have four locations in the city and suburbs. the suburban number is ###-###-#### another evaluation couldn't hurt, and they can integrate both kinds of therapy for him in one place. Good luck!!
J., I can see why the office was confused (and why you are!). OT is Occupation Therapy-- therapy which deals with fine motor skills (movements of hands, etc., whereas physical therapy deals with gross motor skills like walking). IT would have nothing to do with temper tantrums, as far as I know. Behavioral therapy would. Behavioral therapy is a therapy that specifially addresses undesirable behaviors in counseling. Occupational therapy is for physical problems, and behavioral therapy is for mental health. I would clarify with your doctor! H.
OT can be many things. First of all Occupational Therapists have a Masters Level education a Behavioral Therapist requires only a Bachelors Level. OT doesn't only deal with fine motor and gross motor in the upper extremeties, but also work with a child's behavior, associated to stimuli (loud, bright, sticky, etc). Now if your son is having cognitive issues a Speech Language Pathologist might be needed. My suggestion is for you to call your school district and have him screened. I believe it is called a Dial Screening. They should assess his needs and provide you with a therapist through your school. If you choose to use another therapist, you can do that too. Have you called Easter Seals? They are usually very helpfull. If you haven't already Alexian Brothers Rehab might have some suggestions. Also the Rehab Institute of Chicago should have outpatient locations in your area. You can check out their websight. I know Childrens Memorial was hard to get into. I take my daughter to BDI playhouse, but that is in Orland Park. But I do have to say they are awesome there.
Best of Luck to you and if you have any other questions, you can contact me at ____@____.com
J.,
My son goes to The Rainbow Center for his PT and my daughter did too. They are wonderful. It is in North Aurora. If you want the number let me know. I know how hard this is. How old is your son? Just let me know if you are interested and I will give you the contact info.
S. Bailey CLD
Aurora
www.tendermomentsdoula.com
I have a background in social work with children, and my understanding of OT (occupational therapy) is to work on improving an individual's fine and gross motor skills through many different techniques.
Behavioral therapy is targeting the behavior.
My strongest recommendation is that you contact Tuesday's Child, ###-###-####. They are located in Chicago on Irving Park Rd. just off of I-94. They have programs on Tuesdays, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday mornings. They work with families and their children to evaluate and assess and then work on a plan to 1) give parents techniques to use in the home to improve behavior, and improve the overall relationship. My son was having some behavior issues and their program completely turned him and myself around. Their assessment team is amazing as well as the on staff psychologist. I now continue to volunteer there because I believe that it is such an awesome program.
I am a neuropsychologist and have worked with many occupational therapists. They do wonderful work but you are talking about two different issues. OTs work with (typically) upper body motor issues. Think arms, fingers movements, range of motion, etc. They also focus on issue of activities of daily living (feeding, dressing, bathing yourself, etc). Behavioral therapy has nothing to do with these issues. It will address the root cause of the tantrums and teach you how to reduce the frequency and severity of them. Behaviorist specialize in seeing what reinforces a behavior and what alternate behaviors need to be taught to reduce the target behavior (in this case tantrums). I don't have a good recommendation for you but Alexian Brothers has a very large psychology dept and I am sure they can help you out. Good luck.
J.-
I just typed in both OT and BT on my search bar and got these 2 websites
kidshealth.org/parent/system/ill/occupational_therapy
healthatoz.com/healthstoz/Atoz/ency/cognitive-behavioral_therapy.jsp
As a former special ed teacher, stick to your guns. Do what you think is right and probably the most importan thing---EDUCATE YOURSELF!!!! Do not go into meetings trusting that the school is one an expert and two doing what is completely appropriate for your child. You know your child best.
Not that schools do not want to help you! They are overworked with too many child with special needs and who could possibly be an expert at everything and two they have limited monies and resources. Be sure to do your homework. Your son maybe only 3, but he may already qualify for specail education services through your school.
Hope I gave you some help
K.
Hi J.,
I can understand your frustration. OT is Occupational Therapist. They deal primarily from the trunk (of the body) up, including the arms and hands. An OT will work to increase the function of the muscles in these areas for daily activities of life. My son recieves OT, because of he has left hemiparesis. He had an inutero stroke and essiencially lost function of the entire right side of his brain. He has some frontal lobe damage also. This section of the brain is where the emotions, reasoning, ect. are located. Therefore, my son also struggles with frustion, and aggression, becoming easily upset, and so forth. We haven't been referred to a behavioral therapist, but I am interested in looking into it. I would appreciate if you would let me know what you find out, and how it works for your little guy. Good Luck.
J.
J. -
I am surprised that a clinic would recommend behavior therapy without even seeing your son. the things you describe coudl be a result of a variety of things and many if not all ( I don't know your son) coudl be helped with OT. Behavioral therapy will look at everything he does as a behavior that must be chnged. It will not take into account anything that may be impacting him physically or neurologically. The therapy is completely geared to correct behavior.
ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) is typically used for children with autism, PDD or similar diagnoses. The goal is to use operant training to correct behavior, not unlike how you would train a dog - reward good behvior ignore or deter bad behavior. It does nothing to get to the underlying issues that may be impacting your son because ABA beleives that all behavior comes as a response from teh environment. So, if he's tantrumming, then there wmust be some kind of reward he's getting for it, or the behavior woudl stop. See? http://www.abainternational.org/
OT, OTOH, has a chance of really helping your son with what might be causing the behavior. here is some info on ABA. I think I already emailed you, recommending Amy Zier's clinic in Libertyville (www.amyzier.com). I could also recommend Michele Ricamato's clinic in Carol Stream ###-###-####. They are great and will treat your child as a special individual.
If you think your child has issues beyond sensory, you may want to check out Floortime, another intervention used for children with developmental delays and for those on the spectrum. It is much more comprehensive, works on social/emotional development, cognitive development, and will also work to help with theunderlying sensory or other issues that may be impactingyour child. We do this therapy, along with OT, with my twin boys. I may have told you that one had sensory integration disfuntion, and one PDD. Both are doing great.
You can check out some information on floortime at www.floortime.org and at www.chicgofloortimefamilies.com.
The first thing I would do is get the results of your eval. And, I'd get into a good clinic that really specializes in sensory issues. They should be able to guide you from there, and to recommend othe rtherapies, Wiht floortiem you coudl do that intervention with anyone - I do it with my some who has no issues. But, ABA, is anoher beast. I'd look into that carefully before you pursue it.
Good Luck! Feel free to email back if you have any questions.
R.
P.S. You may also want to look into hyperbaric oxygen treatment. I don't knowanything about your son's situation, but it has helped many kids with brain damage and with neuroligical or other issues.
Did you ever receive services through EI? Once your child turns 3 they can be evaluated through the school system. If he qualifies they will have a public program to help with delays and difficulties he may be having. Getting several opinions from pediatricians helps too!! Good Luck!!
Hi J.!! Occupational therapy wors to soothe an overly taxed or sensitive nero-system.. They assess to see if the kid overreacts physiologically to outside stimuli. They use a lot of physical tricks to do this, and it looks like a lot of play and they also stimulate different areas in gentle ways to help the child develp the ability to develop less sensitivity to all the stimulation coming in that other children are able to naturally block out.
Behavior therapy is for children and parents to enable them to use very specific techniques to help both the kid and the parent to use reinforcement systems to change the behvaior of the child. We use a lot of charts, talking to both the kid and the parents, setting goals, and working on "discipline" to help everybody stay calm and enble the kid to compy more with expectations.
A lot of times, kids with brain issues need BOTH,and as a psychologist, I recommend that you see an Occupational therpay group and a child psychologist in the area to help out. it works!!
Dr. J.
Hi J.,
I want to start off by saying I am not a professional but I am a mom of a boy who has had an OT evaluation. As best as I understand OT deals with more of the hand eye coordination concepts where as Behavioral Therapy would deal more with aggression and other emotional issues. It's hard to say what your son needs more without knowing more about his "issues" as they like to call it.My son went to Rainbow center in North Aurora for his therapy and I can highly recommend them. They are right off I-88 tollway. Let me know if I can help with anything else.
Y.
SAHM of 3 boys 10,7,4 who keep me going and going and going....
Hello! my name is M.! I believe OT is for helping people to do the activities of daily living working with or through a dissability. It is not just the dissability it self , but the feelings and problems that occur in the process of doing those activities. For example I had a home care client who went to OT twice a week , she had gone as far as she could on rehabilitation, but the OT therapist help her find other ways to work around the obsticles of daily living. She is in her 40's and would angry outburst at first ,but after OT she did much better.
Behavioral Therapy focuses on redirecting the unwanted behaviors, giving the child the tools to recognize the negative behaviors and to change it to a positive behavior( By using positve reinforcement in therapy as well as at home). This is also sometime called Cognitive Behavior Therapy. This sort of therapy is usually prescribe by primary care doctor. I am no expert , but I have taken few of classes in this subject. I belive the University of Chicago has a program for adults, they may also have something for children.
Well I hope this helps you out some!! any other questions feel free t email me ____@____.com
OT is occupational Therapy. The therapist works with fine motor skills.
