From the looks of my inbox and social media DMs, my first post about our play therapy journey resonated with many of you - some who have traveled this road and others who are exploring this option for their little ones.Β
I am by no means a therapist - not even close - but I am a mom of a sensory challenged child who's learning the ropes right along side my kidΒ with the help of therapists. So I'm picking up where I left off in this first post about how we moved forward from an awkward break up with therapist No.1, how we navigated that transitionΒ with myΒ son and where we're at now in the process with occupational therapy (OT.)Β
I ended the previous Part 1 post mentioned the fact that Anderson's first therapist (of 5 months) was unexpectedly let go. One morning I was emailing with her about a parent check-in and by the afternoon I had been told she was no longer with the practice. My mind immediately went to WTF just happened? What does this mean for Anderson? Will we basically be starting at square one with therapist #2? How will he handle this because transition is hard!Β
I consulted a fellow friend/neighborhood mom, Liz, who also happens to be in the therapy realm andΒ while she talked me off the ledge, she also gave me some of the best adviceΒ on how to talk to Anderson about this transition.Β
She told me to treat it like a graduation. For example -"Anderson - you'reΒ doing so well at play therapy with {therapist No.1} that you've graduated! We are so proud of you!!! Next week you'll start to see {therapist No. 2}. Congrats, buddy!"Β
Without skipping a beat, we began meeting with Therapist No. 2 (within the same practice) and she had me in the room with them during Anderson's sessions from day one and what a difference it made! I was able to see what she reacted to and what she didn't, how she talked with Anderson and every week she'd take time to explain to us a process, theory or how we could implement something at home during that week. She was amazing and I learned so much from her - more than I ever thought I would. Play therapy at his age is just as much for the parent as it is for the child.Β
After 5 or 6 months more with play therapy, we reached a point where the play therapist had done all she couldΒ do and it was time for us to transition to occupational therapy. Play therapy identified the challenges (more on that in Part 3) while occupational therapy would come in and teach us tools and tricks to help AndersonΒ through those challenges.Β
In today's society, we want quick fixes. We're used to quick fixes. But quick fixes aren't always the answer. We're now a year into our child therapy journey and we still have a few months left with OT.Β
Speaking of OT,Β our occupational therapist comes to the house once a week for a 45 minute session. She has a ton of tricks in her bag of activities for Anderson to do to help him with his sensory challenges and teaches me how to incorporate those activities into his everyday routine to widen his "just right/happy medium" window so that his anger meltdowns less in frequency and severity.Β
Part 3 is up next where I'll share his actual "diagnosis" as well as referrals for the two agencies we've used for both play therapy and OT and I'll finish it off with suggestions of what activities work best for us and a couple of books worth scoring on Amazon if you find yourself in this same boat.Β
