Quiet OT Schreiber Visits

River has been visiting in the OT dept, working with an 11 year old girl, a friend of ours, who is suffering from selective mutism. She talks at home to her family, but not to other people in general, at least adults. She has not spoken to the therapist or student interns at Schreiber. I believe that she sometimes uses sign language with them, but not consistently. Her older sister is friends with Amanda, and she sees Bernie (Occupational Therapist, whom we met at Schreiber, when we were visiting Pink Girl in PT.) She has been to our house and likes the dogs; enjoys having them do tricks for her and she usually talks to Amanda, if I am not present. So we suggested that River and Amanda might be a good addition to her OT therapy.

I wish I could say that the desire to have River do tricks got her to speak to him, but it's not true. She has interacted with River using hand signals - darn dog knows nonverbal signals for all tricks and actually responds better to those most times. I usually stay out of the area and let Amanda handle River. She has said a few words to Amanda when the therapist steps away. She has spoken to Amanda and her sister over Skype. She did speak to me once when here, when she needed a bandaid and Amanda/sister refused to ask for her.

The therapist has been very inventive. She understands working with a dog. They have used obstacle courses, running with a scooter, both put handprint/pawprint on the wall. She has also incorporated her own young daughter over the summer. There has been laughter and participation in the activities, but not speaking. So far.

Schreiber - PT & OT Double Dipping

Visit with Pink Girl, then asked to skip next week.
Impromtu visit with Kristin & Teen Boy.

These are the notes I typed to jog my memory when I play catch up on blog posts. Hmm, it's almost 3 weeks later, so....

I know we had a visit with Pink Girl where she was not in a cooperative mood. I mostly recall that the session needed to be on a tighter schedule as she was headed to her next therapist immediately afterward. Megan asked us to skip next week, perhaps to evaluate River's motivational effectiveness. That turned out to be the week, she cancelled and we missed the message. Well, after her visit, we acted on impulse.

Since we were done in half an hour and I had spotted Teen Boy going down the hall to OT, we popped in there to say hello and see if a visit was wanted. We had been asked to see him a few weeks ago as a one-time thing and I think it was very well received. Both he and Kristin, his therapist seemed happy to see us. I was careful to check with her and not be intruding on her plans, but also happy that it worked out. Teen Boy, with a little encouragement, enjoyed putting River through his paces of tricks. He remembered most of them and was eager to get out the "wobbly" tunnel. He most enjoyed seeing how many tricks he could get out of one treat reward. Kristin used the situation to have him participate and not back out - literally as well. He tended to keep backing away from River, off the mat; when she blocked him by standing behind him, he was able to stay put. It was fun for us, too, to see River being so openly enjoyed.