Your Friendly OT

I have a lot of kids – five to be exact – and they keep me on my toes. When you have a gang of children you sometimes get the false impression that you know what you’re in for by the time you’re raising your third child. That assumption, however, is false. At least it was in my case. Our oldest, James, practically came out of the womb talking and reading. Hitting every milestone right on time if not before. Calm, helpful, good listener, a little bossy – typical oldest child. Our second, Katie, in typical second child fashion, was wild and untethered. Always looking for where the fun is – friend to everyone. She hit her milestones a little behind her brother, especially in the area of speech development, so she saw a speech therapist when she was little and she graduated from speech therapy when she was 3. Two children in, we had experience with both a child hitting milestones on time and one hitting a few of them later. When our third, Shawn, came along and was lagging behind in a few developmental areas we thought we knew just what to do. Step 1: Call Child Find. Step 2: Set up a screening. Step 3: Start therapy. We followed the steps, expected a speech therapy referral, and thought we knew what we were doing. But at the screening they saw some more things than just a speech delay. They set us up with an Occupational Therapist to help with some life skills, and she told us that she saw all the signs of sensory processing disorder. We had never even heard of it. She patiently explained it to us and got us connected with some great resources and ideas for ways to help Shawn. But the best resource I have ever found to help him is Charla Holst. She’s my cousin and an OT so when we got the diagnosis I knew I would have to talk to her about it. Through the years she has given us so many resources, ideas and activities for him. But the most important thing she’s taught us is how to advocate for him. How to make sure he can be included with the assistance he needs. How to love him well. How to stand up for him even when it’s hard. She has helped us move mountains for him. Just in case you were curious about the Friendly OT behind this ministry; I know she will move mountains for you too.

(Just in case you were doing the math and wondering about my other two children. They are twins, Maggie and Sarah, and I could tell you so many stories about them. Both of them briefly did speech therapy; which they graduated from when they were two. But the best way to sum up their personalities is the way the nurses did at the hospital when they were born: Sarah Serene and Maggie the Mouth!)