OT update

I took Matthew to his OT screen at Bronson on Wednesday and got a few surprises.  Turns out his fine motor screen places him at a 5.3, meaning 5 years, 3 months old.  That was a bit of a surprise to me because I thought it would be much lower.  He is able to string beads, button, lace, draw shapes and line, write his name and do mazes as he should be able to do.  His area of need is his grip/grasp which came out in the 2nd percentile.  So he will receive therapy once a week to strengthen those small muscles to allow him to write better and with more pressure (right now it is very light and wispy).  To my surprise his trunk is weak, so he will also receive services to strengthen those muscles, too.  I would have never guessed because of all the running, climbing, jumping and exercise he gets.

Upon the screen, our OT noticed some "quirks" with Matthew's eyes.  When he needed to focus  and follow a line with his eyes he would look out of one eye with his head at an angle and at times one of his eyes would go cross eyed.  We noticed that he does that a lot when he eats, but they said that was normal because both eyes are focused on the fork as they should.  It is when he needs to go across the page to read that they are not working together.  When she held his head straight he would move the paper to his more dominant eye.  So, I am taking him to an optometrist on Friday for a complete eye exam and a motor evaluation.  Looks like he may need some eye therapy to get his eyes to work together.

I am so glad that we are figuring all of this before he starts school and even more thankful for insurance!  Now that his speech is where it should be, we need to get everything else working together as well.  It is not set in stone yet, but it looks like Portage will be moving to all day kindergarten and most likely all day young-fives.  My push will to have him in young-fives instead of kindergarten.  Our screening is next month and that will give us more information to where he is, especially social-emotionally.