United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

Hey all. Just need some advise. My son who is 4 has a left BPI. He goes to a pre K program and receive services 5 xs a week. He get 2x OT 1x PT and 2xs speech. The last time I seen the drs from TCH they said to be careful of "burnout" because he has so many sessions. WEll this week he is acting so bad @ OT that the therapist had to come and get me. He just sat there for most of the session and wouldn't participate. He's been pretty good so far but I don't know what to do. I felt bad I punished him, and then I remember what the drs said about burnout. Maybe this is it. He just doesnt want to do his OT. So far he is still participating in speech, but she only just started. Anyone else having "bad" days/weeks. Not sure how long this will last or how long the therapist will tolerate this for. Anyone change therapist to give the kids a "change"? I am not sure what to do. Next week is a short week so he gets a bit of a break. He really does have a full plate (me too) and who blames him for having an off day. Well Thanks for listening.

My daughter is 3 yrs old. She hated having someone else tell her what to do. We got her in a special preschool and we agreed to have our daughter pick a friend to share her ot with. This has been a life saver. She now thinks of it as fun and special because she gets to pick a different friend every time she goes to OT. The other parents do not mind we did ask each family if this was a problem. This helps every one. The other child who gets picked also see it as fun.
Or you can see if the OT would do the therapy time as a group. With other children receiving services. If there are others in the same class.

I hoped this helps. Good luck with your 4 yr old.
It is a tough age

Oh - gosh burnout is bad. I don't know if you remember when this happened with us - but I fired some of our therapists when I realized she was getting more out of Kindermusik (therapy-wise) then in any of her therapy.... and I gave Maia a break. (well there was more going on - one therapist had cancer and multiple surgeries and was working during her recovery, another therapist picked up maia by her arm and another one was just a numnuts.) Instead of the therapy we swam and ran and played in the playgrounds. I watched her action movements to make sure she was getting her ROM's in and the rest we did as play in the bathtub. So she certainly got all her therapy in but just not in the 'therapy' framework. Maia truly needed the break and when we returned to it at the end of the summer, she was much happier, much more accepting and onto a different level.

The break was the best thing we did!

Good luck!
francine

My son is now seven, and looking back I can say that over the years we have gone through various periods of cooperation and non-cooperation. Much depends on the relationship your child has with the therapist. Sometimes it is just too much and the best possible thing to do is cut back on traditional therapy and sign up for swimming lessons, or therapeutic horseback riding (Ian never considered either of those things therapy, but they were!). Look for fun stuff involving other kids and good movement, and be sure to back it all up with your own at home routine.

I'm sure it is just a phase with your son, and it won't be that last, probably! Best to just go with the flow and let your son guide your actions. Don't sacrifice therapy-related activities, but just be a bit sneaky about it!

Switching therapists, even for one session, can also help. He might just be bored with the same old stuff...maybe you could be part of the therapy team (this worked wonders for us at times...mom was the target for the bean bag toss, etc.)

Good luck,
Bridget

Alice, I don't know the severity of your sons injury but it does seem maybe he does have alot on his plate or maybe I'm not getting enough PT/OT for my child??
What is to much/What is not enough? Thats something I'm sure alot of us think about freqently I know I do.
I find that there are activities I can do with Ashley that give her weight bearing & stretching without always having someone around. I think children probably get bored & tired of it just like us adults do. Ashley JUST started cooperating with PT for a while all she did was cry & resist everything they would try to do, she will be three in Jan. It got so bad at one point when she was an infant I swore I would be her PT she would scream bloody murder the entire time...I felt like I was losing my mind. I think sharing stories with each other helps us all remember that we all go through it at some point. I hope everything turns out okay & maybe he just needs a little break. Take Care, Melissa

Hi Alice,

I also have a four year old who hasn't wanted to cooperate - at all! The last two weeks I've changed the time of day for therapy, and it has really made a difference. He was too tired and ready for nap before, so now we do it in the afternoon, after nap and that has really helped. My next step was/is to try another therapist to. Let me know if you figure out something that works.... Good luck!

Patty

Wow, you've gotten some great comments already. I'll add something that has helped us. Nicole is pretty cooperative with her OT at the hospital and does very well with her Aqua PT. However, things don't go as well with the PT and OT who come to our house. I think that part of it is the setting -- she's more in control at home for sure. Recently, though, things got pretty bad and I didn't like the way she was acting toward her EI OT. She really had aggressive behavior toward the OT. I did not like seeing this side of Nicole and took it as a sign that she was trying to tell us something and that I'd better listen. We had been incorporating getting dressed into the therapy routine (thanks to an idea I got from Francine). Well, at 2 yrs, 8 months, Nicole is still very dependent upon me for this task and it is quite challenging for her. I think that she was just getting really frustrated. So, at my request, we cut the dressing out of the routine for a few visits. Then, when we started up again a couple weeks ago, I had already put her socks on for her b/c that is definitely the most challenging task at this point. It is going better so far. Eventually, we'll reintroduce the socks too, but not yet. Anyway, my point is that your son could be getting burntout as you mentioned and/or perhaps he gets frustrated at the challenges. Can you observe the sessions to get a better idea of the problem? What kind of set up is there -- do the other children see him receiving therapy or is he in a private room? If the others see him, I wonder if he is embarrassed to be having therapy with others seeing him. If it is in an open room, I think that was a great suggestion posted about having a buddy go with him. The buddy could also be a role model. He's probably more likely to do what his friend is doing than what the therapist asks him to do anyway, right? Perhaps you could also cut out one of the weekly OT sessions or reduce the PT to 2x/month. Just some thougths. Hope this helps. -Tina

hi there, I LOVED Tonis idea about bringing a friend-wayyy kewl, Ill remember that one, thanks Tony!
ummm, I think that the "lifestyle" therapy that we currently use with ZekeMax is in an effort to avoid the burnout-everything we do in life, we slow down and do carefully if it looks like something that would enhance Maxs movements or be therapeutic, like twisting the cap off a bottle, instead of doing it for him, we let him do it,helping me stir while cooking, reach for milk, hang on grocery cart- lahdeedah yopu get the picture
ofcourse this could smowball and then backfire if and when we do the saeasonal formal therapy and he has no idea of how to conform, however we havent seen that happen yet, he usually likes to go in and play- we do water therapy but thats the only formal therapy at thios time- Max will be 3 in Jan- blessings,m

One thing I noticed while reading Tina's post was the socks thing. I pre-apologise I hope you don't think I'm picking on you because I have done this too and I know you're doing a great job. I am just using that to illustrate something

I have a son who is going to be 3 in December who does not have a bpi and he still can't put on his own socks either! Or button buttons to mention another. I think sometimes we want so bad for them to be "normal" that we forget that all kids will mature at different levels and what is normal anyway??? Try to keep it fun. One thing that cracks me up whenever I see it is a t.v. comercial for that phonics game and they interview a mom who says "oh my gosh my son is 5 and still not reading!" Well that doesn't seem so abnormal to me. I think alot of kids don't pick up the reading thing until they're 7!
My son who does have a bpi does just about everything but has a hard times with certain things. Tying shoes and neckties and buttoning buttons are way up on his hate to do list but he still does them all by himself. Sometimes I wish he was still little so I could tie his shoes for him. He's not a baby anymore. It's like he turned into a teenager overnight! I think there will always be frustrations for all of our kids. I think it may make them feel a little less than perfect when they have to go to therapy all the time. Who knows about their little pschyological makeups. It really must be hard to have someone always trying to fix them. That would tick me off after awhile. I agree with Francine that you have to keep doing it but slip it in on them and by doing it yourself.
T.