when I asked Monkey's Occupation Therapist "why do we bring him to OT? what is the ultimate goal?" this is what I got...
we have been EXTREMELY blessed with Monkey's OT. she explains things to us as parents not as fellow therapists. she understands what she does so much that she s ABLE to explain it parent-to-parent and therapist-to-parent.
i see Monkey go to OT twice a week, every week. and the changes in him that i have seen since he started are things I had only hoped and prayed for 3 months ago. that we would see confidence from our child, the WANT to play, even his speech is better understood. putting more than to words together was something we struggled with as parents. but he is doing it!
he is doing all of these things that last year we didn't know if we would ever see or hear. we never gave up on our Monkey. and we still push him...every day. he needs us to push him.
we went for a swim play date the other day and apparently Monkey wasn't feeling very well :( but he had ASKED to go play and swim. so I took him. but when we got there he didn't want to play with the child. he normally plays that same little boy. no problems. as a matter of fact, its the ONLY child he has ever actually played WITH and not parallel to....but because of his standoffishness from, what i can only assume, was him not feeling well the child said "I don;t like you."
I know that they are just children....
I know that the child probably doesn't really know yet how words affect others.
I know that Monkey didn't feel well.
I also know that it made me feel worse than it should have.
but all the while I know that this might be just the beginning.
and I know even more now than ever that the confidence he is gaining from "playing" at OT, and the confidence we are trying to instill in him at home will keep those words out of his heart as he grows older. That is why we do OT. to help Monkey have experiences he can later refer back to to help him have confidence that he can take on a new task. when mommy and daddy and Rusty(OT) can;t be there. to give him the confidence to say "SO." and really mean it when someone says "I don't like you." because what was really being said....in that moment, was "i don't understand why you won't play with me. and I don't like it. i like YOU. but I don't like the feeling of rejection I feel because you won't play with me."
but there may be a day when someone says to my Monkey "i don't like you." and they mean it. and I want him to have all the confidence in the world to say "SO." and carry on with his day.
Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
