Therapy for kids with mild to major motor issues

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http://www.clevelandjewishnews.com/articles/2006/04/07/news/local/cth

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Therapy for kids with mild to major motor issues

By: ELLEN SCHUR BROWN, Editor, Family Section

Occupational therapist Barrie Galvin helps Cadee improve gross motor

functions like swinging. Some children don't like the unstable

feeling of movement.

Seven-year-old Cadee is swinging from a tire swing, squealing with

laughter.

" Look, I'm Superwoman, " she calls as she spins and whirls around the

room.

Given the thick mats on the floor, she could be in a gymnastics

studio. Or at a day care center with toys and games lining the room.

Or in a party room with a mural of a tree painted along an indoor

climbing wall and a pillow pit sunk into the floor.

The therapy room of occupational therapist Barrie Galvin in

Beachwood is all these things and more. Her type of therapy is about

functioning in daily life.

Galvin works with a team of therapy and psychological professionals,

treating children with issues ranging from neurological syndromes as

severe as autism to typical children with mild motor planning

issues.

Cadee, a pudgy child with a pixie haircut, has Asperger syndrome, a

high-functioning form of autism; she needs help with her gross motor

skills. When she first started OT (occupational therapy), she

couldn't swing, skate or slide. She dodged any activities that

weren't on firm ground because she didn't like that " unstable "

feeling, explains Galvin.

" Now she can climb up a slide, hop off a step onto the floor, ride a

bike ... and she skips beautifully. "

Everyday mastery

Many youngsters don't have a severe syndrome — they just need help

overcoming a mild behavioral or motor issue.

Like fear of riding a bicycle.

Other children need help with social issues like taking turns and

making friends.

These kids might not understand social cues. They can't interpret

facial expressions that indicate delight or disappointment. Using

play, they must be trained, explains Galvin, how to tell by looking

if their friend is happy or sad.

Other children might need help regulating themselves when they get

over-excited. They can't control their emotions and get hysterical

over everything.

The therapist may suggest ways a youngster can deal with anger, like

going to a quiet room, says Galvin. Once a child learns other

strategies about how to be upset, it delays the first impulse — at

least for little things.

Therapists are starting to see more children with " sensory

integration " issues, a relatively new way of describing kids

who " respond differently " to their environment. They may complain

about itchy clothes or noises that are too loud.

" This is a child who just marches to a different drummer, " Galvin

explains. " Their nervous system is out of sync, and they can't

master daily sequences or tasks easily. " She recommends the book The

Out-of-Sync Child by Carol Kranowitz.

Understanding the problems children feel can be a relief for

everyone in the family.

" Parents may blame themselves or the child, but it's really just how

their brains work, " she says. " We call them glitches; it's an

interference " that prevents the child from translating a message,

processing information, or making his body work.

These behaviors are often misdiagnosed as a " lack of discipline in

the family " or as attention deficit disorder.

Parenting programs

In addition to her private OT practice, Galvin also founded the

Galvin Educational Resource Center for Families, GERCF, a nonprofit

foundation to bring new information and new, non-traditional or

holistic therapies to Cleveland.

The center hosts a monthly lecture series on topics from diet to

vaccinations. A three-part course called " Floor Time " teaches

parents how to get down on the floor and play. The developmental

listening center helps children with auditory processing disruptions.

One night, a group of 30 parents and educators came to learn how to

write a social story about something the child needs to do or might

fear.

Parents wrote their own stories at the workshop because the best

stories are parent-written and personalized for each child.

Lauri Ross's daughter wouldn't go to big holiday dinners. " It was

too overwhelming, " she says. So Ross created a scrapbook of family

photographs that covers all things that might happen at the holidays

like who will be there and what foods they'll eat.

When it gets to be too much, Ross offers options of good behavior,

like " It's OK to want to go into a quiet room. "

The book was such a success, Ross reports, that she made a series of

books with her daughter as the star, including going to a birthday

party and starting preschool.

For some children, typical tools like bribes and timeouts just don't

work, explains Galvin. Rather than getting angry or calling the

child " stubborn, " parents just need a new set of tools.

" It's a journey of understanding where the child is coming from, so

parents can establish an environment that makes things easier on the

child. "

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