12 Days & Counting: Look What Zach Made

Today at OT Zach spent some time trying to learn his colors in the beginning. He did a puzzle that had red, yellow, blue, green, and orange wood pieces. Colors are very hard for Zach and we have to use many ques to get him to pick the right color. For example we sign the colors to him - today that did not work because he wouldn't make eye contact with our hands. Today we ended up having to show him an example of the color we said, then allow him to try and find that same color with the pieces. At first he still used process of elimination by saying "dis un?" (this one) as he grabbed a hold of a puzzle piece. We did this for about 10-15 minutes before he finished it up.

Ms. Jerry is starting to put her focus on helping him to get ready for the classroom environment. Zach spent the rest of the hour doing something kind of new, he worked on coloring, cutting, and gluing. All of which are challenges for this little boy.

We are noticing more and more visual sensory issues that Ms. Jerry believes we didn't see before because there was not as much focus put on doing visual activities. Today Zach had many break downs and problems with his eyes. He would have to stop and look away, blink, rub his eyes or he would begin to slouch in his chair as he tired. Ms. Jerry let him take many short breaks to regain himself.

COLORING: I noticed lots of looking away as he colored, tight blinking, and rubbing, and rolling his eyes while doing the coloring. Also with coloring he does not yet hold a crayon properly and has limited hand/arm strength so he tires very easy while doing what most would call a "simple" activity.

CUTTING: During the cutting I noticed a lot of looking else where and much blinking. When working on the cutting he needs assistance to move his hand to make the scissors work - but he did get a hang of it enough where at one point Zach was able to do it by himself. He can not hold the paper at the same time so Ms. Jerry had to hod his hand on the paper while her other hand helped him with the cutting.

GLUING: Gluing was the easiest part. It just needed two dots of glue --- BUT watch out it got on his hands and the screams began. This is something we are well aware of and used to.

It took him a full 45 minutes to complete what I think is yet another wonderful masterpiece.
Meet Mr. Elephant.........