Pediatric clinic

A couple of weeks ago I spent a day with an OT in a pediatric clinic. Each child we saw is a story in itself, but I'll stick to just one. A 1st grade boy I'll call Marcus came in with his mother for the first time.  The four of us headed into a small room where the OT could get some information from his mom while observing what Marcus was like. I quickly observed that Marcus was a bright boy with a large vocabulary for his age. He also had a ton of energy, went at a faster speed than most and the volume was rather loud. The toy trucks and cars were flying across the floor and the table mat. I figured if the rest of us were going to remain sane, he might need some help staying somewhat in control so I got down on the floor to play with him. As we built several things with legos and played with the trucks, I was listening in on the conversation with the mother. Not surprisingly Marcus had a hard time paying attention at school. He also had a hard time getting to sleep.

After all the questions were asked we head out to the big room where the OT checked his coordination and ability to do things like hop, skip, stand on one leg, jump and run. She also verified that he could sense where his body was in space. Before she finished, she had him lay down on his stomach and she rolled an exercise ball up and down his legs and back as she put pressure on it. Marcus said she was being a masseuse. Then he sat up and the OT did joint compressions. That  involves pushing the two parts of the major joints together. You don't pull them apart, just push in 10 times fairly rapidly for each joint. (Google it for demonstration videos.) She did the shoulder, elbow, and wrist of each arm and then the hips, knees and ankles. When we headed back into the little room Marcus was a different kid. He actually crawled under the mat table and laid down. Somehow those last two activities had slowed him down.

I was telling one of my friends about my day. She has a daughter who has a hard time winding down at the end of the day and getting to sleep. For the past several evenings my friend has been doing joint compressions on her before she goes to bed and it's made a big difference. Nobody really knows why they work, but for those they help don't really need an explanation.