Ok I need advice..I am not sure how to handle this.
My son who is 3 1/2 has been in physical therapy since he was 6 months old both through the hospital and through Early Intervention. Once his trunk issues were resolved he was discharged for about 10 months ( we were still getting it from Early Intervention) and he started it up again when we discovered he had tightness in his ankles and wasnt where he needed to be for gross motor stuff. it been almost 2 years with the same therapist and the same time slot.
Usually we have the kids OT/PT room to ourselves which is nice because my son has both sensory and attention issues...but its also nice when there is another child in the room because it makes him work on it.
the last month or so there is another little boy about 2 years old who is autistic who gets PT before us and then has an hour of OT while we are there. The problem is that he screams bloody murder for at least half of the session. Today he was upset about something and cried/screamed for about 35 minutes of the 45 minute session.
I have worked with autistic children since college and I am friends with a lot of moms of autistic kids from EI so I know the drill and I understand that sometimes there isnt anything you can do to get them to calm down when get upset.
My issue is that every time the boy cries my son goes into sensory overload, either he gets really quiet and zones out or get hyper and goes crazy, not listening or being fresh. He is not like this at all when we are alone.
today when we got there we heard the both crying inside while we were the waiting room. He immediately said the boys name and crawled in my lap. He started to chew his nails and hum which he used to do when he was upset or tired before he started to talk ( he has a 11 month delay in speech) I asked him what was wrong and he told it was too loud..( the waiting room was quiet, so I know he meant the boy) I told him the boy was just gets sad because he cant tell us how he feels and that he is like "D" ( a boy from EI) He understood that and he was ok in the beginning in PT but you could tell that he wasnt really there or trying much...so in our 45 min PT session he really only worked about 15 minutes the rest was trying to get his attention or to do something. When we left he was really clingy, quiet and didnt talk at all the entire ride home, he came in the house and went to his bedroom and climbed into.he laid there with his blankey and he came out about 30 minutes later and he has been back to his normal self.. the same thing happened last week, he shut off all verbal communications for about 30 minutes and then slept for 3 hours! woke up fine...its like his brain cant take the overload and he just shuts off until he can process it all...
He is only scheduled to be in PT for another 5 sessions or so before his is discharged so should I just deal with it or say something.. part of me say deal with it, plus I hate to complain because I know there isnt much that can be done ( and yes they are trying to sooth him, he just cries louder...he just doesn't like to be touched which is why he is in OT in the first place. ) but since it is affecting my son so much I really cant.
I dont know how to approach his therapist. I cant talk to her while we are there because his mom is right there too and I can tell she is very overwhelmed herself and she already has apologized a million times...
I really cant change the time because everything else (speech, OT, PT at his school plus my daughter's stuff are all scheduled around this PT)
Would it be rude to bring in a set of headphones and an ipod with some songs on it to help block out the noise?
I have no idea what to do!!
My son who is 3 1/2 has been in physical therapy since he was 6 months old both through the hospital and through Early Intervention. Once his trunk issues were resolved he was discharged for about 10 months ( we were still getting it from Early Intervention) and he started it up again when we discovered he had tightness in his ankles and wasnt where he needed to be for gross motor stuff. it been almost 2 years with the same therapist and the same time slot.
Usually we have the kids OT/PT room to ourselves which is nice because my son has both sensory and attention issues...but its also nice when there is another child in the room because it makes him work on it.
the last month or so there is another little boy about 2 years old who is autistic who gets PT before us and then has an hour of OT while we are there. The problem is that he screams bloody murder for at least half of the session. Today he was upset about something and cried/screamed for about 35 minutes of the 45 minute session.
I have worked with autistic children since college and I am friends with a lot of moms of autistic kids from EI so I know the drill and I understand that sometimes there isnt anything you can do to get them to calm down when get upset.
My issue is that every time the boy cries my son goes into sensory overload, either he gets really quiet and zones out or get hyper and goes crazy, not listening or being fresh. He is not like this at all when we are alone.
today when we got there we heard the both crying inside while we were the waiting room. He immediately said the boys name and crawled in my lap. He started to chew his nails and hum which he used to do when he was upset or tired before he started to talk ( he has a 11 month delay in speech) I asked him what was wrong and he told it was too loud..( the waiting room was quiet, so I know he meant the boy) I told him the boy was just gets sad because he cant tell us how he feels and that he is like "D" ( a boy from EI) He understood that and he was ok in the beginning in PT but you could tell that he wasnt really there or trying much...so in our 45 min PT session he really only worked about 15 minutes the rest was trying to get his attention or to do something. When we left he was really clingy, quiet and didnt talk at all the entire ride home, he came in the house and went to his bedroom and climbed into.he laid there with his blankey and he came out about 30 minutes later and he has been back to his normal self.. the same thing happened last week, he shut off all verbal communications for about 30 minutes and then slept for 3 hours! woke up fine...its like his brain cant take the overload and he just shuts off until he can process it all...
He is only scheduled to be in PT for another 5 sessions or so before his is discharged so should I just deal with it or say something.. part of me say deal with it, plus I hate to complain because I know there isnt much that can be done ( and yes they are trying to sooth him, he just cries louder...he just doesn't like to be touched which is why he is in OT in the first place. ) but since it is affecting my son so much I really cant.
I dont know how to approach his therapist. I cant talk to her while we are there because his mom is right there too and I can tell she is very overwhelmed herself and she already has apologized a million times...
I really cant change the time because everything else (speech, OT, PT at his school plus my daughter's stuff are all scheduled around this PT)
Would it be rude to bring in a set of headphones and an ipod with some songs on it to help block out the noise?
I have no idea what to do!!
And to mention that you might want to post this on the disabilities board. They have a wonderful group over there that might be able to assist you better. 
I imagine your son's therapists will be a lot more understanding. I'd go with the headphones and get through the next five sessions as smoothly as possible, unless you can figure out a way to change the day or time. Good luck! It's so hard to know how to deal with these things sometimes.
