I recently read an article from the New York Times that
appeared several years ago about parents in New York City, particularly in
Brooklyn, hiring occupational therapists for preschool children. The article states, “In
affluent neighborhoods in and around New York, occupational therapists have
taken their place next to academic tutors, psychologists, private coaches and
personal trainers — the army that often stands behind academically successful
students.” (TYRE, 2010) There were 115 comments attached to this
article, many commenting on overly anxious parents or parents pushing their
children to get an edge. Others
commented on how observant some parents are, noticing small problems, and
addressing problems early on. Any of
these comments may or may not be true.
What I do know is this, if small issues are not addressed early on, they
can and often will become major issues later on and more difficult to
address.
Children develop at
different rates. There is never a
distinct day or time that your child will do something. Take for example, walking. According to the CDC, your child should be
walking independently by 18 months. Yet
we have seen children walk at 10 months and 12 months. Does that mean that your child is motorically
gifted? Probably not. So from this we can assume that there is at
least a range of time in a child’s life when we should expect a child to begin
walking. Once outside this range, we
should be asking questions of the doctor.
This range of development
occurs within fine motor skills, as well.
The CDC lists many of these items under the heading of Cognitive
(learning, thinking, problem-solving).
Under this heading are motor skills that an occupational therapist would
address, such as using one hand more than the other (handedness), sorting,
pointing (finger isolation), stacking (eye-hand coordination), throwing a ball,
copying lines, etc. All of these items
are listed in the 2 year old section of their developmental checklist. What is also listed in this checklist is when
to be concerned and talk with your doctor.
http://www.cdc.gov/NCBDDD/actearly/pdf/checklists/All_Checklists.pdf
Now look at the flip side
of this issue, gaining an edge. I was
speaking with a colleague, a psychologist, at lunch the other day. I had been considering writing on just this
topic for my next blog post. We both
agree that there is a range in which a child should accomplish developmental
milestones. We also agree that pushing a
child may backfire and frustrate the child because the brain may not be ready. The brain will help a child accomplish a task
when the brain is developed enough to handle the task. While the basic structures are present at
birth, the experiences [motor, cognitive, sensory] that a child has along with
the actual physiological maturation of the brain further develop to increase the speed, efficiency, and
complexity of signals in the brain which then allows the child to accomplish
more difficult tasks. In a fairly
typically developing child, when the brain is ready, the task will occur and
not before.
So as an occupational therapist, I might work on hand strengthening and finger isolation to help a young child to eventually develop a tripod grasp for a crayon. Let’s just say that this did not occur adequately before kindergarten. It may not be such an issue this year but when a student is challenged to keep pace with his or her peers in handwriting in subsequent years, it most definitely will. Reaching middle school with handwriting problems just compounds the already difficult tasks, of taking notes at the same pace with peers, and writing legibly to express what they have learned. Can you imagine, knowing that your child studied and knew this information but failed the test because his teacher was unable to read what was written?
Can you imagine
thinking that your child is brilliant at an early age because he or she is ambidextrous?
But in fact, has not developed a preferred hand which may be an early indicator
of dyslexia. Is it a sure sign of
dyslexia? No. Only someone skilled in child development can
determine if this is a problem or not.
So, I recommend
that parents use the CDC Act Early Checklist to monitor a child’s
development. Keep in touch with your
doctor and if concerned, ask the pediatrician to evaluate your child. An occupational therapy evaluation does not
require a prescription but services do.
Progress reports should be expected and shared with the
pediatrician.
Acting early,
helps your child be as successful as he or she can possibly be. Once in school, having a child pulled from
class for therapy can be embarrassing and frustrating. He or she may be very receptive to services
when young but very resistive when in a school setting, particularly middle and
high school. I have developed programming
to address these needs [http://www.mseleanorsapples.com/Fine-Motor-Skills.html]
and offer a free 30 telephone consult for any questions or concerns.
Bibliography
TYRE, P. (2010, February 24). Watch How You Hold
That Crayon. Retrieved from N.Y. Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/25/fashion/25Therapy.html?pagewanted=all&_r=2&
