Fine motor skills question!

[Dingle]

I am attempting to fill out forms regarding my 3.5 yr old dd who has Downs Syndrome. We have had little input about fine motor skills and all efforts made to see the relevant OT seem to be pushed to one side!

Could anyone give my any input on what sort of things their NT children are doing. Holding cutlery, pens, scissors...etc

Thank you.

hi dingle,
my dd1 is just over 3.5

she can hold a pen - crayon - felt tip ect
she can use kiddy scissors
she can use fork and spoon but not knife
she can brush her teeth ( with supervision!)
do buttons and zippers and buckles
can use a mouse
use the remote buttons to change channel

good luck withe the form filling

My dd2 is 3 and she can
use sissors
use fork and spoon
brush her teeth
dress herself
play on cbeebies website
paint
draw faces
do zippers, poppers and buckles
can pick up bits of fluff

OMG!! and there was me so proud that she has nearly mastered pulling her pull-ups/knickers up and down!!

I actually find DD2 quite strange tbh, because I have two older disabled kids who were delayed in fine and gross motor skills, so am not use to a child being so indepenant

My NT son who is 3.5 cant do most of those things. Should I be worried?

He can
Hold a crayon ( but not properly)
Use fork and spoon
Brush Teeth
Take clothes off, not very good at getting dressed though.

my ds (3 yrs 7 months)

can hold and use fork, spoon, knife, crayon, pens (not a proper grip but in his fist), scissors (can't cut a specific line but can do a general snip!)

he can take clothes off but can't put any on
he can pull his pants up and down

he can't put on his shoes (but can take them off)
he can't do up any fastenings other than velcro (like zips, buttons, buckles)

hope that helps

dd (almost 4) can
use scissors
do dot to dots and tracing
hold pencil and colour
use fork and spoon
brush her teeth
dress herself, but not tried buttons, put coat on
thread small beads onto elastic
use computer mouse
build Duplo houses
manipulate small character figures

dd will be 4 in sept, so older than 3.5
and cori - all kids are different as you know I"m sure! please don't be worried
and dingle - you should be v proud of your dd with the pull up and pull down business!

Thanks everyone!

and hana, I am very proud of whatever she achieves! Form filling is cr*p, you have to look at so many negatives, even when she is doing so well in her own way.

Amelia has a global delay, so she is delayed in a lot of areas. But breaking it down makes me feel so guilty, thinking I should have done more work on this or more work on that...but I only have so many hours in the day.

Amelia even helped me get dressed this morning, I got her to threadle my belt through the belt loops of my trousers! She just looked so proud of herself!

Dingle

We saw the OTs a few weeks ago (for the first time in 12 months!), and I got a copy of the report through the post the other day. They had attached a booklet with some worksheets of age appropriate things (which always makes me laugh when a child has developmental delay - but hey, at least this OT is trying) to practice with dd. Anyway, I was just thinking that if you wanted me to, I could copy them and post them on to you.

CAT me if you think it would be of any help.

MandM that would be great. We have had no OT input at all and she is 3.7 now! My friend, whose had a little 4 yr old boy with DS, had just attended an OT group session. She was told that her was too far behind the rest of the group and it was unfair on the others for him to attend!!! They then asked her why her EP hadn't given any advise on fine motor skills- what's an EdP !! [sarcastic emoticon]

Sorry, rant over! I will CAT you!
Thank you.

Ok Dingle. Marley is 4 yrs 2 months, so they should be fairly relevant to Amelia.

Look forward to hearing from you.

dingle - didn't mean for you to think that I thought you weren't proud of your dd (does that make sense?!)
lots of luck with your forms and hope she gets what she needs

I know hana !!

I am probably feeling a bit guilty because I have spent more time on gross motor skills and Speech & Language, her 2 worst areas. That, together with not having any proffessional advice about fine motor skills. I don't really know how to tackle it!

I know you need this information for your forms but I always think with any child focus on what they CAN do..nothing is negative with children.Evrything they do is a wonderful achievment!!!
Has your health visitor given you any advice?
Look in The red book!!!!!! Is there a website for downs? maybe that could help you?

With no disrespect to my HV, but she is very limited in any knowledge about DS! We have a local DS group that has been built up over the last year or so, but nearly all the other members have babies and there is no one really for me to get info from!
We are fundraising ATM to build up a resource library so that the parents can share books, DVDs, video, tapes...So it may be that we need to decide upon a list of priorities and buy a book on the subject at some stage. Proffessional OT input seems so unreliable, even more so than SALT and that is saying something!

Unfortunately, you have to look at all the negatives for these forms, they don't want to hear that Amelia can now do this, or that!They actually make you compare what she is doing against another child of her age. That is why I so want to get all this form filling completed so that we can sit back and enjoy both our children to the full, whatever they can or can't do. I love them for who they are, not because they can cut with scissors! I hope all that waffle makes sense!

Makes perfect sense. If you have to compare with a non downs baby then would a child development book do the trick. I think all this 'normal' stuff is rubbish. I have 5 children and they all did things at a different time so what is the norm!!! Who decides?
Good luck with the forms and as you say you can then go on to enjoy your beautiful babies as the little individuals thay are.

Dingle - Did you remember to CAT me? Just logged on at work and there isn't a message from you. I'm feeling very neglected now ()

Anyway, if you do still want the info, just let me know. I've brought it in with me to photocopy anyway (just don't let my boss know!)

I DID!!! It never came back with any weird messages or anything. Please don't feel neglected I would stilllove a copy, but don't get into trouble at work!.

I'll CAT you again from my main email addy, if nothing appears, email me on dinglecards at yahoo dot co dot uk.

Thank you!