What can an OT help with?

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my son is autistic, diagnosed a few years ago and pretty much been left to it. he did seen an OT at reception age.

we are struggling with him massively. He has anxiety which leads to repetitive and ritualistic behaviours. He has high sensory needs, he has learning snd speech delays. He is easily dysregulated and gets ‘bored’ easily. He is struggling at school. His needs are very right now. He masks at school which leads to burn out.

could an OT help? I have some money saved up that could be used for a private OT assessment?

what sort of thing can they help with?

OT can help with sensory needs, social skills, independence/daily living skills, motor skills/co-ordination, emotional regulation…

If DS has an EHCP OT can be included in there.

Ty. He does have an EHCP however there are no NHS children’s OT’s in my area. Small chance they would fund private but this could take a long time. I’ve found an OT that could do some work with him and us soon!

What is normally available is irrelevant. If it’s in section F it must be provided even if the LA have to commission independent provision.

And if it’s in F and the LA won’t fund it you can force them via judicial review - often the threat is enough.

@JustKeepBuilding how can an OT help with social skills? I'm just at the very very start of engaging with an OT for our DS and didn't know this was a thing - I'm intrigued! Do you have experience of this? I thought it was entirely about sensory integration, in the context of ASD.

Sensory integration OT is just one part of how OT can help DC (and adults) with ASD. OTs can help with social communication, social interaction, emotional regulation and problem solving skills which will help and support social skills. Obviously everyone’s needs are different so it’s difficult to say exactly how OT could help your specific DS but for example, at a very, very basic level OTs can support the use of social stories and visual supports. Another example, OTs often support Zones of Regulation work, which isn’t solely about sensory needs although they are part of it as needs are all intertwined.

DS1 (complex needs, not ASD but in some ways present similarly) and DS3 (ASD) both have SIOT and ‘ordinary’ OT in their EHCPs.

@JustKeepBuilding thanks for the response! I clearly need to learn more about this - this is making me very excited to start working with our OT. All this sounds great :)

You might need 2 different OTs. Some will specialise in ‘just’ SIOT, so you would need another other for ‘ordinary’ OT.

CAMHS have helped me enormously to work on my daughter’s anxiety and dysregulation - would totally recommend. We’ve used an app called TacPac for OT techniques that’s been great too.

can I ask what cahms have done? My son bangs his head and cahms have not helped at all in two years that they've been involved

CAMHS helped me figure out what was causing the anxiety and devise a step by step plan so my DD could work through it. They met with me every week for about three months to discuss strategies to support emotional dysregulatiom strategies, unhelpful thinking patterns etc. They were great. My DD also had some very difficult times when we were worried she’d hurt herself and they helped me make a safety plan and told me how to get immediate help if needed.
I’m sorry you’ve not had a great experience of them - it’s just the worst thing when you see your child suffering.

Thanks all. I’ve since change my username since posting this.

we cannot get a CAMHS referral accepted as they told us they don’t work with asd children after diagnosis? They told us to go private before coming back to them too.

we are seeing an OT soon. Hopefully it will go well!

As DS has an EHCP MH support can be included in there, so if CAMHS can’t or won’t provide the support the LA must commission independent provision. Same with OT.

Even without an EHCP you could challenge CAMHS saying they have a blanket policy of not working with DC with an ASD after a diagnosis.