OT appointment - low tone

[2Siobhan]

Last week ds had his first ot appointment. During the appointment I was given some forms to fill out while she played/assessed ds. When she was finished she asked me some questions and then said she would be in touch with some feedback so I left feeling a little puzzled as I thought she might have said something to me. Anyway she just rang and I was caught a bit off guard as dd was crying and I was trying to cook lunch and she said that she agreed with myself/nursery/salt that ds did appear low toned and that she would visit him at his nursery and sort out some exercises for him. Anyway I am still a bit confused. I have done a little research and from what I have read it says that it is a symptom? If this is the case will they/should I expect further tests? I feel upset that I finally got ds seen by ot and I still feel in the dark. The thought that this is could be due some brain, nerve or/and muscle damage is upsetting and I feel to blame as I have him early xx

Hi,

my son also has low muscle tone, this is due to neurodevelopmental delay. This could be a good starting point for looking at causes of low tone.

my dd aged 5 also has low tone and asd along with m/s learning difficulties.

My DS2 has just been diagnosed as having low tone, this afternoon, by a physiotherapist who he was referred to by OT. He has autism and has had a lot of motor delays but there can very often be no obvious cause.

Whatever the pathology behind it, you are not to blame.

Low tone can have many causes: the main thing is that you are on OT (and hopefully Physio) books so can get therapy in place to help make the most of your ds's abilities

Hi my DS has low muscle tone and hypermobility. Apparently there can be a link between this and disorders such as dyspraxia and ASD in the sense that children with ASD etc often have low muscle tone.

There are a variety of other reasons for it though.

I understand that, with boys, things get better as they get older as their 'boy muscles' kick in and they get stronger. Or that is what the paed told me.

DS is very floppy and bendy and finds it hard to sit up straight for long.

low tone doesn't have to be to do with developmental delay though

dd has low tone as part of her hypermobility syndrome (a connective tissue disorder)

she has had no delays apart from the ones caused by the fact that her joints bend the wrong way

My dd has areas of low tone - trunk primarily. We've found physio and OT to be really helpful and we do lots of strengthening exercises in play. dd is 28 months and still can't jump or do stairs but we hope in time she will strengthen up.
In dd's case this is a result of being starved of oxygen at birth but in many cases the cause may not be clear apparently. You are certainly not to blame for this and could request more tests to see if the cause can be established x

Thank you all for reply's. I spoke to salt yesterday as she had spoken to the ot too and she said to her his fine motor skills were good except for his pencil skill and that she thought his gross motor skills were weaker. The ot did say she would visit him in his nursery before christmas. x