So my son has just started kinder this year and it’s been a bit of an eye opener to be honest. You spend the first few years just trying to keep them alive and fed and then suddenly they’re in a room with 20 other kids and you start noticing all the little ways they’re different to everyone else. Some of it doesn’t matter at all. Some of it maybe does.
A friend of mine went through this a while back with her daughter, and she ended up looking into occupational therapy for her. I didn’t really know much about OT before that, I honestly thought it was just for kids with pretty significant needs, but it turns out that’s not really true at all. A lot of it is just helping kids with everyday stuff. Getting dressed. Holding a pencil. Not completely falling apart when the routine changes. Normal little kid things that some kids just find harder than others.
Anyway I asked her heaps of questions about it because I figured other mums are probably wondering the same stuff I was. So here’s what I’ve picked up, in case it’s useful to anyone else.
Buttons and zips and scissors and colouring in are a nightmare If your kid is really struggling with this stuff compared to other kids their age, it’s not always about trying harder or being lazy (my mother in law’s favourite theory for basically everything). A lot of the time it comes down to hand strength or coordination and that’s something that can actually be worked on.
Little changes turn into massive meltdowns Different lunchbox, different route to daycare, someone else sitting in “their” spot at the table. If stuff like this is setting off proper meltdowns on a regular basis, it’s probably worth more than just waiting it out.
Tags, textures, noise, all of it Cutting every single tag out of every single shirt. Point blank refusing to eat anything with a weird texture. Hands over ears the second things get loud. Or the opposite, always crashing into stuff or wanting to spin around. Sensory stuff is way more common than people think and there’s actually a lot you can do once you understand what’s going on. Raising Children Network has a pretty good rundown of what this actually looks like if you want to read into it more, that’s where I ended up going down a bit of a rabbit hole myself.
Handwriting or focus at kinder/school isn’t quite there This one usually comes from the teacher before it comes from you. Pencil grip, letters, sitting and listening in a group. Doesn’t mean anything is wrong with your kid. Might just mean they need a bit of a different approach to get there.
You just have a feeling about it Not very scientific I know, but as mums we usually notice this stuff before anyone else does. If you’ve been sitting with a nagging feeling for a while, that’s probably reason enough to get it looked at, even if it ends up being nothing.
The part that put me off looking into it, I’ll admit, was assuming it would be this whole drawn out complicated process. Turns out it’s not really. There are allied health places here in Victoria doing paediatric occupational therapy properly, my friend went with National 360, that also cover speech therapy and early intervention, and they can talk you through the funding side of it too. If you’re going down the NDIS path specifically, the official NDIS early childhood approach page is worth a read as well, it explains things a lot more clearly than I expected a government website to. From what my friend said, the hardest bit was just making the first call. After that it was a lot less overwhelming than she expected.
If you’re reading this and going “yep, that’s my kid,” it doesn’t mean you’ve done anything wrong or missed something obvious. Every kid is just wired differently. Getting it looked into early is one of those things that’s way easier said than done but honestly worth it, for them and for your own sanity too.
Anyway, that’s it from me. Let me know if you end up looking into it, I’d be curious how you go.
