United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

I had a couple of questions about therapists. Andrew's therapist just moved away and we are trying to adjust to a new one. We sure miss his old therapist. We live in a small community and our resources are limited. Our new therapist has worked with a few trauma BP's, but has never worked with a small child.

I thought I remembered reading on this board quite a while ago that the therapists at TCH would be willing to talk with therapists and give them some ideas on treatments. Does anyone remember anything about this. I would love to get some ideas from them.

Andrew is 22 months old and we are struggling with therapy anyway. He is in a separation anxiety stage and he isn't very cooperative with his therapists. There is a lot of crying and refusing to do things. We try to keep it kind of low key, mostly just like playing with different things, but he sometimes just refuses to do what we want him to do.

I feel like I get in a lot of "therapy" each day during our ordinary activities, so I am not too worried, but I would like to have the therapy sessions be as productive as possible.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks, Connie

Connie...

We have worked with a lot of therapists - some good most not so good. I guess I'm especially judgemental now that Maia is 3 1/2 years old and I 'know the ropes'... much to the therapists chagrin.

It's very different for a therapist to work with adults and work with childre. Keep an open mind and if it's not working - try to find someone who has more experience with young children.

We found the our Kindermusik classes brought Maia excellent therapy - this is a class suited for infants through age 7 - each class is divided up into ages.

I guess what I am saying is that it's really good to find things that will augment your therapy.

In the awareness section you will find two good documents for you to have and to give to your therapists. One is GUIDELINES FOR THERAPISTS and the other is STRETCHING THE LIMITS. They are great pages and will give your therapist some great ideas.

If you go into the awareness section - ubpn.org/awareness and then choose Birth Injury - there will be a whole list of things. At the bottom of that page are also links to the page that has all the recipes for goop and glop and playdough, etc. LOL LOL

We use our formal therapy to teach us how to do things with Maia and then we follow up with sessions at home. My husband works with her after dinner and then I work with her in the bathtub each night. On weekends we go to the playground. So she's really inundated. I guess that's how we dealt with the less than great therapists we've gotten.

anyway - good luck and happy reading,
francine

what I meant was if a therapist's experience has solely been with adults and then they have changed to pediatrics - it's a whole different ball of wax. A therapist has to be real savvy to doing therapy with kids especially at ages where they can be less than cooperative which is where you little one seems to be now... don't worry - that'll shift too in time.

I'm sure that the therapists at TCH would be willing to talk to your therapists. The problem with that though is that it's often difficult for therapists to actually connect to each other. Usually when you call them you have to leave a message or have them paged, but they're usually with a patient. Hopefully, they'll eventually connect though. Either TCH and / or your therapist might have you sign a medical release first. Technically, they're not supposed to discuss your child at all w/o a release (unless they keep the conversation general in discussing therapy ideas).

I know you said that your resources are limited, but I would recommend trying to find a therapist who has experience with young children rather than one who has experience with BPIs. An OT at TCH once told me that if you can't find a therapist with experience in both areas, the more important thing is to find one who works well with children. She said that treating a BPI from a therapist's experience is pretty straight forward. Plus, if you find a good Ped. Therapist who is willing to learn about BPIs, there are plenty of resources here that you could provide them with. I think that a Ped. therapist might also be really helpful in your case since your son is really challenging the therapist.

If you or your therapist contacts TCH, I would recommend calling one of the OTs that's listed in the BP clinic specifically. On my list, that includes Rose Banda and Cheryl Mitchell. We've always worked with Cheryl. Not only is she very knowledgeable about BPIs, but she's really nice. I hope this helps. -Tina

We just came home from TCH and we worked with Rebecca Griffin. She is great. She is very helpful and said to contact her if we need anything. She is going to send me information about a BP clinic for therapists that I will be sharing with my therapist and all other therapists that work with her. If you need to talk to someone, I recommend her.
Good Luck,
Adam

We recently lost a great therapist and got a young woman who may know her stuff but is very quiet and young. She also writes glowing reports which concern me. As not everything looks as good as she says because our other therapist has concerns. What I do is ask a lot of questions like what areas do you see are weaker- what should we work on etc. I also try to make everything a game so if Kaitlyn is resisting I make the blocks talk and say "hey what about me" or pretend the toys want to play etc. I support her in getting Kaitlyn to comply- her new trick is to lie down and say "I restin'" "I tired" - very cute but effective in waylaying the therapist. I agree that you just have to keep at it and if your mama-bell keeps going off find something new. Best wishes I know how hard this can be and boy do I miss our old therapist but I have to say I really go by Kaitlyn if she was unhappy or did not like her therapist we would change. It is their relationship that matters most.

Thanks everyone for your comments and suggestions. It's also nice to hear other's experiences and suggestions.

Connie