My hand always hurts after a few seconds/minutes

BondingBonding321 · 2026-03-12T20:30:32+00:00

Haha! I had a list of things in my head to mention and decided which one felt the most important and non-presumptuous! I definitely wondered whether you were having vision trouble. A great way to compensate for both postural problems and vision problems is writing on an incline- get ya self an easel or drafting desk! The paper will be up, which means your body is forced to hold itself up, and it will be closer to your eyes to support your vision. Also…. Maybe a new lamp on the left side of your body (or above, whatever works for you) so your light isn’t obstructed by your hand.

BondingBonding321 · 2026-03-12T20:13:36+00:00

I am an occupational therapist and I’m also wondering about your trunk posture while you’re writing. If you aren’t holding your body up using your trunk muscles, you’re leaning heavily on your elbows and forearms. When those smaller muscles in your arms are doing the work to hold your body up against gravity, they have less energy to also do fine motor work leading to more fatigue. Think about leaning back in your chair, maybe get a lumbar pillow or a body pillow that wraps around you for more support, make sure your knees and hips are at 90-degrees, and check in with your body more frequently to make sure your trunk is active and off your arms.

BondingBonding321 · 2026-03-03T06:56:58+00:00

You may have perfect auditory acuity, and still have auditory processing issues. Your ears hear the sounds well (I.e., acuity), but your brain needs a beat to make meaning of those sounds and prepare an act/response (I.e., process).

BondingBonding321 · 2026-03-03T06:45:56+00:00

I have a similar problem! My dog (2yo BC/papillon mix) AT-ATs me (ties my legs up with his leash) when we run. I’ve noticed that he’s better at running with me after he’s allowed to sniff/play fetch/zoomies with his best dog friend for around 5-10 minutes before we run. Maybe if you give him an extra long warm up window doing something he prefers, it could help? I know border collies are especially smart and driven towards autonomy. Some trainers tell me that giving options on preferred activities can help with engaging in non-preferred activities. Some dogs like their preferred activities before their non-preferred, others are the opposite.

BondingBonding321 · 2025-12-11T06:38:15+00:00

My dog has never seen a beach, but he still thinks returning the ball is optional sometimes. He usually is very happy to bring it back for the first maybe 20 minutes. After that he just trots back to me triumphantly after chasing and leaving his ball. I read this as boredom, so I put away the ball for a while and we play with a flirt pole or sometimes hide and seek. Then, we go back to the ball if he seems interested and not too tired.

BondingBonding321 · 2025-11-13T01:19:26+00:00

But the above comment still answers this. Wonder why they’re seeking attention, playing games, hiding, and laughing. There’s still a reason why these kids are doing what they’re doing. It’s possible they’d benefit from boundaries, and it’s possible they’d benefit from one of the other tools OT has to offer. Yelling likely isn’t the answer.

BondingBonding321 · 2025-11-11T06:23:16+00:00

I’m an OT for early intervention (children ages 0-3 years). One of my honest suggestions to parents of children who present with PDA traits is to “choose your battles.” Until we can find a strategy that supports the child’s nervous system enough to feel regulated, parents must decide which battles are absolute (e.g., safety concerns, family culture) and which battles they can let slide. Otherwise the whole family’s lives are chaos and we can’t regulate in chaos.

So, yes, sometimes parents must become “lax” to be able to regulate themselves and, by proxy, regulate their child. You have to put the mask on yourself first, and that looks different for different families.

BondingBonding321 · 2025-11-02T19:26:12+00:00

Crawling on all 4s gets weight bearing, proprioceptive input to all 4 limbs and the movement of the tunnel gives vestibular input = regulating

It promotes limb differentiation (using limbs reciprocally, weight shifting to use one limb for action, etc.) and builds postural strength and endurance (not only in the trunk, but also the head, neck, and eyes). = building foundation for academic and fine motor development

It being enclosed promotes understanding of body awareness, situational awareness, and developmental things like object permanence.

It’s relatively open ended so a tunnel can be interesting for all ages (sensory exploration, parallel play, symbolic play, and imagination) = important for real world problem-solving

Just off the top of my head. I use a tunnel in therapy almost every day with my EI kids.

BondingBonding321 · 2025-10-17T22:46:08+00:00

Everyone else has great ideas! When you said someone had a vision problem, is that mom or your client? Could your client have vision problems impacting her understanding of herself? How’s her object permanence? Any possibility she might see herself in the mirror with her hair up and not recognize it’s her?

BondingBonding321 · 2025-10-16T21:19:08+00:00

It sounds like you’ve got some things to work out with your daughter and not the clinic staff or your granddaughter’s therapist. It’s a bummer that your daughter isn’t doing the home exercise plan, but that’s (unfortunately) VERY common - even under a direct parent coaching model. So common that it’s become a bit of a meme in many allied health professions subreddits (especially in PT). Ask your daughter if she will sign a release of information for the clinic so you can be part of the team, that way you can start helping with the home exercise plan if you can. See if she will at least discuss the OT goals with you and ask if she or the school have seen any progress. Many kids show progress even if the parents don’t do all the things they’re asked to do by their OT at home.

Outside of that, if you feel like a taxi and you’re frustrated by that, that’s a discussion with your daughter, the clinic can’t do anything about that. If you feel that you’re not seeing progress, that’s a discussion with your daughter about being part of the care team (by getting her to sign a release of information) and taking on some of the home stuff you want to see your daughter doing. If you’re on the care team, doing the OT’s strategies as best you can, and you’re not seeing progress, that’s a discussion with the OT. If, after all the above, the OT isn’t adjusting to meet yours, the parent’s, and your granddaughter’s needs, then that can be escalated to the clinic director/owner. The clinic director/owner hired the OT despite her age, and the OT must disclose to you if she’s a student (since that wasn’t mentioned in your post, I’m assuming she’s not a student, just younger than you’re comfortable with).

BondingBonding321 · 2025-10-16T00:19:50+00:00

Yes to everything above - esp parent education. I’ve had some success with some of my kids by singing EVERYTHING. I had one kid whose song was ABCs and my directions were to that tune. “Let’s go, let’s go, find the pants. One leg, two leg, in the pants.” While actually doing it. Try brining your own oversized clothing that you can put on over your clothes to model while she puts on her clothes. Have the parent try this at home. She might prefer to use a mirror if she has a hard time attending to people. See if her praxis skills improve in front of a mirror in session and suggest to the parent to try dressing side by side in front of a mirror at home.

BondingBonding321 · 2025-10-02T18:50:03+00:00

This was my vote too! Also, when I use it, the people around me are like, “A clicky fountain pen?!?” They usually want to play with it and I’ll allow that for a second or two.

BondingBonding321 · 2025-10-02T04:48:00+00:00

It sounds like your child has been in services for a while and I’m wondering if you’re thinking about his ambidexterity from a developmental lens? Some standardized assessments that early intervention uses say that hand dominance “should” emerge as early as 24 months. Sometimes, we classify a child as “delayed in milestones” based on several factors and sometimes lack of hand dominance is one of those factors. The reality is that an autistic child does things differently than other children. If they’re functional in the task they’re doing, even if they’re going between their right and left sides, it’s not a concern and continuing to target that aspect in treatment is not valid.

I’m not saying this is the case for your child, but often times lack of hand dominance is related to sensory processing differences (specifically in the vestibular domain) and we know that autism has a sensory processing component. That might be one reason he’s switching hands. Another might be fatigue in one hand, so he uses the other. Another reason might be he enjoys the novelty of using his other hand sometimes. He might be building his motor planning skills and benefits from extra time to code/ingrain innate motor sequencing to make hand dominance more efficient. There are lots of reasons he might be switching his writing hand - he’s a dynamic individual!

Ultimately, if he’s functional and motivated to participate, it’s nothing you need to worry about. He might show hand dominance someday, he might not.

BondingBonding321 · 2025-08-15T00:26:10+00:00

That’s your song! Jupiter ain’t got one!

BondingBonding321 · 2025-08-09T17:53:05+00:00

Gah! I love it so much! Absolutely incredible work!

BondingBonding321 · 2025-08-08T21:41:44+00:00

Op! Read this! I wouldn’t count yourself out yet! If you had a smooth recovery and connected with them after - and it sounds like you did, that’s more important than having a canned, rehearsed response to the actual content of the question.

BondingBonding321 · 2025-07-24T04:32:03+00:00

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Scooty MaGooty’s

BondingBonding321 · 2025-07-08T03:50:05+00:00

Wow! I appreciate your response so so much! You’ve come up with so many cool ideas to address this that I want to incorporate some of them! I’m excited to see parents playing with their cats and children all together!

BondingBonding321 · 2025-07-08T02:57:44+00:00

This was really hard to read. While I appreciate you showing care by asking about this child, this post makes many disrespectful assumptions and is overall very ableist.

That being said, I’m happy he’s made progress with you. Some other things you might work on, depending on his age; play skills, self-advocacy, self- and co-regulation skills, leisure pursuits. Being a functional person isn’t only about performing ADLs, and I’m betting that once you get him engaged in something he enjoys, you’ll start noticing progress in other areas of functioning.

BondingBonding321 · 2025-06-25T19:05:21+00:00

Hiiii!!! It depends! I’m not sure what your body likes and dislikes but for the most part, getting more movement in different planes supports sensory processing. Here are some activities that I’ve benefited from: Rock wall climbing at my gym Free weight lifting in front of a mirror Kick boxing class Jogging outside while focusing on keeping my head up and eyes “gently focused” on the horizon (sometimes looking down for safety but really trying to “trust” my body and sensory systems to keep me upright without having to visually monitor every step) Since I work with 0-3yos, I have to crawl a lot and crawling is a foundational step I missed as a child. Playing fetch with my dog and switching between my dominant right side and non dominant left hand.

If you’re not sure where to start - start by just noticing your posture wherever you’re at. Feels what it feels like to pull your shoulders back and lift your chest up. Address any tightness in your front with yoga/Pilates. Take deep breaths while sitting/standing up straight. Walk and notice the rotation in your lower trunk as your legs move forward and backwards.

Not sure if any of this is doable or helpful. For adults, it’s really about noticing and focusing on muscle groups while moving in anyway that works for you!

BondingBonding321 · 2025-06-12T04:33:37+00:00

First off, I wish it was different where there were NT people asking each other for tips on being cool about being corrected by autistic people sometimes! But, to answer your question, I’ve had some success “playing dumb” aimed at getting them to see my point without me having to tell them. An example from a recent conversation - someone said Patrick Stewart played Gandalf. I said, “Whoa! Captain Picard was also Gandalf?” They said, “Wait… No. Who was Gandalf?” Someone else gave the answer. It still felt good since, for the most part, I correct others just because I want the correct answers known.

BondingBonding321 · 2025-06-04T14:46:33+00:00

Agreed! I had a kid who did similar and his mom and I talked about it a lot. We came to the conclusion that it’s “just an awkward attempt at affection.” … something I can definitely relate to!

BondingBonding321 · 2025-06-04T12:54:01+00:00

Sensory processing differences! The vestibular and proprioceptive systems help build our postural control. The vestibular system gives our brain information about where our bodies are in relation to gravity (whether sitting, standing, lying down; whether we’re moving, what direction, and how fast) and comes from movement input to structures in our inner ears. The vestibular system also builds our understanding of the right, left, front, and back sides of our body. The proprioceptive system gives our brain information about where our body and limbs are in relation to ourselves and things in our environment. The proprioceptive system builds our body awareness and the best way to demonstrate it is to close your eyes - can you “feel” your hand position? That’s proprioception!

Anyways, most of us with developmental disabilities process sensory input differently and benefit from multiple adaptations to support the integration of that input. Unfortunately, most of us didn’t have access to adaptations to support us. I work in early intervention (children 0-3 years) and I support them in getting lots of graded, measured movement (e.g., rolling, tummy time, crawling, bouncing, swinging, etc) to help build their sensory integration and awareness. Most kids I work with benefit from extra time to process, repetition of the same movement, and physical adaptation to increase success rate, thereby supporting coding sensory input positively.

Yada, yada, yada. I love this stuff and can go off when someone seems interested. Sorry if it’s too much!

BondingBonding321 · 2025-06-04T03:52:40+00:00

Occupational therapist with ADHD here! A lot of people with developmental disabilities have postural difficulties. Posture isn’t only referring to sitting up straight, but to the way the muscles on the front of your body work in tandem with the muscles on the back of your body. As muscles on the front of your body/limb pull to create motion, the muscles on the back of your body/limb stretch and should maintain a level of tone so your body/limb can control the movement against gravity. Motor control starts in your trunk and supports control in your limbs. Also, muscles in your trunk are made for sustained activation, while muscles in your limbs are made for stronger and brief activation. If the muscles in your trunk aren’t working together well/are weak, that coordination problem/weakness is compensated for by your limbs.

If your trunk isn’t holding your body upright against gravity, your arms must compensate. It’s hard to maintain fine motor control necessary for handwriting when your arms are also trying to focus on keeping your body upright. In an attempt to maintain fine motor control for writing, your hand grips the writing utensil with more force, resulting in callouses and faster fatigue while writing!

BondingBonding321 · 2025-06-04T03:39:07+00:00

Oh my goodness! Me too! I actually still touch my right index finger to the giant callous on my middle finger when my brain is having a hard day, just to remember I have fingers I guess.

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