Anonymous wrote:It’s autism and no, OT won’t help. OT is for motor skills. It may also help for specific sensory aversion issues. What actually will help (regardless of dx) is a clear positive discipline plan to extinguish disruptive behavior caused by emotional dysregulation (like hitting). If the problem is rigidity in school triggering meltdowns then may need an inclusion classroom or a smaller school.

That is the least neurodiversity-affirming thing I've heard in quite some time.

PT here; yes, OT could definitely help. Or an SLP well-trained in Autism and PDA.

Anonymous wrote:It’s autism and no, OT won’t help. OT is for motor skills. It may also help for specific sensory aversion issues. What actually will help (regardless of dx) is a clear positive discipline plan to extinguish disruptive behavior caused by emotional dysregulation (like hitting). If the problem is rigidity in school triggering meltdowns then may need an inclusion classroom or a smaller school.

Omg stop you are not a clinician or an evaluator. Lots and lots and lots of kids have low frustration tolerance even nt ones. Just stop

Anonymous wrote:Hi There. OT here. OT can definitely work on emotional regulation and frustration tolerance. Many kids who have a hard time with skills get more easily frustrated and it is harder to recover with young emotional regulation skills. We can strengthen any skills where there are weaknesses as well as work movement and other coping techniques into your daily routine to reduce frustrations and give children a larger capacity for frustration. OT is a lot of things and our main job is helping people do what they need and want to do every day. For kids that could be motor skills, feeding, daily routines, emotional regulation, sensory processing, attention and SO. MUCH. MORE. Start with asking your pediatrician for an OT eval referral and see what the health care providers in your area think!

This is the most useful answer and should be recognized ^^

OK PP. You have the one kid who met all the DSM-V criteria for autism yet doesn’t have autism. Meanwhile for the rest of us, you should be prepared for an autism diagnosis if your child:

has social issues (doesn’t socialize the same way other kids do

has sensory issues

has rigidity, likely evident via meltdowns in response to unexpected events, transitions,

and the above symptoms result in significant impairment

17:29 again. My oldest DS (not the one I posted about at 17:29) greatly benefitted from OT for low frustration tolerance and emotional regulation. The OT utilized the Alert program and created a 'book' for DS. The book was called "Larlo's Mission Control Book". His mission was to be 'in control' and contained pictures, selected by DS, that showed him various moods starting with the happy/good ones and moving to a couple of pictures of him when he was not at his best - where he was 'not in control' or 'out of control'. The book concluded with pictures of him doing things he and the OT brainstomed he could do to get back 'in control'.

I can't oversell his Mission Control book. It was made when he was in K and I sent a copy of it to each teacher until he was in about 3rd grade. It really helped him understand what he was feeling and how he could change what he was feeling. He was in control of what he was feeling and learned what things he could do when he was struggling with those negative feelings. The OT would plan activities, sometimes just the two of them, sometimes with other kids there for OT appointments, that were likely to generate negative emotions (including frustration) and then taught/guided him how to use the book. It wasn't unusual for other kids to be working on the same thing so the lessons were reinforced.

Everyone in our family benefited from the Mission Control book. Younger sibilings learned the calming techniques (we still use 'control breaths' even though they're all young adults) and how to talk about what they were feeling. It also helped DH and I because it gave us a framework we could use at home. What a win!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s autism and no, OT won’t help. OT is for motor skills. It may also help for specific sensory aversion issues. What actually will help (regardless of dx) is a clear positive discipline plan to extinguish disruptive behavior caused by emotional dysregulation (like hitting). If the problem is rigidity in school triggering meltdowns then may need an inclusion classroom or a smaller school.

Is there enough info from OP to make you so definitive and your 'autism' suggestion?

It’s not really tough to see unless you fall into that weird “adhd actually is defined by social skills deficits” things.

Social skills deficits - check
Sensory issues - check
Emotional regulation issues (ie rigidity) - check.
Clinically significant impairment - check


literally checks all the DSM boxes.

<sigh> DP. There are so many disorders that, using your criteria, a DC could be diagnosed with that I couldn't list them here. My DS, now 18 checks all those boxes but has never met the criteria for ASD. He outgrew the MERLD diagnosis. Now, it's just ADHD/anxiety. His first comprehensive evaluation was at age 2.4 for an NIH research study for ASD and Other Developmental Delays. He didn't meet the criteria for ASD but did for Developmental Delays. He was, again, evaluated at 3.1 and still didn't meet the criteria for ASD. He had a neuropsych (took 2 days) at age 6 by a noted developmental pediatrician and did not meet the criteria for ASD. At age 10, he had another neuropsych done by Stixrud and still did not meet the criteria for ASD. By the time he was a teenager, no one ever brought up ASD again. He's definitely not NT but definitely not on the AS even though some of his behaviors overlap with those displayed by people with ASD. Believe you me, when you've got a kid with challenges like his, you're not avoiding or afraid of an ASD diagnosis.

Hi There. OT here. OT can definitely work on emotional regulation and frustration tolerance. Many kids who have a hard time with skills get more easily frustrated and it is harder to recover with young emotional regulation skills. We can strengthen any skills where there are weaknesses as well as work movement and other coping techniques into your daily routine to reduce frustrations and give children a larger capacity for frustration. OT is a lot of things and our main job is helping people do what they need and want to do every day. For kids that could be motor skills, feeding, daily routines, emotional regulation, sensory processing, attention and SO. MUCH. MORE. Start with asking your pediatrician for an OT eval referral and see what the health care providers in your area think!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OT has been helpful for us, though our DD's issues are a little different. She has ASD1 that presents as her playing alone a lot, being socially inhibited and anxious at school and inflexibility and rigidity at home. The OT has worked with her on the Zones of Regulation and on helping her work through complex tasks. She also does a social skills class that uses an evidence-based curriculum. The psychologist that diagnosed her, who is really big on evidence-based treatment, verified that the OT is a good support for her and not just for motor skills (though they do work on that too). We have seen massive improvements at school in terms of her being able to complete tasks independently since she started OT. The social skills class (which started 6 months later) has also been really helpful in terms of her playing with other kids more.

Personally it does sound like OT could help your kid a lot, but I am no expert.

there’s actually very little evidence for zones of regulation or any social skills class. my guess is that OT is helping because it’s getting her used to structure, following directions, and building the gross & fine motor skills necessary for school. social skills groups are just giving the opportunity to be more exposed to other kids in a low-stress setting.

that’s not to dispute that what you are doing is working. just to say that there really is very little evidence for autism treatments.

so my top advice to parents is use your common sense: think about what your child needs to learn and how they can learn it. exposure and practice of skills you already know your child needs to learn is 9/10ths of the reason for success!

without this perspective it is FAR to easy for SN parents to waste time and money on useless therapies.

But there actually is evidence supporting social skills classes that use evidence based curricula. PEERS is a good example though that is typically for older children. Social Thinking has been questioned in terms of the evidence but it uses research backed strategies.

A lack of evidence does not mean that OT doesn't work. It means there haven't been good studies on it. It is really difficult to do this especially for something like autism which presents in so many different ways, and therefore requires addressing different challenges in each kid.

Based on our experience I would encourage OP to follow the advice of trusted, licensed professionals and not random people on DCUM. We have been lucky to find really great providers that have proven to us that they know what they are doing is it has lead to huge improvements. Dismissing recommended treatment at age 5 is a terrible idea - at this age kids are learning so much and have such potential.

Anonymous wrote:OT has been helpful for us, though our DD's issues are a little different. She has ASD1 that presents as her playing alone a lot, being socially inhibited and anxious at school and inflexibility and rigidity at home. The OT has worked with her on the Zones of Regulation and on helping her work through complex tasks. She also does a social skills class that uses an evidence-based curriculum. The psychologist that diagnosed her, who is really big on evidence-based treatment, verified that the OT is a good support for her and not just for motor skills (though they do work on that too). We have seen massive improvements at school in terms of her being able to complete tasks independently since she started OT. The social skills class (which started 6 months later) has also been really helpful in terms of her playing with other kids more.

Personally it does sound like OT could help your kid a lot, but I am no expert.

there’s actually very little evidence for zones of regulation or any social skills class. my guess is that OT is helping because it’s getting her used to structure, following directions, and building the gross & fine motor skills necessary for school. social skills groups are just giving the opportunity to be more exposed to other kids in a low-stress setting.

that’s not to dispute that what you are doing is working. just to say that there really is very little evidence for autism treatments.

so my top advice to parents is use your common sense: think about what your child needs to learn and how they can learn it. exposure and practice of skills you already know your child needs to learn is 9/10ths of the reason for success!

without this perspective it is FAR to easy for SN parents to waste time and money on useless therapies.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s autism and no, OT won’t help. OT is for motor skills. It may also help for specific sensory aversion issues. What actually will help (regardless of dx) is a clear positive discipline plan to extinguish disruptive behavior caused by emotional dysregulation (like hitting). If the problem is rigidity in school triggering meltdowns then may need an inclusion classroom or a smaller school.

Is there enough info from OP to make you so definitive and your 'autism' suggestion?

It’s not really tough to see unless you fall into that weird “adhd actually is defined by social skills deficits” things.

Social skills deficits - check
Sensory issues - check
Emotional regulation issues (ie rigidity) - check.
Clinically significant impairment - check


literally checks all the DSM boxes.

OT has been helpful for us, though our DD's issues are a little different. She has ASD1 that presents as her playing alone a lot, being socially inhibited and anxious at school and inflexibility and rigidity at home. The OT has worked with her on the Zones of Regulation and on helping her work through complex tasks. She also does a social skills class that uses an evidence-based curriculum. The psychologist that diagnosed her, who is really big on evidence-based treatment, verified that the OT is a good support for her and not just for motor skills (though they do work on that too). We have seen massive improvements at school in terms of her being able to complete tasks independently since she started OT. The social skills class (which started 6 months later) has also been really helpful in terms of her playing with other kids more.

Personally it does sound like OT could help your kid a lot, but I am no expert.

Anonymous wrote:It’s autism and no, OT won’t help. OT is for motor skills. It may also help for specific sensory aversion issues. What actually will help (regardless of dx) is a clear positive discipline plan to extinguish disruptive behavior caused by emotional dysregulation (like hitting). If the problem is rigidity in school triggering meltdowns then may need an inclusion classroom or a smaller school.

Is there enough info from OP to make you so definitive and your 'autism' suggestion?

I'm also not really seeing how OT would be helpful given the information you provided. Lately a lot of folks are trying to use OT as a magic bullet, but as the PP said, it's really only proven effective for motor skills.

It’s autism and no, OT won’t help. OT is for motor skills. It may also help for specific sensory aversion issues. What actually will help (regardless of dx) is a clear positive discipline plan to extinguish disruptive behavior caused by emotional dysregulation (like hitting). If the problem is rigidity in school triggering meltdowns then may need an inclusion classroom or a smaller school.

My DC is 5 and while no diagnosis yet, I suspect ADHD and/or sensory seeking profile. Social skills are not on pair with peers. We are working on evaluations but in the meantime, impulse control and low frustration tolerance are impacting daily life, particularly at school. After some initial consults, the one thing everyone has consistently recommended is OT. Just curious if others have experience and would recommend additional therapies or approaches?