My child has no talents!!

In a friend's child birthday party, I meet the other parents that are there, introducing myself, and coming to that stage of the conversation that I explain what an occupational therapist does (as always!). Because yes, I do have to explain. Only by saying that I am an OT, for most of the parents this does not mean much. For the ones that have concerns about their child's development though, it sounds terrific!

So, this couple comes closer when they found the opportunity to kindly ask me if I could have a look at their 3-year-old, who, to be honest, I had already spotted, not only because of his very long straight brunette hair, but also from how active he was; hyper-active actually.

- Why do you want me to have a look? Do you have any concerns? I asked the parents.

- Actually, we do. He has this fixation of hitting other children and grabbing the toys from their hands, even food sometimes. We are suspicious that he might be autistic.

- Ok, let's see what he is doing, I replied adding no comments. After I observed him for a few minutes I turn to mum and ask her.

- What is he good at?

- Nothing, mum replies, he has no actual talents! And it was at that very moment that I saw the little lad staring at a child on the other side of the room, walking towards him, passing all the obstacles on his way to go as close as he could to hit him and grab his balloon. And the other child was almost 4 years a old. Mum immediately left our discussion space and run towards that side of the room to rescue the poor child and discipline her own. When she came back, I said,

- Nothing now? Did you see what he just did?

- What do you mean? Mum asked with surprise.

- Didn't you notice he had a clear plan in his head, visual scanning the area, focusing on the target, performing amazing manoeuvrings and executing with absolute high quality!! His mum was looking at me probably thinking ‘What an idiot!’

At that point I just needed to explain at both parents that it is not so much about his actual perceptual, intellectual or motor abilities that you have to worry about, rather than his sensory integration and in particular his vestibular-proprioceptive-tactile processing. The behaviour that they spotted is likely to be the result of his under-developed sensory systems making him more prone to touch inappropriately other children, struggling to respect personal space and finding it hard to control his impulsivity and in particular his motor actions that his nervous system requires to explore the environment and achieve the optimum levels of self-regulation/homoeostasis.

Obviously, there might be several other professionals' views to explain behaviours such as the ones of the boy of our story (attachment, social interaction and communication difficulties), however it is more than wise to screen children via OT assessment to have a more in depth understanding of the fundamental reason behind a behavioural issue that might occur.