11 year old boy with delayed self-care skills

This boy had difficulty completing age-appropriate self-care tasks at home and in the community. When he first came to OT, the primary concerns were that he needed constant reminders to drink water throughout the day and that going to the grocery store to do the grocery shopping was a very anxiety provoking experience for him and his mother.

This boy has a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder and comes from an extremely loving, supportive and stable family, who have been very proactive in implementing therapy strategies at home.

This boy has sensory processing challenges, making being at the shops very stressful for him. When at the shops, he also struggled with a lack of purpose. He had poor interoceptive awareness (ability to apply meaning to body sensations), making it very challenging for him to identify when he was thirsty and to recognise the impact his sensory processing challenges were having on his anxiety levels.

Weekly OT that focused on using a collaborative problem-solving approach with the boy and his family to work through their challenges and identify meaningful, practical solutions that addressed everyone’s concerns.

Within 5 months, the family had effectively implemented strategies at home, enabling the boy to independently drink water throughout the day as required and the family to be able to complete the grocery shopping together, without the experience feeling overwhelming for anyone involved. They moved on to focusing on other goals in their OT sessions.