• Central preschool

• Karate 4-5pm

(First 5 weeks of term 4 Kingston will have OT with Nicky at AMS)

Tuesday

• Central preschool

• Mum will be picking up Kingston for her visit. Pick up will be made at the preschool.

• Mandy’s visit are usually on the Tuesday each fortnight

• Speech therapy is usually on the Tuesday each fortnight

Wednesday

• Community kids - Junior Preschool room

Thursday

• Central Preschool

Friday

• Community kids - Junior Preschool

• Swimming 4:30 - 5

Sunday

• Every 2nd Sunday 1-5 visits @ nans with mum

Kingston had a great OT session today, his first one of the 5 week block. I have attached below the goals as well as the note from the session. (I should have more time next week to add more information in)!

Priority goals set:

- For Kingston to be supported when transitioning between activities, and environments

- For Kingston to be supported when engaging in packing up an activity.

o Strategies: Breaking down of the task e.g. forward or backward chaining. The packing up activity to be scaffolded by a safe adult, encouraging Kingston to complete 1 part of the packing up. Keep this consistent in all packing up environments. Focus on the 1 stage, rather than naming "packing up."

- Develop play skills, attention and engagement during play

- emotional regulation and problem solving

Session outcomes:

- OT attempted to support Kingston in creating a plan for the activities to complete during the session. Kingston kept repeated that he wanted to do the playdough, and was unable to choose an activity for step 2 and 3 (OT wrote the plan onto a piece of paper).

- Playdough - working towards increasing attention to task (5 minutes), fine motor skills and problem solving skills.

- Squiggs + peanut ball = OT modelled leaning on stomach on peanut ball and reaching forward to take the squiggs off the whiteboard. OT noted that Kingston appeared nervous (body awareness?) to lay on his stomach on peanut ball, whilst having one hand on the ground for support, with the other hand reaching to remove squiggs from board. OT provided +++ encouragement for Kingston to give it a try. This works on crossing midline, physical endurance and increasing body awareness. Kingston was able to reach forward and grab a couple of squiggs off the board. Kingston soon reported that he was finished with the activity.

- working on increasing engagement and shared attention - through bubbles e.g. stomping, popping with fingers

- stacking rings - works on hand-eye coordination

- emotional regulation: OT noted that when Kingston was completing the obstacle course, he began to take more physical risks e.g. jumping over the peanut ball, or moving so quickly he began to lose his balance. OT supported Kingston, by modelling taking deep breaths and pausing at the start of the obstacle course. OT emphasised the importance of co-regulating with a safe adult. When Kingston became increasingly excited/over-stimulated physically he benefited from prompts to slow down and take deep breaths. It is important that Kingston has a safe adult to learn this skill with.

• Kingston was able to pack up his toys with support from OT.

Week 1 - 14/10

Monday we had a great start to the week. Kingston was very happy to get back into routine and see his preschool friends.

The morning routine sheet has been back in action. Kingston had stopped using it properly around week 8 term 3 but now it’s back in full use.

I can see his confidence coming out more than ever. I’m guessing from feeling more of a connection at home. Kingston has been playing with the idea of calling me mum. He goes back and forth testing it out and I think that’s a big part of the connection. Giving him the understanding that he is apart of this family.

Im happy for him to make that choice on his own and I will talk to mum at some point.

Kingston has been using his words a lot more before acting out and is using his words to give explanations the best he can. Sometimes I will give examples and he is able to tell me yes or no.

Sharing is still an issue but it’s also still an issue for my birth children. Small steps.

Karate went the best it ever has. He did so well. If he keeps going the way he is I’m sure he’ll be grading soon.

Other than that Kingston had a great week. Super proud of him.

We will be introducing this story at preschool this week. I have also sourced some of the plush monsters from Temu!

While Kingston is gaining an understanding of all emotions that are discussed in the story, he is particularly recognising and labelling some of his positive emotions (calm and happy). We have been continuing to use these analogies in our discussions with Kingston and thought it may be a positive experience to only discuss the positive emotions for a few weeks. And then, in time, if we see Kingston display frustrations, sadness etc we will further explore these emotions with him.

As a reminder, the link to the book has been posted already. However, I am sure the book can be found in many online stores.

The plush toys were bought from TEMU.

We look forward to hearing if these discussions are happening in with other support teams!

Natalie :)