I'm excited to share that my daughter, now 5 and a half, had some kind of breakthrough in the past week. This is what I've observed in the past few days:
1. She's thinking ahead about playing a game or with toys about ways that would make the game/play more fun, then putting her plan into action.
2. She's talking in much longer sentences and expressing more complex thoughts and ideas.
3. She's telling us when she's hungry more often.
4. She's initiating asking for certain foods, rather than choosing from two or three foods after I offer.
5. Her OT commented after therapy last night that she was much less distracted and showed great improvement with staying on task, even with things going on in other parts of the same room.
6. She's expressing her opinion more independently (this could also be trouble )
It's so wonderful to see improvement. It seems to come in bursts, rather than in a steady way. I'd love to hear about your kids breakthroughs.

That's fantastic!

Yesterday we were playing a game with a pile of pillows on the living room floor, and she said, "Mommy, you have to stabilize that." It took me a minute to pick my jaw up off the floor before I asked her where she learned that big word. She said she learned it by listening to her OT.

*grins*

love it!

how long was she in OT when you saw this leap? Our son's fine motor skills have improved a lot in OT, but otherwise we haven't seen much of a difference.

LOVE IT!

That was at about eight months of OT, but I think the thing that brought about the greatest change was the Feingold Diet.

hmmm, thanks - will have to look into the Feingold diet! OT doesn't seem to be doing anything for my son except improve his fine motor skills, but distractibility, concentration and modulation? Just no-goes

I just discovered the Brain Balance program also (brainbalancecenters.com). My daughter is being evaluated this week. Her improvements have been great, but her teachers continue to point out that she can't pay attention at school if there are ANY distractions, she's not doing well socially, and her writing skills are way below age level. I'm hoping this Brain Balance program will help with that part of her SPD. I'll keep you updated. If anyone else reads about it, I'd be interested in your opinion.