He would often be quiet around strangers, had trouble communicating with others, and had a difficult time expressing himself in a calm manner. Wanting to give their son the best help, Kelly and Dan found Weisman Children’s Outpatient Program, in Marlton, New Jersey. “When we brought Matty to Weisman Children’s, we were not sure what to expect. He had a hard time with strangers so we did not know if he would feel comfortable working with someone new,” said his mother Kelly Rose.
Their concerns about Matty responding to the staff almost immediately disappeared upon meeting his Occupational Therapist, Kirsten Carr. Kirsten explained, “When Matty first came to us, he presented with signs and symptoms of a sensory regulation dysfunction, which placed a barrier for him to participate in his daily routines without frequent break downs. This made it hard for him to play with his peers, interact and engage with new people, as well as tolerate over stimulating environments. He could not stay calm, was very rough and tumble, and had a hard time paying attention to instructions.” With the long-term goal of increasing Matty’s social skills and gaining the ability to manage his behavior independently, Kirsten created a personalized plan that Matty could understand and enjoy in order to achieve his goals.
“We did a ton of movement based activity, such as swinging, and heavy work activities that provided added resistance to his muscles. These helped increase his body awareness, his attention to tasks and focus, as well as provide an overall calming effect for him during our sessions,” Kirsten noted. Kirsten found that the intense heavy work activities worked the best to keep Matty’s attention and to keep him organized. These activities also exposed his sensory system to this type of sensory input, so that when Matty comes into contact with these sensations across his different personal environments like school, parks, birthday parties, and family events, his body has already experience them and in turn they become less stressful to him.
Kirsten also noticed that Matty did well with positive reinforcement. With this knowledge she established a reward chart for his therapy activities. This system helped Matty make progress during his sessions much quicker than originally expected. Kirsten noted, “When Matty would do well, I would give him stars as a reward, which in turn made him more open and responsive during our sessions. Another benefit of this reward system was that it was a great one for Kelly and Dan to do at home between sessions. I cannot emphasize enough how important that was for his progress.” Over the course of his therapy with Weisman Children’s Matty made such vast improvements that the star system was no longer needed to listen and complete activities by the end. “It was really night and day with Matty. It was amazing seeing how much the work Kirsten was doing with him helped him grow every day. We went from not being sure how to help him, to seeing him improve rapidly. It really was special,” Dan said. Kelly added, “Kirsten was able to engage him right away and get him more open than we have seen him interact with strangers in the past, she just knew how to bond with him.”
Kelly and Dan both attribute Weisman Children’s ability to offer one-on-one environment and personalized care as a main reason Matty stayed engaged and interested in his sessions. Dan continued, “The bond he was able to form with Kirsten was a huge reason for his success. He really loved her and was comfortable with her. I am not sure he would have progressed the way he did and as quickly without that relationship.” Kirsten agreed, “The feeling was mutual for me. Matty and I bonded with each other very early on and I think that improved his outcomes to a degree. I find that makes a huge difference for many patients that come to us.”