6 yr old reverts to oral habit
Hi,
I would love to ask your opinion on a case I am working on, 6 year old male, definitely not neurotypical with a bunch of sensory issues. I did not feel he was ready for myo program yet, compliance, maturity, behavior all being issues, but i did help mom do a habit cessation program to help him stop sucking fingers. I did the Unplugging theThumb program with some small variations as sock fabric had to be changed a few times and he would not wear his sock friend around grandma, but we worked through it. We got through 10 days and then continued through 30 which ended the program 6/10, he has been habit free since then until last week, mom was away for 5 days and came back to finger sucking. So unusual as I’ve never had a child backslide after this long. There was no “trauma” or major change according to mom to bring this on, any suggestions? Would you start the entire program over again?
To better explain the Neurotypical part, he is not “ diagnosed per se but he exhibits very sensory seeking behavior and it is painfully obvious that there are other things in play here. Mom is very sweet. She has had him in ABA therapy and had work for retained primitive reflexes.
He can be difficult but he was extremely proud of himself and excited after he quit. We had total buy in to the program before we started.
Do you have any other suggestions for me? Should we begin again from scratch?
Any help is greatly appreciated !!
Warm regards,
AJ
Hi,
Great to hear from you. The UTT program was created with “typical” children in mind; however, with modifications such as you were clever enough to use, it has had success with others such as your client. You mentioned that there was no “trauma” but having mommy away for 5 days might, indeed, have been traumatic for him.
Have you spoken with him about his backsliding? That is probably what I would do in this situation and weave the conversation in such a way that he explains in his own way what might have happened…and continue guiding the conversation where he ends up telling you that he can get right back on track. Then you can work out a special situation with him where he tells you if he thinks doing the 10 days again is what he needs (notice, it goes back to him this way and his decision) or if he might have a different idea that is sure to work…perhaps 7 days or 5 days. Put it kindly in his direction to decide what he needs in order to be sure he is certain about the outcome. With him in charge and your part is merely trying to understand what he needs, it should work.
Please keep me informed. Bear in mind that I have had to infer information about him, about the relationship you have with him, how his family cooperates, etc. Ideally, the above approach should do it…let’s hope it does.
My best,
Sandra
Sandra R. Holtzman
MS, CCC-SLP, QOM
Director, Neo-Health Services, Inc.
sholtzman@orofacialmyology.com
954 461 1114