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Monday, April 20, 2009

Another round of OT/PT!

We had our 2nd visit from the ECI service coordinator & then 2 days later, his PT specialist. Both are fantastic ladies! Stacey does Ian's occupational therapy (which basically covers all fine motor skills), cognitive development, social development & speech therapy. He isn't really delayed in all those areas but she incorporates them all in to 1 or 2 activities just the same. It has been very educational for me b/c although I am a teacher, I have only taught 4th & 5th grades. This stage of development is all new to me.

Stacey started w/ teaching me how to describe items such as the small, blue cup or the clear cube & how I need to present choices to Ian. I have also started doing this with the girls. Not only that, we are trying to learn simple commands such as "Give Mommy the toy" & "Put the toy IN/OUT".

Then we had our 2nd visit of the week w/ Sonia. She is our PT & works w/ Ian on his gross motor skills & balance. Sonia also recommended that Ian wear shoes during playtime for a minimum of 4 hrs which pans out to be most of the day. In the 4 days that he has been wearing his really cute Nike all white high tops (tee-hee...they are cute), he has gotten markedly better & more confident at standing & pulling up. The theory behind the shoes is that it provides Ian w/ a larger surface area to distribute his weight on to. This helps w/ his overcompensation issues (locking the knees, tightening the leg muscles). He is actually standing w/ his legs more relaxed & bent at the knees which he use to not do. He is also pulling up on EVERYTHING w/o assistance. We are very impressed w/ the improvement in such a short amount of time.

I took some time today to do another video of him & I working on the PT. If it is a little loud, the girls were also up. Sorry the view isn't the best but I had to put the camera where the girls couldn't get to it.



I hope that blogging about this & posting the videos help someone else!

1 comment:

apholden said...

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!! You posting about this is a HUGE help to me! Jack and I just watched it together and were discussing using the stool we have in the bathroom as a "chair" like your Rubbermaid container. I like the tip to describe items in color and object, too! I am expecting a call from ECI this week - so hopefully we'll get the ball rolling. I had no idea about the shoes!?!? The kisses at the end made me smile. What a sweet boy - and he has a cute giggle!!! :)