This visit was supposed to be at the park, but me and my son had a rough morning. He discovered his nose and has been enjoying picking it. When I woke up, his face was covered in caked up blood and he was having trouble breathing, like he was congested. After I cleaned him up, I discovered he had given himself a nosebleed, and a bad one at that. By the time we were done sitting together, it was about twenty minutes before the PT visit was going to start and I realized he hadn't eaten breakfast yet. So we had the visit at home.
It was supposed to be just PT with T., but A. the EI service coordinator called and said she had a cancellation and asked if she could come by as well. I told her that it would be fine for her to come by.
When T. and A. showed up, I had some cool news. My son has started saying "go car" a lot. Like all the time. More words are a good thing even if only the speaker understands them. My son has also started climbing! He uses me to climb on to the back of the couch to perch up there and look out the window. He worked with T. to climb from the floor to an ottoman to the couch and then up the back. I was standing behind T. just being quiet and watching them when my son got very nervous and started looking anxiously behind him. He has become more aware of his surroundings which is also good development. When he finally saw me, he calmed down.
He was very apprehensious of A. and T. this week for some reason. He usually hugs A. and smiles at her, this visit he screamed and cried. He is getting his molars in and he grew about five inches last week, no lie he had a major growth spurt, so we were thinking he was just in pain.
T. said not to keep the ottoman static, but to move it from one side of the couch to the other so my son can practice climbing on both sides, using both legs.
We discussed potty training again, but a little more seriously this time. My son does not like to dirty a diaper he already soiled. He will hold his bladder until you change the diaper. Also, he has started taking his diaper off more. We discussed how this could be hard because he is non-verbal. The hints they gave me was to give him a plastic "bubble" book that can be washed off to look at on the potty and then he will eventually relax and go. Also, T. said to take a picture of his potty and put it somewhere visible in the living room/his bedroom/the kitchen, just somewhere visible, and when it is time to go on the potty to tap the picture and say "Time to go to the bathroom." Eventually he will make an association and should be able to point to the picture of his potty when he needs to go.
The other thing we discussed was my son joining a play group for non-verbal children aged two to five or four at the Sensation Station. (http://sensationstationus.com/). The playgroup will do sensory play and use musical instruments. T. and A. are both pretty excited about this. The playgroup will run for 8 weeks and I think it will greatly benefit my son. I should be meeting with the director of Sensation Station June 9 , and I will definitely blog about it. A. filled out a disclosure agreement so she can reach out to the Sensation Station to help chart my son's growth.
That was pretty much it this week, but there has been some progress so like always, I am looking forward to next week's therapy. It continues to help both me and my son.
Showing posts with label physical therapy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label physical therapy. Show all posts
Sunday, June 7, 2015
Friday, May 22, 2015
Physical Therapy 05/11/15
This was not a good session. Totally not on the part of T. the Physical Therapist, but because of the two year old boy who decided to throw tantrums and push his limits/show off in front of a stranger.
He decided he would toss wooden blocks as hard as he could all over the apartment. T told him that is not good for a big boy to do amd made him put the blocks away. He did not like having to follow directions. The good thing was they played a bit and he stirred the blocks with a spoon for gross motor work.
I feel it has been a while since we had PT. There have actually been several updates we had for her, including that he now goes up and down stairs either with use of the railing or by holding hands.
The next thing for us to work on at home is climbing. I am nervous about this, but he need to learn how to do it. I am to assist him climb as necessary.
Our next visit will be at a playground, which I am looking forward to.
Monday, April 6, 2015
PT/Early Intervention Co Visit 4/6/15
Because of the sheer number of therapies my son is in, it is easier to have the visiys combined so we do not have 10 individual hour long visits a month. I like the people that are working with us, but it is daunting sometimes.
T. is the Physical Therapist and A. is the E.I. coordinator. I told them both about the visit with the cousins we had and how I was concerned. (http://momlovesscifi.blogspot.com/2015/03/thoughts-on-this-weekends-trip.html)T. said that I should discuss my concerns with the Pediatrician and if needed, her and A. could recommend some specialists, but to take my time and think about maybe if it was an anxiety thing and not necessarily a developmental issue.
My son has a bit of a cold so it was even harder to engage him than usual. We have been working on the "W" sitting and got to show T. our progress.
Because my son is starting Speech Therapy on the 15th, we discussed M. the Speech Therapist. She works closely with T. so they will make several co-visits.
A. gave me the phone number of the pedatric optomitrist H. recommended on the OT evaluation.
The next time we see T. will be at the park because the weather is nicer. Hopefully it doesn't rain.
It was a kind of off visit only because my son was sick and tired and grumpy, poor little man. Hopefully Speech Therapy on the 15th will be more productive. I am very excited about starting speech.
T. is the Physical Therapist and A. is the E.I. coordinator. I told them both about the visit with the cousins we had and how I was concerned. (http://momlovesscifi.blogspot.com/2015/03/thoughts-on-this-weekends-trip.html)T. said that I should discuss my concerns with the Pediatrician and if needed, her and A. could recommend some specialists, but to take my time and think about maybe if it was an anxiety thing and not necessarily a developmental issue.
My son has a bit of a cold so it was even harder to engage him than usual. We have been working on the "W" sitting and got to show T. our progress.
Because my son is starting Speech Therapy on the 15th, we discussed M. the Speech Therapist. She works closely with T. so they will make several co-visits.
A. gave me the phone number of the pedatric optomitrist H. recommended on the OT evaluation.
The next time we see T. will be at the park because the weather is nicer. Hopefully it doesn't rain.
It was a kind of off visit only because my son was sick and tired and grumpy, poor little man. Hopefully Speech Therapy on the 15th will be more productive. I am very excited about starting speech.
Monday, March 16, 2015
Physical Therapy 3/16/15 as well as another positive development.
The last time T. the Physical Therapist was here, she gave me some things to work on.
1. My son "W-sits". He has low muscle tone so he sits like this :
(This is not my son. This is just a Google image)
I was told to correct this.
2. My son doesn't like to feed himself. This is another developmental issue we are working on. I don't mean feeding himself with utensils, I mean he doesn't like feeding himself with his hands. I am to encourage self-feeding.
3. My son has low muscle tone so I was to think of ways to encourage him to use his muscles by making him move in unexpected ways. The example she used was having him sit on pillows and then he would have to use his leg muscles to balance.
When T. came today we had lots to talk about. Since her last visit, we visited friends who have a sunken living room. My son learned that by putting his hands on the step in front of him, he could climb up the stairs. This used problem solving and helped used muscles. He has been eating the majority of his lunches by himself. Today I made him chicken nuggets, celery bites, avocado and tomato slices for lunch. He usually picks out the chicken and makes me feed him the veggies, but today he ate it all by himself. To work on balance and muscle tone, last week I took him outside and held his hands and had him walk over our slushy, icy backyard. She had only positive feedback and agreed it is hard to think of a lot of outside winter activities for a toddler for pt purposes but soon we will be going to playgrounds for pt.
T. then played with my son. I got him this Melissa & Doug puzzle at a yardsale:
This puzzle is great for him because it develops fine motor skills and language. They played with the puzzle and then she pointed to the cat and asked him what it was. His response? "meeo". Like "meow". This is the first time ever my son made an association. We both stared at him, then I started clapping. Then he kind of looked at T. and said it again like she should totally know that its a cat.
Then T. and my son read a Bob the Builder counting book. She is really pleased with his progress.
We discussed how we only have a year left of early intervention and then she planned a visit for April. I will share how that visit goes as well.
1. My son "W-sits". He has low muscle tone so he sits like this :
(This is not my son. This is just a Google image)
I was told to correct this.
2. My son doesn't like to feed himself. This is another developmental issue we are working on. I don't mean feeding himself with utensils, I mean he doesn't like feeding himself with his hands. I am to encourage self-feeding.
3. My son has low muscle tone so I was to think of ways to encourage him to use his muscles by making him move in unexpected ways. The example she used was having him sit on pillows and then he would have to use his leg muscles to balance.
When T. came today we had lots to talk about. Since her last visit, we visited friends who have a sunken living room. My son learned that by putting his hands on the step in front of him, he could climb up the stairs. This used problem solving and helped used muscles. He has been eating the majority of his lunches by himself. Today I made him chicken nuggets, celery bites, avocado and tomato slices for lunch. He usually picks out the chicken and makes me feed him the veggies, but today he ate it all by himself. To work on balance and muscle tone, last week I took him outside and held his hands and had him walk over our slushy, icy backyard. She had only positive feedback and agreed it is hard to think of a lot of outside winter activities for a toddler for pt purposes but soon we will be going to playgrounds for pt.
T. then played with my son. I got him this Melissa & Doug puzzle at a yardsale:
This puzzle is great for him because it develops fine motor skills and language. They played with the puzzle and then she pointed to the cat and asked him what it was. His response? "meeo". Like "meow". This is the first time ever my son made an association. We both stared at him, then I started clapping. Then he kind of looked at T. and said it again like she should totally know that its a cat.
Then T. and my son read a Bob the Builder counting book. She is really pleased with his progress.
We discussed how we only have a year left of early intervention and then she planned a visit for April. I will share how that visit goes as well.
Friday, March 13, 2015
I'm back!
Holy cow. It has been way, way too long.
Sorry for the long absence.
So just to bring everything up to speed, here's what happened. I was working at a job that is about two hours from my house. I pretty much only was home for six hours a day. Last June, I quit my job due to daycare being crazy expensive. Since then, my son has been seeing a physical therapist, a nutritionist, and Early Intervention. Turns out my son has low muscle tone, and developmental delays. We have also had ear infections, flus, vomiting viruses and many other sicknesses.
I don't plan on taking such a long absence again.
I actually want to jump right into things.
So I want to change the focus of the blog a teeny, tiny bit. I want to start sharing what its like having a child with developmental delays and talk about his therapy as we go through this. I still want to talk about other parent things, and pop culture things, but I really need an outlet to discuss what is going on.
What prompted all of this was at his 3 month checkup he could not hold his head up very high. He could hold it up, but not high. At his six month checkup he wasn't rolling and he had a hard time sitting up. We had an Early Intervention evaluation, and he scored pretty high so no services were sought. At eight months, he could not hold his own bottle, and he wasn't crawling. The pediatrician sent us back to Early Intervention. At 10 months he could finally hold his own bottle. After several months of hard work, at 15 months he started to crawl. I cried. He laughed and looked at me like I was nuts and crawled like a pro for the rest of the day. Shortly after this, he started Physical Therapy. After much more hard work, at 21 months, he stood up and walked. And walked and walked. I was speechless. Now we approaching the two year mark and he is not talking so we are going to start speech therapy shortly. We have seen a neurologist who also recommended Occupational Therapy.
It is very frustrating because I never know what is working, and what is not. I never know what is getting through to him, and what is just frustrating him. He would scream like he was being tortured when I was trying to get him in the crawling position, but when he was ready, he just took off. The walking was the same. He would sometimes walk if I held his hand or hands, but he would scream and cry. I thought for a while he was in physical pain because of this. I would not take him on long walks either, just from the living room to the changing table or from the living room to the high chair. Then, one day at my mother's house, he stopped playing with his toys, stood up, and walked the length of her house.
Another specific challenge I would like to share is the transition to sippy cups. This was another stage that would make me weep. We owned a great variety of sippy cups to help ease the transition. We also did not even attempt to transition until crawling started. When you first gave him the cup, he would scream. This evolved to screaming and then throwing the cup. This is how we lost our first sippy cup. RIP Munchkin sippy cup. Eventually, he would raise the cup to his mouth, but would let the liquid within pour down his face and chest requiring a complete outfit change. Finally at 21 months, we somehow put it all together. He drank from the cup! This is where frustrating comes in. I know its hard to transition,but having a kid with developmental delays means we don't like change. It takes hard work to see progress and its normally many months in coming.
I will continue to talk about this ongoing. If you have any questions, feel free to comment below. Or if you are going through the same thing, or went through the same thing, I would like to hear about it, if you want to share.
To change topics...........I recently saw Frozen.
Just a quick rant, I do not boycott or dislike Disney. I do however feel that they were on the right track with Old Yeller and Bambi. Sometimes bad things happen. This is life. I really like fairy tales and The Little Mermaid, though sad actually has a point. You can't force people to like you and don't change who you are to achieve that end. I have not seen the animated Disney version, but I hear it does not end with Ariel becoming sea foam. The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a very dark gothic novel that explores love, lust, desire, envy, and greed. It has a very touching ending after a thrilling climax. Once again, I have not seen the animated version, but I hear that Esmeralda and the Hunchback are not found with skeletons entwined in the catacombs years later. I have not seen an animated Disney movie in a very long time but I heard Frozen was the one to watch.
I like how this is not a typical "one day my prince will come story". Of course its there and its actually sad to me how "ordinary" Anna needs a husband that badly. Being ordinary is extraordinary! There is nothing like the adventures one can have on one's own, especially at 18. I like how its about family relationships, reminiscent of Pixar's Brave.
However, it felt rushed. It is not a short movie, but I felt that the story was almost forced. The musical numbers are not spread out, they are mushed together in the first half of the story. I felt it would have been a lot more enjoyable if it had focused more on animation and story.
While I am reviewing things, I would like to briefly review Ready Player One by Ernest Cline and The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield.
Ready Player One is like if someone scooped up all of pop culture from the late 70's to the early 90's and made a video game out of it, and then played that video game in a dystopian future. Literally that is the what the book is. I highly recommend this book to everyone everywhere.
The Thirteenth Tale is a wonderful story crafted by a master storyteller. The protagonist works in her father's bookstore and is asked to write the truth about a reclusive author. The book takes place in England but does not specify the year or decade in which it takes place. This gives the book a very timeless feel. This book I recommend to people who enjoy stories. It is a ghost story without a ghost. It is a love story between twins. I loved this book.
Before I go for the day...........I wanted to share a recipe.
My son is a toddler and I try very hard to make him eat nutritious foods. I am a SAHM now and I really don't want every lunch to be peanut butter.
In an effort to shake things up a bit, yesterday I opened up a can of black beans, sauteed a quarter of a yellow onion, cut up four celery stalks, diced a tomato, added some frozen chicken stock (recipe and tips coming soon), added powdered garlic, and tossed in some cheddar cheese and heated it all up on the stove. I squeezed fresh lime over the soup and my son was laughing and smiling while eating it. It was cheap and easy to make.
I promise it won't take two years for me to write again because this is fun :) I hope to be back early next week.
Sorry for the long absence.
So just to bring everything up to speed, here's what happened. I was working at a job that is about two hours from my house. I pretty much only was home for six hours a day. Last June, I quit my job due to daycare being crazy expensive. Since then, my son has been seeing a physical therapist, a nutritionist, and Early Intervention. Turns out my son has low muscle tone, and developmental delays. We have also had ear infections, flus, vomiting viruses and many other sicknesses.
I don't plan on taking such a long absence again.
I actually want to jump right into things.
So I want to change the focus of the blog a teeny, tiny bit. I want to start sharing what its like having a child with developmental delays and talk about his therapy as we go through this. I still want to talk about other parent things, and pop culture things, but I really need an outlet to discuss what is going on.
What prompted all of this was at his 3 month checkup he could not hold his head up very high. He could hold it up, but not high. At his six month checkup he wasn't rolling and he had a hard time sitting up. We had an Early Intervention evaluation, and he scored pretty high so no services were sought. At eight months, he could not hold his own bottle, and he wasn't crawling. The pediatrician sent us back to Early Intervention. At 10 months he could finally hold his own bottle. After several months of hard work, at 15 months he started to crawl. I cried. He laughed and looked at me like I was nuts and crawled like a pro for the rest of the day. Shortly after this, he started Physical Therapy. After much more hard work, at 21 months, he stood up and walked. And walked and walked. I was speechless. Now we approaching the two year mark and he is not talking so we are going to start speech therapy shortly. We have seen a neurologist who also recommended Occupational Therapy.
It is very frustrating because I never know what is working, and what is not. I never know what is getting through to him, and what is just frustrating him. He would scream like he was being tortured when I was trying to get him in the crawling position, but when he was ready, he just took off. The walking was the same. He would sometimes walk if I held his hand or hands, but he would scream and cry. I thought for a while he was in physical pain because of this. I would not take him on long walks either, just from the living room to the changing table or from the living room to the high chair. Then, one day at my mother's house, he stopped playing with his toys, stood up, and walked the length of her house.
Another specific challenge I would like to share is the transition to sippy cups. This was another stage that would make me weep. We owned a great variety of sippy cups to help ease the transition. We also did not even attempt to transition until crawling started. When you first gave him the cup, he would scream. This evolved to screaming and then throwing the cup. This is how we lost our first sippy cup. RIP Munchkin sippy cup. Eventually, he would raise the cup to his mouth, but would let the liquid within pour down his face and chest requiring a complete outfit change. Finally at 21 months, we somehow put it all together. He drank from the cup! This is where frustrating comes in. I know its hard to transition,but having a kid with developmental delays means we don't like change. It takes hard work to see progress and its normally many months in coming.
I will continue to talk about this ongoing. If you have any questions, feel free to comment below. Or if you are going through the same thing, or went through the same thing, I would like to hear about it, if you want to share.
To change topics...........I recently saw Frozen.
Just a quick rant, I do not boycott or dislike Disney. I do however feel that they were on the right track with Old Yeller and Bambi. Sometimes bad things happen. This is life. I really like fairy tales and The Little Mermaid, though sad actually has a point. You can't force people to like you and don't change who you are to achieve that end. I have not seen the animated Disney version, but I hear it does not end with Ariel becoming sea foam. The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a very dark gothic novel that explores love, lust, desire, envy, and greed. It has a very touching ending after a thrilling climax. Once again, I have not seen the animated version, but I hear that Esmeralda and the Hunchback are not found with skeletons entwined in the catacombs years later. I have not seen an animated Disney movie in a very long time but I heard Frozen was the one to watch.
I like how this is not a typical "one day my prince will come story". Of course its there and its actually sad to me how "ordinary" Anna needs a husband that badly. Being ordinary is extraordinary! There is nothing like the adventures one can have on one's own, especially at 18. I like how its about family relationships, reminiscent of Pixar's Brave.
However, it felt rushed. It is not a short movie, but I felt that the story was almost forced. The musical numbers are not spread out, they are mushed together in the first half of the story. I felt it would have been a lot more enjoyable if it had focused more on animation and story.
While I am reviewing things, I would like to briefly review Ready Player One by Ernest Cline and The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield.
Ready Player One is like if someone scooped up all of pop culture from the late 70's to the early 90's and made a video game out of it, and then played that video game in a dystopian future. Literally that is the what the book is. I highly recommend this book to everyone everywhere.
The Thirteenth Tale is a wonderful story crafted by a master storyteller. The protagonist works in her father's bookstore and is asked to write the truth about a reclusive author. The book takes place in England but does not specify the year or decade in which it takes place. This gives the book a very timeless feel. This book I recommend to people who enjoy stories. It is a ghost story without a ghost. It is a love story between twins. I loved this book.
Before I go for the day...........I wanted to share a recipe.
My son is a toddler and I try very hard to make him eat nutritious foods. I am a SAHM now and I really don't want every lunch to be peanut butter.
In an effort to shake things up a bit, yesterday I opened up a can of black beans, sauteed a quarter of a yellow onion, cut up four celery stalks, diced a tomato, added some frozen chicken stock (recipe and tips coming soon), added powdered garlic, and tossed in some cheddar cheese and heated it all up on the stove. I squeezed fresh lime over the soup and my son was laughing and smiling while eating it. It was cheap and easy to make.
I promise it won't take two years for me to write again because this is fun :) I hope to be back early next week.
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