Yesterday Von had his first appointment for physical therapy. He cied most of the time she was there, and when he wasnt crying he was clinging to either me or grandma. Thankfully she was able to observe him and get some ideas about how hes moving and what he is and is not doing. We talked in length about the things he is doing, and she was very impressed with the ease he has with walking. He has only been walking 6 months but she said he appears like hes been walking much longer. She said most kids that have only been walking 6 months would be very unstable yet, and hes actually running now which she also found unusual. So we felt really good about that. Von doesnt kneel, he doesnt sit on his knees, he cant walk up stairs independently, he cant sit up from laying down unless he flips himself over and uses his hands, when he bends at his knees and stands in a crouching position he often has to hold on to something for support, and that got us to talking about how all of those activities require a lot of core strength. Von does not have muscles that are fused in his stomach. So while his muscles have strength they are not working together, and thus he is unable to do things that would require you to use stability through the core. He will have to find ways to compensate, and we are going to work on very simple things to see if he can try to do things. This week she wants us to work on teaching him how to slide down the stairs, so that he can find some independence in his movement, and she wants us to work on teaching him to kneel. We also discussed the severity of his asthma, and she gave us exercises to do to help strengthen his diaphragm. She said it is a muscle, and if we can help that gain strength we may be able to improve some of the windedness he experiences. This week she wants us to show him how to blow and then once he learns to blow he will understand how to suck. Suckign through a straw apparently is really good for stamina. Its amazing what we learn every time we meet a new therapist. Overall she was so very nice and said he is doing well, but definitely sees delays in his gross motor. We have a busy list of homework, and we have other things our cognitive teacher wants us to work on. This week we are working on Ready, Set, Go to teach him the word Go and the versatility of it. She also wants us to use B words a lot and get him to use more B words. I never realized how much work it was to teach a child with cognitive delays. Please dont ever take for granted that your child just can learn easily, becuase of those of us that struggle - very easy things can be incredibly difficult.
Posted on: Thu, 11 Sep 2014 14:08:07 +0000
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