Therapy Update

Several of you have asked what type of therapy Aidyn receives so I figured I would try to explain it here by telling you what we are working on this week. She currently has weekly visits with a physical therapist and speech pathologist. And both have suggested that she get occupational therapy too, so they will decide soon if they want to handle the OT or whether an OT needs to come to the house weekly too.

For physical therapy this week we are working on bending Aidyn's knees. (Remember while we were in China we were amazed that she couldn't bend at the waist, same thing with the knees). She has always been able to stand--very strong leg muscles for standing position. Doctors say this is likely bc she was placed in a walker too much in China. But the muscles she should use to get from standing to sitting were nonexistent. To go from standing to sitting she either falls over or does the splits. So her therapist has shown us how to bend her knees and we practice
this every day.

Also this week we are working with Aidyn's hands, fingers, and wrists. We apply pressure to them by holding her elbow in one of our hands and working her hand with our other hand. As you probably have noticed she keeps her hands fisted most of the time. She doesn't like new textures. When she encounters an object she is curious, so she touches it and lets go quickly and shrinks her hands back toward her chest into tight fists. Doctors say this is likely bc she wasn't given toys to play with as a baby. So we are working to provide her with new sensory experiences for her hands. We place her hands in a tub of rice and let her make a mess with the grains. We go to the park and play with gumballs, pine cones, leaves and sticks.

For speech this week we are working on getting her to close her lips. We have three exercises that we do three times a day. (similar to what we did when spence was born). When we feed her we have always had to rake the spoon across the top of her mouth to get the food off. Her therapist gave us a special spoon that we use at each feeding and we have to encourage her to get the food. Of course as tricksy as she is, she learned after two seconds that she could turn her head once the spoon is placed in her mouth and then the sides of her mouth rake the food off for her. It's pretty funny.

She is doing really well now. We haven't had a meltdown since December 7th. She seems very happy and is crying less and smiling more. Seems the change in behavior coincided with when she learned to sit up by herself so I think she is really enjoying her new independence. Yesterday I went to get her after naptime and she was standing in her crib so I had to raise the rails so she won't fall out. Our baby girl will soon be a toddler.

Marsha