Friday, March 28, 2008

Therapy update

It's been hard for me to get used to taking Natalie to her therapy clinic for many reasons, one of which is now I'm not watching her therapy (as I was when the therapists came to our home) and knowing what to work on the rest of the week. I've felt like there isn't good communication on how she's doing and what we should do with her at home.

Natalie's OT (who still comes to our home) suggested putting a notebook in her diaper bag so the therapists could write down what she did and what we should work on. I've been pleasantly surprised at how well it has worked.

For PT, the notes are mostly how much and what kind of stretching we should work on (because her improvement toward walking is very evident every time I pick her up from the clinic). Natalie is very tight in her hips and abdominal muscles, so we do a lot of stretching at home there. Have I mentioned that we have the best PT in the state? Caryn is fantastic and we feel so blessed that Natalie has her as a therapist.

For Speech, Natalie's therapist is working on environmental sounds (beep, brrrm, eating noises, etc) and animal sounds to try to get her to mimic them. Also, getting her to say "ahhh" and "h". Natalie has been saying "mama" a lot more lately, but only when we ask her to say it. She has said "more" and "please" and "more please", but usually only once, with many weeks in between the next occurrence. She's also working on categories of items, like showing the therapist food or animals, and using the PECS system.

Go Natalie!

No comments: