Natalie at school

While Kathrin was with us, I took the opportunity to go visit Natalie's school for the whole class time. Often I went for the first hour while Tom was home for lunch (and watching the boys) and once I went early to watch the end of class before whisking Natalie off to a doctor's appointment, but I'd never sat through the whole 2.5 hours.

That day started with speech...you can see a little of what Miss Becky works with Natalie on, in the video.


Then we went to Natalie's class, where she was the one that day who led the class in counting the days of the month and the days of the week (I didn't use the flash in these pictures, and it shows, but I didn't want to distract the kids).

During group OT, they played with a parachute and colored on their bellies...both things that help Natalie, because she has a hard time being strong with her arms above her head.

Regular class time is very much like a group speech and a group OT class rolled into one. There is lots of emphasis in speaking 3-4 word sentences (as much as each individual child is able) and a lot of work with fine motor skills.

And at the end, they all hug each other...I hadn't seen this before, so it was neat to see. Natalie enjoys hugging everyone, but if some of the boys get a little too friendly, she's quick to tell them she's had enough. Her teacher and aides have said that all the kids like Natalie, and a few of the boys are protective of her. It was nice to know the boy who rides the bus with her is also one of the ones who is protective of her.

Natalie loves lining up to walk out to the buses, but she prefers to be at the back to make sure everyone is coming along. Here she is in the middle of the line, which is not what she prefers, but good practice so she isn't always at the end!

It was great to see Natalie in her classroom environment. From my perspective, she still appears to have the most physical delays of anyone in her class, but that's how we want it! We want her to have examples to work toward.