Go Forward, Move Ahead

Amelia was able to alternate her feet and apply pressure to make the tricycle move at OT last week! Now that the afternoons are not so blazing hot, I want to get her out front on the sidewalk and get her  moving.

Last week I tried to get some hay from the feed store and they didn't have any, but I started talking to the owner and found out that he has an adult Downs Syndrome daughter and he is very knowledgeable about special needs therapy (he was once in the industry). His daughter shows lambs competitively! He just got some new lambs in a few days before and took us to go see them. Amelia picked some grass and tried to feed it to them, but they were still a bit skittish so they never got very close to them. She kept picking grass and putting it in the feeder for them.

A couple weekends ago we took Amelia to the mall where they have a huge play area. She loves climbing on the cars and crawling through the tunnels. Todd takes her all the time, but it was the first time I went. It was interesting to see how she negotiated her way through the throngs of kids going pell mell everywhere.

She is learning to draw circles! We got a cute easel from her Aunt Catherine that has a draw erase board on one side and a chalk board on the other. I have some sidewalk chalk that her Aunt Sarah gave her and she drew several nice circles yesterday on the board. She works on this in OT a little bit and she LOVES playing with chalk. The trick is to get her to keep it on the board, because she also like to try to draw on herself and the furniture. I am thinking it is time to use the sidewalk chalk on the sidewalk. I think she is going to love this since the driveway and sidewalk is the biggest easel ever.

 

Yesterday we took a walk around the neighborhood. We took out the wagon so I could pull Amelia around, but she refused to get in and wanted to pull the wagon. So I let her. We got half way around the block before she finally got too tired to do it any more. She dropped the handle and walked away from it. So I put her in and pulled her the rest of the way. She is very strong and determined.

I now have a bin of beans for her to play with. Every day I am supposed to do some sensory things with her so that she gets the input she needs to wake up her nervous system. It looks so neat and tidy at OT when she does this. She has a couple cups in the bin that she is supposed to use as scoops, but she uses them to fling the beans all over the room. Instead of calming her down she gets very amped up. Then she likes to sweep her hands through the beans she has dumped and fling them around some more. So she gets to play for five minutes and I get to clean for fifteen. 

Another sensory activity suggested to me is at bath time to use textured gloves to rub on her arms, legs and back. I happen to have two of them as well as a back brush, so I am starting to implement those into bath time along with bath tubs paints and crayons. The bath tub is a great place to corral her to get a little extra sensory therapy time in before the day ends.

She loves going to school. Such a radical change from the beginning of the year! She had Friday and Monday off. Yesterday I mentioned school twice and she repeated "school." This morning I told her she was going to school and she got a huge grin on her face. That's a good sign.

This afternoon we decorated the house for fall. She really got into playing with the box of decorations. She really enjoys feeling all kinds of different textures. When we go out for walks she wants to pat the cement, pull out pieces of grass and touch various bushes we encounter along the way.