Peter - CarePage - December 22nd, 2008

PT @ TCH - 

Peter had his physical therapy assessment at The Children's Hospital - Denver today. We again were able to see Pat Winders who I told you about many months ago. She is the number one PT for kids with DS in the world. She is so inspiring and so positive! She was thrilled with Peter's progress since last time she saw him. He has come such a long way. I think she was equally as excited to see him off of oxygen and getting so healthy. She was surprised at his agility and speed in the army crawl arena - that kid burns rubber - think he gets it from my dad who used to race cars.... love of speed runs in the family. Alexandra and Jack came up for the session too - Jack wanted to escape Colorado Springs, make new friends and unfortunately spilt water all over the computer in the evaluation room. Oops! The thing was still running when we left - so hopefully no bill for that repair - yikes! He was his normal chatty self - he really knows no strangers. Alexandra really wanted to fully partake in the session and share her observations on Peter - but was frustrated that Jack needed some entertaining at times. 

Peter now has his new goals to get to the next level - the first being working towards independent walking. She wants him to take steps forward. We've worked on it some up until now, but he somewhat resisted it, and keeps his knees locked. Pat said we shouldn't worry yet about the locking knees or position of feet since he is at this time insecure and not pulled together. He doesn't have good balance at this time for walking, but she believes that as he gets stronger and more confident in his moves he will take off like he did with the army crawl. 

Pat also wants Peter to work on cruising to the right. While he doesn't really enjoy cruising, he will if it is to reach something on the couch - but generally he will go to the left. We need to work on going to the right. She also wants us to work on crawling on all fours. I've noticed recently that he has been pulling his knees in more as he army crawls - but he doesn't want to push up and walk his hands. She used the same technique that Kerry (our PT) has used - so we need to work on that more at home now. 

The last thing we need to work on is reinforcing the turning and sliding to come down stairs or off of furniture. Right now he does pretty good coming off furniture, and sliding down if he is half way climbing the stairs. However, if he is already at the top he won't turn onto his tummy and slide down naturally. She talked about using single word commands per se. So instead of saying "now turn and climb down the stairs" we should just say "down" and point. She called it "labels". So single word labels that let Peter know what to do. So we need to teach him that down means "I turn onto my tummy and push backwards". Admittedly this was somewhat of a new concept to me. I know that I have used single words or short commands in the past with the other kids, but by nature I am a pretty chatty person (I know - gasp - what a surprise! catherine is NOT a person of few words??!!). As a result I tend to talk a lot to Peter. I guess I just figured he was learning vocabulary and sounds in the process of me talking to him. And I am sure he is - but now I must rethink when to be chatty and work on sounds and vocabulary, and when to use single labels to teach an action or response. As a side note - our older kids teachers have often commented on their vocabulary as young kids - don't take me wrong- they are not users of the finer form of English - but they used a lot of words to communicate or tell stories. I think that is as a result of John and I both NOT being people of few words. Hmmm.... I guess that explains Jack and his addiction to talking. 

Anyway, I digress once again. But, honestly Peter is doing great! She was gracious to not compare Peter to any other child - a sign of professionalism if you ask me - but I would suspect he is in the middle of the pack. Which honestly is fine with me.... as long as he is progressing the speed is less of an issue. My pediatrician has always told me speed is not reflective of how far you get - and some kids are slow persistent little turtles that will eventually surpass the hares in group. I like to believe that is Peter..... the little persistent bear (not turtle) who smiles and keeps trying and trying and trying. He obviously isn't the fastest but he might just go the furthest!

Here are a few pics from the session. 

Love to all - 

catherine

Here Peter is playing on a cool toy which she would gentle push to make him walk. Since he really didn't realize he was doing it he was more cooperative - but she still positioned behind him so that he wouldn't flop on his butt like he does when he doesn't want to stand

"Seriously?! you think I am going to walk??!! ha ha ha!"

Putting a motivator in front of Peter (the toy) at a higher level - so higher than floor level which he could army crawl to, but lower than a couch which he would just cruise or reach standing.  You can see the positioning, the encouraging forward and celebrating the victory. 

 

 

 

"If I go floppy can I stop?!"

  

Beautiful sis Alexandra