Isaac's PT
When Isaac was about 8 mos. old, I started to get concerned about his motor skills. He seemed to have very weak core strength and still could not sit at all. Even when sitting supported, he would slump to one side. He arched his back all.the.time, and he was just way behind Alexander, which was weird since they're twins. After almost 3 mos. with no gross motor progress, I called Help Me Grow, Ohio's early intervention program. After a few rescheduled appointment, they finally came out to assess him and approved him for physical therapy. Cathy, his fabulous PT, initally thought he would only need a few biweekly sessions and be caught up. Well, that didn't work out so well. After about 3 of those, she increased his session to weekly because he just wasn't really progressing.
With the weekly sessions, he started making great progress, finally walking full time at about 15 mos. Okay, great, he's ready to be discharged. His balance is much better, he can walk, what is there, right? And then he fell down the steps, right after learning how to climb up them. I was upstairs rinsing his diaper out, and somehow in that 60 seconds, he got up at least some of the steps and fell back down. I heard a "thump thump" and came running to find Gabe trying to puck him pu at the bottom of the stairs. I suspect he was trying to stand up on the step after crawling up and overcorrected and fell backward, as he tends to do. When I told Cathy, who had just taught him to go up the steps at the last session, she decided to extend him for a while to teach him how to go up and down more safely and also how to balance on non-solid surfaces, which he still can't do. So now we're working on stepping up and down, coming down the stairs feet first, and balancing on foam cushions, which we'll be getting a set of for practice. Balancing on non-solid surfaces doesn't seem like a big deal until you consider that sand, snow, and mud, all of which we have a good bit of in Ohio, are all non-solid surfaces. Grass and mulch are also issues for him. So we're still working, and Cathy is back to coming every week after briefly putting him back to every other week. Hopefully, he'll gain both balance and confidence soon, but until then, this is our Fridays.
With the weekly sessions, he started making great progress, finally walking full time at about 15 mos. Okay, great, he's ready to be discharged. His balance is much better, he can walk, what is there, right? And then he fell down the steps, right after learning how to climb up them. I was upstairs rinsing his diaper out, and somehow in that 60 seconds, he got up at least some of the steps and fell back down. I heard a "thump thump" and came running to find Gabe trying to puck him pu at the bottom of the stairs. I suspect he was trying to stand up on the step after crawling up and overcorrected and fell backward, as he tends to do. When I told Cathy, who had just taught him to go up the steps at the last session, she decided to extend him for a while to teach him how to go up and down more safely and also how to balance on non-solid surfaces, which he still can't do. So now we're working on stepping up and down, coming down the stairs feet first, and balancing on foam cushions, which we'll be getting a set of for practice. Balancing on non-solid surfaces doesn't seem like a big deal until you consider that sand, snow, and mud, all of which we have a good bit of in Ohio, are all non-solid surfaces. Grass and mulch are also issues for him. So we're still working, and Cathy is back to coming every week after briefly putting him back to every other week. Hopefully, he'll gain both balance and confidence soon, but until then, this is our Fridays.
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