Graduated from what, you might ask? She is only 26 months?
Laney has been in physical therapy for the past 9 months. She didn't walk until she was 18 months and although the pediatrician wasn't worried about this, she qualified for the government funded program First Steps. Due to her late walking, she then was late in other motor activities (jumping and kicking especially) and her feet rolled in. When they evaluated her 9 months ago, the physical therapist said she would qualify for braces to help stabilize her feet and this would also help her gain more muscle tone (picture of the braces below). Laney sits in the W position, which we have been working on, but I knew from her gross motor skill progression the sitting position was the only area to work on (for the record, Ella still sits in the W position and I remember sitting that way into first or second grade).
So the physical therapist and speech therapist came out ~3 weeks ago to evaluate if Laney still needed First Steps. They always send two therapists to do evaluations/re-evaluations so no area of development is missed. Although these evaluations are about 1 1/2 hours long, I love to see the toys they bring and games they play to stimulate the kids. From this eval, I realized Laney knew many more of the colors than I thought and can stack blocks amazingly high! Then the PT asked the ST to hand her the caterpillar toy. Laney turns around and says "which caterpillar toy?" They both chuckled and said, well, I guess her speech is good to go. Which it is! She amazes me daily with her vocabulary.
9 months since her initial evaluation, she can now walk up and down steps unassisted, jump up to a 6-8" platform, jump off of couches, climb up ladders and slides, kick, throw, hop, skip (kind of), run, jump....all are age appropriate and my late walker has caught up beautifully!
The official paperwork came in the mail which said that Laney was to be discharged from Physical Therapy and from First Steps. She scored above average on everything (speech, motor, cognitive, etc). It's a bitter sweet moment because although it is a time commitment (one hour a week with a physical therapist) I always loved to see the new toys and activities the therapist would bring for Laney to play with.
But all in all, I am proud of my baby girl. She has worked very hard on her gross motor skills and is now so strong!
5 comments:
Ella was in PT with FS until she was 9 months old due to tortocolis. I actually loved having them over each week...they gave such great insight into her development, and we learned such great "tricks" from them to help her develop her motor skills. I missed them too when they stopped coming! :)
Great job, Laney!!!
Yay, Laney! That is great news. I'm sure that although you are a little sad to see it end, it is a relief that she is doing so well!
It is kind of funny that you mentioned they worked with Laney on climbing the stairs and jumping off couches. I know I always try to keep my kids from doing these things, but they are actually important in their motor development. So I guess I should let them do these things more often (supervised, of course!).
I didn't know the W position wasn't a good position to sit in! That is how Clare sits! Maybe I need to call First Steps?
Congratulations, Little Laney! You are such a doll- way to go!
YAY! I felt the same way when we "graduated"! Is she going to stay in the orthodics?? I am going to keep Madda in hers for a whilebecause her foot still really turns in. :(
ugh! Blogger just ate my comment. :(
The story of her out on the playset in her diaper made me laugh! Thank goodness it was warm out that day or she might have been a tad bit chilly!
That's great news that she graduated from First Steps! I know that can be a bittersweet moment, but how great is it that you got all of that feedback about how she was doing in so many different areas. And I'm sure if there had been a graduation ceremony, she would have been the valedictorian. Way to go, Laney!
Yay Laney! It is great that FS was able to step in and help her correct the problems she had. It's a great program and I am so happy it is available to young kids. Laney, you are a rockstar. Keep up those kicks and jumps and soon enough you can be in a gymnastics class like Ella (one where hopefully the teacher watches her on the balance beam, right mom?).
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