FFF: Therapy with Karis - 6 months in

I've been working this post over in my head for weeks now.  Do you know what that means???  It's long, long, long!  I apologize in advance.  If Hugh were writing this, he'd have written a series of 4 separate posts, but my mind doesn't work that efficiently (yet)...  So, if you've been wondering about how we are doing 6 mos into therapy, this is the post for you.  I'm going to try and cover some common questions, but if there are any I didn't think of, feel free to comment below, and I'll add it to the post.  Without further ado...

How is therapy going?

ST - eating with a spoon

I would say that overall therapy is going really well.  Hugh and I are so thankful for the therapists who are working with us to help Karis develop to her full potential.  Each of our therapists are talented in their specific fields and seem to enjoy seeing our Sweet Girl hit milestones almost as much as we do.  At this stage, our Speech Therapist (ST) is seeing the most rapid progress, with Karis learning new eating skills almost weekly.  Our Physical Therapist (PT) is also seeing continual progress from our determined little mover.  However, because we are in the teething phase right now where everything goes into Karis' mouth, our Occupational Therapist (OT) is seeing only slow progress.  She has assured me that this stage is typical and will pass soon, and she has been a trouper about working around Sweet Girl's non-stop attempts to mouth whatever she puts in front of her.  :)  Our therapists have also been so good to work with our tight schedule so that I can come during Enoch's nap time while Hugh works from home a few days per week.  This helps me focus more on learning how to work with Karis during a therapy session (as opposed to focusing on Enoch's obedience while his 2 year old self tries to sit still with self control in a room full of new and exciting toys that he's not supposed to touch... that's a tough job for a little guy... and his mama!).

PT - prop sitting

Milestones Karis has met (praise God for the progress!!!):

• rolling over 
• prop sitting
• sitting unsupported (no propping)
• kneeling
• grabbing & holding a toy while laying or sitting
• picking up puffs and putting them into her mouth
• drinking from a straw cup
• eating solids with a spoon

Goals for OT (Occupational Therapy - fine motor skills):

• raking objects with her hand (open palm grasp)
• pincer grasp (thumb & pointer finger)
• transferring toys from one hand to the other
• clapping hands together

OT - working on clapping

Goals for PT (Physical Therapy - gross motor skills):

• kneeling longer and more independently
• quadruped position (hands & knees)
• pivoting 180 degrees on belly
• propping up on extended arms while on belly (longer duration)
• protective response righting reaction (extended arms)

PT - working out her core muscles

Here is a video from a few months back showing one of the core strengthening exercises our PT would do with Karis on the exercise ball.  As you watch it, notice how she is learning to pull her head back to center when her body leans to the side.  That is called a "righting" reaction.  

She's mastered this one very well now, but there is one other one left for her to learn that has to do with sitting up.  Basically, when she is sitting and begins to fall, she needs to learn how to catch her self with her arm so that she can push back up to the middle (and thus "right" herself again); this is the protective response listed above.  (If that isn't making much sense and you want to understand it better, go to this video and watch around the 4:30 mark as they explain it.)

Goals for ST (Speech Therapy):

• continued improvement in chewing and swallowing
• learning to keep her tongue in
• chewing thicker/clumpy solids
• ability to eat sitting up straight in high chair (right now she's reclined a bit)

ST - drinking from a straw cup