April Speech Therapy

Audrey has had a great few weeks in speech therapy! She continues to participate in about 10 minutes of oral motor therapy per session. She successfully puts all whistles to her mouth and is getting better lip closure each week! We are still trying to get some air into those whistles! Audrey is following one step commands with 50% accuracy. Audrey's biggest achievement this month has been her ability to point to objects and pictures in books. Audrey has begun to spontaneously point to various items and even accompanied her pointing with a vocalization today! She continues to "pick one" song card and seems to be transferring this skill to other toys (instead of reaching for both things held in front of her). We will continue working toward Audrey "finding" specific objects and pictures in books by pointing, but pointing on her own is a huge developmental milestone in the communication world! Audrey also continues to use sign language for "more" and is working on signs for "open" (which she used once this month) and "all done" (which we still do hand over hand). She also hands me things she needs help with and reaches for things she wants with great eye contact. Good Job Miss Audrey!
Liz- SLP

Audrey's Underwater Adventures

The YMCA welcomes Audrey to the main stage (pool), making it the place to be on Saturday mornings. That's right, my little perch is learning to swim. Six weeks at the Y will not prepare her for olympic greatness, but she seems to be enjoying her time in the water. She is particularly fond of the floating flowers you toss out to practice the "reach and pull," and she loves the swim class version of "wheels on the bus," which involves a good deal of splashing and baby tossing.

One of Audrey's favorite things to do while waiting for class to begin is to scoot across the floor on her bottom and try to covertly steal the equipment used by Adam's swim class. Do you remember the scene from Poltergeist where Carol Ann slides across the kitchen floor while sitting with her legs crossed? It looks something like that. In a moment, Audrey is five feet away grabbing a kickboard and giggling.

In addition to swimming, Audrey has added a few other big girl tricks to her bag. She is drinking much better from a sippy cup (now the prefered method of milk delivery unless she is really tired), pulling herself to a stand against objects for support, and doing some sort of crawl that appears to have originated in a battle trench. She is clearly getting stronger. She is also clearly getting a stronger will. Anyone who thinks that kids with disabilities don't assert their position convincingly should meet my daughter. I think I'm in trouble when she has words to go with those expressions of hers. I wonder if it will be cute or annoying when she is able to say, "Woman, if you even attempt to put that brush near my yogurt-encrusted hair, I will destroy it and you."

Rockstar on the Drums

Audrey, a.k.a. "The Rockstar" was adding to her repertoir today in PT. She thoroughly enjoyed playing the "drums" by banging her play spoons on the upside down pot in her play kitchen. She was really getting into the beat. We worked a lot on standing and getting in and out of standing. She even did it almost completely by herself once from her knees! She continues to enjoy standing and especially likes playing hand games and singing songs while standing leaning her back on the chair. Way to go Audrey!

Physical Therapy 4/9/08

Audrey was movin' and groovin' today in PT. She did really well despite having just finished an hour of speech therapy. We worked a LOT in standing today. She practiced pulling herself up to stand, standing to play at her kitchen and at other furniture, and even trying to move side to side to reach her toys. She really seems proud of herself when she is standing up. She wasn't as interested in being on her hands and knees but did really well pulling herself around the room on her tummy. Keep it up, Audrey!

OT 04/07/2008

Audrey was a little rockstar today! Audrey scooted on her belly to retrieve toys of her choice, with a little encouragement of course, but was extremely delighted when accomplishing the task! Audrey placed colored shapes on pegs, placing about 2 pieces by trial and error! She again played with her favorite beads, using her pincer grasp with both hands to place the beads in a water bottle and shaking the bottle each time after her accomplishment! Audrey prefers using her right hand over her left, but is working hard to improve her grasp with both hands. Audrey was able to maintain her balance while sitting on my leg and reaching for toys almost entirely by herself! We also worked on raising up to a 4 point position on her hands and knees while watching Dragon Tales. Audrey was able to hold this position for 25 seconds today; a new record! Audrey continues to make great progress in OT!
P.S. I have a new student, Laura...for the next 3 months (she wrote this : ) )

March PT

Physical therapy has been going very well for Audrey. She gets stronger every time I see her. She is moving around on her tummy and in sitting very well. She is really trying to pull up onto her knees now. She is so interested in all of her toys and is really working to get to them. We have been working on more and more standing lately as well. She stood for several minutes today leaning only her back against a chair and playing pat-a-cake and singing songs. She smiled proudly the whole time! Keep up the good work, Audrey!