July's OT note

Audrey has been doing great in OT! She is beginning to place shapes in shape-sorter (2-5 of 5 correct each session) She can stack 2-3 blocks then knocks over the tower or throws the blocks. Doing well with 2-handed activities that require some strength to complete. Completes a 3 piece basic shape puzzle independently. Still working on a more refined pincer grasp, but uses a functional grasp to pick up small objects. Lots of spilling/spitting out of liquid when drinking from an open cup. Her jaw is more stable, but she doesn't close her mouth to swallow once the fluid is in her mouth. Audrey can poke with a fork and scoop with a spoon, however still needs a lot of help with self feeding. As always, cute as a button!

July Speech

Unfortunately, due to an IFSP meeting, family vacation, and Ms. Liz's summer cold Audrey was only seen twice this month for speech therapy. She definitely packed it in for those two sessions! Exciting news.... Audrey blew a whistle for the first time on 7/30/08. She was very proud of herself. Audrey attempted to imitate me 7 times and requested objects with signs/words 5/10 times. She is identifying objects from a field of two with 60% accuracy and we have begun working on identifying pictures on flashcards as well. She is following 1 step commands with 75% accuracy. During our meeting we made a plan to work on the following concepts through talking and signs during August: up, down, eat, drink, and help. We will also be working on lip closure.
Andy & Kama- I left some oral motor exercises at Mary's for you. These will strengthen and increase awareness of Audrey's lips, cheeks, and jaw, which will in turn encourage lip closure at rest. I will leave chewy tubes in her bag next Wednesday and you can use a vibrating toothbrush for any of the vibrating exercises. I will continue to look for exercises specfic to lip closure as well! Please call me with questions!

Liz

Speech Therapy - June

Audrey did an awesome job in speech therapy this past month!  She has become quite the little communicator!  She is attempting to imitate more words each time we meet.  This month Audrey attempted to imitate more- "m", cheese-"ch", yes-"na" with a head nod, and cups-"tu".  She also did an excellent job of using her head nods and shakes to let me know yes and no.  She continues to sign more, open, and all done with verbal/physical cueing.  On the receptive side of things Audrey identified pictures with pointing with 50% accuracy.  She followed one step commands 15/20 times.  We are continuing to work on imitating some oral motor movements such as sticking out her tongue, puckering lips, blowing, etc.  Audrey was definitely moving around during therapy and getting the things she wanted.  She seemed to feel much better in June as well, and did a great job!