The days here can be super intense. intense is the best word to describe the therapy that is happening with Luke. He requires a large amount of sensory activities throughout the day, there are days when of course it just doesn't happen I totally drop the ball or it happens in an organic way. There are days when I know he really needs me to focus on it and give it a lot of attention. There are so many days where I wish I had given him more.
So i bet you are wondering what it is exactly that we do?? Well Luke is on a sensory diet and for him a lot of times that means doing sensory things that calm his system down. Luke can become very jerky throughout the day, like he cant control his movements. It is kind of like watching a small bird one second his head is looking one way and then the next it is the other way but it is almost like there was no movement in between because the movement was so fast. There are other times when he can become lethargic and we need to give his system a kick start. So when his system needs calming Luke tends to seek out things like rocking, banging his head against something, swinging, having his body being squished, having deep pressure applied, chewing and most recently we have introduced body brushing and joint compression (aka bone bumping)
The body brushing and bone bumping is to happen every two hours. Then he often wants something else like he wants me to rock him or squeeze him. it is really important that we are awear of the out come of each activity. Does it calm him or does it increase his alertness? Ultimately we are trying to get his system to be ready for other activities so that he can learn. It is far too hard for him to focus and concentrate when he is bouncing around.
So once his body is in a state that can learn we are then working on: body strength, finger strength, fine motor skills, gross motor skills, puzzle work, block work, scissor work, hand wrining skills- drawing, sequential work- what comes next? Also language skills including concepts like same and different, boy and girl, doing words, size concepts, spacial concepts and using Key Word signing to help convey these messages.
This is what happens on the days when we are not seeing a doctor, pediatrician, gastoenerologist, occupational therapist, physio therapist, speech therapist, hydro therapist, opthalmologist or it is just a kindy day.
This is becoming a long post but I had it on my mind that I wanted to make a list of Luke's progress because the days slip by so fast that sometimes it feels as though we are not making any progress.
A list of what Luke could not do at four but now can.
Dress himself
go to the toilet ( we are still having accidents but he can do it!)
sit cross legged on the floor
take more than two hand steps doing the wheelbarrow
build a tower of more than 4 blocks
cut with scissors
draw a square
listen to a story
have his hair cut
answer a question
tell you something he did at kindy
go on a swing
open the car door
use a peg
draw a person
recognise any letters
recognise something is the same- he now does the sign
say a sentence more than 4-5 words
give you a hug with his arms and apply a bit of pressure
crab crawl
ask for help
understand the difference between boy and girl
know children at kindy's names
sit at mat time and listen (still could be a little better)
There a probably lots more small things that he has learnt too,but we are making progress!
