Occupational Therapy A-Go-Go!

I have come to absolutely LOVE Tuesdays, as these are the days we alternate Occupational Therapy with Physical Therapy! Today his two teachers/Occupational Therapists came to introduce to him a new realm of toys to help him with his sensory issues. What's best is the fact that these ladies are teaching ME so much on how to deal with him being freaked out by certain textures and how get him to play with toys that typically would for no better explanation - freak him out.

You know how you always see the home videos of kids devouring their cake at their birthdays or grabbing handfuls of food to shove in their face? Not this kid. When he touched the frosting on his little cupcake at his birthday party he pulled his hand back in absolute disgust and looked as if he had stuck his hand on a cactus.  He did not enjoy it and he wanted to have nothing to do with his cute monster themed cupcake.

So today, the Occuplational Therapists introduced new toys and textures to him to see how he'd react. There were a few toys he wanted nothing to do with (a squishy rubber frog and two things resembling kush balls) but he enjoyed playing with a crinkly mylar balloon, a small slinky and a crinkly spiral ribbon that looked like an old gift wrapping bow. He does not do squishy, apparently.

It was interesting to watch how he'd explore the toy with his feet and how he'd hide his little hands behind his back so the icky toy couldn't touch him. However, if it was a toy he became okay with, he would eventually grab it to further inspect it with his hands. He of course is a baby and gets bored easily so within the course of an hour we did a lot but they are confident that they are seeing great improvements in his behavior so that made this mama feel pretty good about that end of things.

I try to spend the majority of my day with him on the floor playing. He loathes walkers, jumparoos, bumbos and the door frame jumpers. He does not like the feeling of just being stuck in something at all. Our PT advised us against the use of those gadgets and advised us to stick with floor time and it seems to be paying off even though my neck and back may disagree.

Right now, Abram just turned one and is functioning at about a six month old level. I'm okay with this considering when I met these ladies Abram couldn't sit up at all and wasn't even attempting to crawl.  He can now eat a variety of foods (not just purees) and he moves in with his mouth to indicate that he wants more. He still can't pick up small foods or drink from a sippy but he can finally hold his own bottle so that is one hurdle I consider conquered. If I concentrated on all the things he *can't* do I would become overwhelmed and wouldn't be able to see the importance of all the little things.

So, he might not be hitting his milestones but he is learning and improving every single day and those are the moments that matter the most.

---