This week she used the foam letter mats as an aide to get him to go up and down the steps. She punched out the numbers and put them at the top of the landing and then up the frames at the bottom. She made him work for it and used 1-7. He had to go to the top and pick a number (his OCD wouldn't let him go out of order lol) and then take it down to the bottom and put it back into it's frame.
This is getting him into a good squatting position which they like. When he first started therapy that was one of his goals, to squat and stand back up without holding onto anything for help or even push off of his legs with his arms. I actually forgot about that until just now...
The way down is definitely trickier than the way up. His core strength still isn't where it should be and he still leans forward. She loosely holds onto one hand and places the other onto the railing for support. The idea is for him to place one foot on each step and sometimes he will do that. The more tired he gets the sloppier he gets when it comes to the stairs. By about the 4th or 5th trip he got tired and decided to cheat and take all of the remaining numbers. It was cute but it didn't fly with Patty. She made him put them back and take only one.
I signed in on the way to the classroom. Patty had him carry a couple of the mats down the hallway to the room while she carried the rest. From behind he looked like he was carrying books to class.
It was only Carson and the other little boy in class. They started off as usual with the classroom stuff. They initially brought in a ball for Carson to sit on but it was obvious within a minute that it wasn't going to work. They got down the other ball that he had sat on last week and immediately he calmed down and paid attention. They called it a peanut and that's really what it looks like. When I got home I looked on Amazon for one since it was cyber Monday but even with discounts it was still $50!
They sang the days of the week song and the months song and then it was time for the weather. I have to admit I was surprised when Amber called on Carson to be the weather watcher for the day.
This is Carson and Jen at the window to see what the weather was like outside. I didn't think he was really paying attention but when they took him over to the choices to put on the wall he chose cloudy without hesitation, and it was cloudy. Not a peek of the sun anywhere in the sky. When they dressed the panda Carson wanted to put a tank top on him and then tried to put pants on his head. So much for the idea that he got it last week. Oh well. Maybe he's just the class clown.
LaQuita had "Pete the Cat Saves Christmas" pulled up on YouTube and the boys watched with enthusiasm. Carson just sat in his little yellow chair and absorbed it all. At one point he was leaning back in his chair kissing me on the cheek and then turned and kissed the other little boy in the room on the head. It was cute. I don't even think the little guy noticed. I have never seen him show affection toward anyone that wasn't family or at least close enough to be. Usually he screams when this boy gets too close to him. A moment where his guard was down I suppose?
Patty and Jen had so many new things for Carson this week it was crazy. They first started off jumping off of the wooden platform (in the pic below) onto the numbers that were laid out. They then brought out this neat little thing called a Stomp Rocket. It's just that. It's a foam rocket that you slide over a hollow tube that has a pedal at the end of it. You stomp on the pedal which forces air through the tube and shoots the rocket (not far) into the air. The belly laughs coming out of this kid were great. He was laughing so hard. They would pull his leg up in the air and then help him stomp down. It came to a point where Jen was standing on the stool with him and they would jump off onto the pedal to make it go higher, well that was the idea anyway, most of the time they missed the pedal completely.
For fine motor Jen has gotten pretty resourceful. She used the metal lockers in the classroom to become an easel. She hung pieces of paper low on them by magnetic clips and had Carson write his letters straight up and down. She knelt down behind him and he just relaxed into her lap as he drew, not a care in the world. She also used a laminated sign that was already in the classroom to put clothes pins onto the bottom of it. Of course it had letters on it so after a while they lost him because he had to trace the letters with his fingers.
After a quick check-in with me he was ready to keep working. Mostly they just played with the rocket. Jen then pulled out a small plastic bag from Lowes. Inside was a master lock and key and a large lag bolt with a washer and a nut attached to it. He wasn't really into the bolt but he liked putting the key in the hole. He doesn't have the hand strength to turn the key though. Pretty inventive ideas. I wonder how many she got off Pinterest lol.
Speech was absolutely amazing. Jen stayed and offered to help LaQuita with Carson. It turned out to be a HUGE help because she put him on a regular round therapy ball and LaQuita sat in front of him with her iPad and they used the app "Categories". They started out with just two pictures at a time. It would show a foot and a ham. It would ask the question, "Which is a part of the body?" Of course he answered ham. This happened several times in a row where he would answer very quickly and get them wrong. LaQuita figured out that he wasn't taking the time to look at each picture, he was just fast to pick one so she changed her approach. Keeping the screen facing her she would ask the question. Then she would turn it to him but keep it out of his reach and ask it again. This gave him time to look and process both the question and the pictures. Only when she was satisfied he was taking his time would she put it close enough for him to touch the correct picture.
Jen would let him celebrate a correct answer by bouncing up and down on the ball a few times. After a few times he was celebrating before he'd even touched the screen because he already knew the answer. At the end he was at 80-90% accuracy! It makes me so happy that these women are working so hard to find different ways to see Carson for who he truly is. He is so smart and that makes me hopeful. But I know that reality can be deceiving sometimes and I know that we still have a long way to go.
XX
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