Progress of Neurosuit & CST therapies

It's been some time since I wrote specifically on the progress of his Neurosuit therapy. I'll write on his progress of both the Neurosuit & CST as I feel it's difficult to attribute specific changes to just one or the other of these therapies.


1. Drool
There's definitely been less drooling. There are times in the day that he does not need to wear a bib for e.g. this morning when he's out and about at the shops.


At last week's speech therapy, he did not wear a bib at all but his drool did drip a little. It was just a little, probably requiring 5-8 times of wiping off with a hanky, which is very good.


He will still drool a lot when he's very focused on reading or a fine motor skill that's very challenging.


It was told that the Neurosuit would help him drool less eventually (initally there'll be more drool) & I guess we're seeing the results!


2. Breath & speech
He is voluntarily speaking more. It's not the incessant chatter of a chatterbox preschooler, but I definitely noticed he's initiating more and carrying on conversations. He's able to say things that I had not modelled for him to copy.


Just 4 evenings ago, we were in his room mucking about and his blanket was in his path. Out of the blue, he said this long sentence "Excuse me blanket, I want to go there". He then moved all over the room and when the blanket was in his path again, he said it again "Excuse me blanket, I want to go there".


The Neurosuit does indeed help his breath such that he's able to speak longer phrases/sentences in a single breath and to speak more often.

3. Balance

A definite improvement. Even his speech therapist noticed that he's steadier on his feet. When he's on his balance beam, there were a few occassions (just a few but that's already good) that he did not rely on me to help him balance. It does not happen often but the very few times that it has shows that he is progressing. Also, I noted he was able to bring his legs/feet forward comfortably on the narrow beam, without being so broadbased as before. I still have to hold his hand as he's not gained enough confidence yet to try the balance beam on his own.

4. Flexibility

He his less tight (spastic). He is able to move more like a 'normal' kid. It's still slow though but I think that'll improve with more practice and more therapy.

For e.g. he will now try to dance or follow the movements on Mickey's Clubhouse or Dora when they ask him to. We can also passively move his arms much easier. In the past, if we were to try to move his arms, he'd immediately retract them back or it'd be very difficult as it'd be very tight.

These are the areas we need to continue working:

1. Oral Motor

This is not addressed by the NeuroSuit. We're currently getting him to suck on the crazy straw & fat straw (the bubble tea straw) daily. He still bites down on the bubble tea straw but the bites are less hard. We occasionally have him suck from the tiny straw when I do buy Yakult for him.

He also has a wide variety of blowing objects. Different types of whistles, kazoos, feathers, toy flute etc. It's still very hard for him to get a sound out.

He plays with bubbles often. He again has a variety of different bubble wands to blow through, bubble pipes etc.

I try to stimulate the inner cheeks using the electric toothbrush. This is hard to do cos he resists having his teeth brushed in the first place.

2. Retained reflex of the arm

His CST therapist explained that his "bat wings" (arms) come up when he runs because it is a retained reflex of an infant which he has not lost. The reflex pattern movement to be done prior to putting on the suit is meant to address that. I did not know that.

I knew we were supposed to do it, together with the joint compression and massaging, prior to putting on the suit. But I didn't know that the reflex pattern movement was supposed to resolve the "bat wing" problem.

In the first place, it's already hard to suit him up. We've to do it really fast, while he's distracted in front of the TV. He dislikes the suit as it's uncomfortable (a lot of resistance training from the bungee cords & a lot of proprioceptive input from the tightness of the pieces & it's warm/hot especially in our climate).

I've to do what I've to do to help him. So we will incorporate the reflex pattern movement prior to suiting him up. Before that though, I'll need to get a working copy of the VCD showing how it's done. Both of ours get stuck half way through.