Huggies Play Train

On Friday, I redeemed this Play Train for free from Huggies. Thankfully I read the form carefully & clarified with customer service, and kept the entire polybags and not just assumed they needed the cut out of the little "points stamp" on the bag.

It's very light,easy to set up, just the right size for him. The design is good in that it has a lot of ventilation points at the entry, exit, with windows at the front, left and right and with the roof partly covered with netting and partly uncovered at the centre. In our weather this is an important factor. It didnt feel hot at all inside the train.

He loves it. Very bright and attractive.

So far he's played with it in the following ways:
- Crawls in and out of the proper entry and exit places

- Tried to enter through the window, then got stuck, and went around the hall with it hanging on his shoulders like it was his halloween costume! Very funny sight!

- plays peekaboo,

- drops bean bags into it through the top (helper got him to do that in order to stretch his muscles)

- tried to throw bean bags out of it while he's seated on the ground inside the train. That's good exercise too as he has to aim the bean bags at the window and also to stretch upwards. Good for hand strengthening as he has to grip the bean bags. He couldn't throw it high enough and/or not aimed properly. He was very frustrated and ended up dropping it out of the driver's front window. He has to still work on his reflexes and motor planning.

- noticed that on 3 of the sides of the train, there were repeated patterns (the birds) but it was different on the 4th side of the train.

The redemption period is until end of the year so you still have time to buy the diapers & redeeem the gift. I redeemed it at their office & they still had lots of stock.

I tried searching the Huggies website for a downloadable form to share with other readers, but couldn't find it. If you're interested, perhaps you could call the Customer Care Line. The lady who answered was very polite. Its toll free: 1-800-82-1188

Little Tikes - 5 Sept 09

Coming home from music class on Saturday, he wanted to play with his Little Tikes car (sit in/ride in car) & did not want to go inside the house.

Papa's car was parked in the car porch, leaving very little space for him to play but it was not a barrier for him. He still had his fun!


Gross Motor

He pushed his car around papa's car, maneouvering so well that he missed hitting papa's car by 1 cm most times. He moves it very well around the pillars; knows how to avoid going over the tiled edge; makes u-turns; controls the speed rolling downwards to stop just in time to avoid knocking into the gate; gets the positioning right to avoid the opened windows and yet avoid getting into the bushes.

He knows how to ever so slightly adjust his muscle strength, co-ordinate between left & right movements & his arms & legs. I found it quite amazing for a boy with cerebral palsy to be able to do that. This is a boy who even last year, would run and fall over nothing; who would be walking then turn to go right or left & tip over.

As I observed him, I knew that these are the things that would escape the attention of parents of able-bodied kids. It's simply amazing how much goes on in the body & brain to walk, run & in this case, push around his Little Tikes car.

This isn't the first time he's pushed it around. He does it often. He's had a lot of fun with it (& practice). He's such an expert now. It's also not the first time I've seen him doing it at the 'expert level'. I've just not had time to write about it. Lately he's been playing like this while wearing his Neurosuit so perhaps it helped him progress to the 'expert level'.

Botak Tree

He wore his NeuroSuit today as he's getting recovering well. But since he is still not fully well yet, we didnt want to him to exert himself. So we didnt focus on endurance. Instead, we got him to do stairs walking and simple movements (gross motor) just to ease him into suit therapy again. This is also the first time he's doing fine motor while in the suit.

Brought the mega bloks downstairs. He had difficulty unzipping the bag - will need more practice while in the suit. (fine motor)

He picked a piece and promptly threw it on the floor (kinda nice sound when it hits the ground)...and repeated it until all 80 pieces were strewn around. Yes, it was messy. But in the process, he had to bend to reach into the bag; he used his left hand when I prompted him; and bend at various inclines as he went lower & lower to get the remaining pieces. (gross motor, fine motor, hand eye co-ordination)

Once he got that "throwing" out of his system, it was time I directed the play, but with limited freedom still accorded to him. Asked him what he wanted to build. No answer. Floated some ideas...bus, car, train, house, tree.

"Tree" he liked that idea."Green and red...green and red tree" he laughed! Is it my imagination or is his volume a bit louder when he was in his suit today?

Here's where I sneaked in the stairs activity. Pieces were at the bottom of the stairs. We were going to build on the staircase landing, which is about 5 steps up. Each time we needed more pieces, he'd have to go down for more. I think its better start by going up & down just a few steps, but many times, rather than the entire flight & be so tired.

To challenge him more, I varied it by sometimes getting him to walk up without holding on to the banister, by placing a piece of blok in each hand. Of course, I had to help him a little by supporting his back. I was pleasantly surprised that he didnt put much of his body weight onto me, unlike when he's not in his suit & walking up.

Initially I let him walk up '2 feet on one step'. Later, I helped moved his legs to '1 foot on one step'. Then he was trying it himself. I'm happy cos it's so much harder when in the suit due to the resistance from the bungee cords.

He is more confident going down the stairs when he's in the suit - he walked faster.

When we were building together, I got him to place the pieces by himself & push down. He still doesnt really push it down well. He still sometimes uses his pointer finger to secure the piece down, instead of using the palm for bigger pieces.

He didnt want leaves on the tree. He explained "burned" (fire burnt the tree, so it explains why there are no leaves).

"But if the tree was burnt, it'd be black, not green & red" I was testing him.

He paused a second. "botak...botak tree" he reasoned. 'Botak tree' to him means a tree without leaves, referring to the tree we saw at the park which was tall & thin without a single leave. Hey, he's using his brain! Ahh, that made my day!

Evening walk-12 Aug 2009

It rained heavily this afternoon & washed most of the haze. Hooray! We get to go for our walk! Went early to the neighbourhood park with him in his neurosuit. Spent nearly 2 hours there!

Started off near the butterfly hill. Didnt climb the hill this time - we had done that this morning already. Instead he wanted to cross the road to get to the undulating greenery.

So we did. Moved around there. He copied me when I showed him what I mean by taking "big steps", "little steps", sideways walking etc.

He walked down, walked up, walked backwards down the slope...talked a lot, looked around a lot, macam macam today! I will write about what he said, in another post.

Eventually, got him to venture up the path to the very steep hill. Didnt take photo cos very steep. We climbed the shortest route up the hill as it's really difficult for him in to do so in his neurosuit now.

Half way up, was a small plateau where we stopped. Got to see this little gecko...or at least I think it is some kinda wild lizard-family creature!

At the top, it's rather uneven terrain, with mixture of swampy areas, grass, rocks...good for practising his balance. Spent quite a lot of time there. Walked mostly. Talked quite a lot too. Observed the large group of crows in the distance gathered at the high tension wires. Bent down to pluck some wild flowers.

Observed the big puddle of water. Saw the surface of the water move but no fish, tadpole or larvae. "Insect" he said, spotting some bugs skirting across the surface. Then he said "puffer fish" (I heard it as bubble fish at first...articulation needs working on). The kid has some imagination! "Small puffer fish" he says. Decided to play along, asking him if there was a shark too. "Small shark" he says! Then he changes his mind & says "Two big puffer fish...and one small shark"

Walked some more...trying to avoid puddles of water. "Small and medium and small... puddle...there and there and there" pointing to some of the puddles. Walked down to the proper sidewalk, stepped over demarkation ropes. He needed help stepping over, when he's in the suit. In the past, without suit, he can step over by himself.

Finally time to go home. "No...some more!" Hmm, he must feel deprived of his usual walks (the haze has stopped us from our outdoor activities). "Ok, another 20minutes". No argument from him. After 20 minutes, during which time he meandered around & greeted an old man who's a regular walker there & observed the noisy crows again....

"Time's up, time to go home".

"No...a little bit more"

"Ok, another 5 minutes more"

"5..6...7..8...9...10, 11,12,13,16,19,22,29,22,29,22..." He was negotiating for more time but he lost track of counting after 13. Eventually, he agreed to head home.

Saw this other distraction on the way back. Dunno why he was scared & moved behind me. He's seen them at home. So, showed him it's not scary & in fact he's the one scared of us. Showed him how it retreats back into it's shell when poked.

Since he didn't do much exercise for endurance earlier, I did little sprints & funny running to get him to follow. Looks like he still had the energy to run! Good!

Evening Exercise in Neurosuit-7 Aug 09

I was quite tired cos he woke up several times last night & I had an early start & errands to run today. But, after several days of bad haze, it finally cleared this evening with an added bonus of a cool breeze. So I didnt want to give up this opportunity to get him to the nieghbourhood park, but I brought my helper along (for back-up support cos by late afternoon, I had a bad headache, body ache, felt very heaty).

We were there for about 30mins. He did quite a variety of gross motor exercises, but in short bursts.

What did he do?
At the steep hill, he walked up (very challenging in his suit); walked backwards down (just 5 steps, then he turned around & said "too steep"; walked forwards down

At the hilly terrain, he walked & ran around

On the pavement, he walked/ran (alternating) all the way down past the houses. On his way back up past the houses, he walked backwards (we name it moonwalking), sideways, slowly, quickly etc.

I introduced him to counting by twos. Odd numbered houses were on one side of the road, so it's easy to introduce this concept. For e.g. starting at house # 5, I'd say... hey look at the number at this house. Let's add 2 to that number...and walk to the next house to get the answer . He wasnt interested beyond doing 3 houses. That's ok cos this is the 1st time I'm introducing it.

At the children's playground, he climbed the 2 rung ladder (with help), walked up the 3 step stairs holding onto both sides for support (but at least he could lift up his feet by himself, which is difficult in the suit), went down the twin slide with me, used his finger to "write" / follow the etched numbers (0-9).

I've just started to teach him to walk further forward at the top of the slide, before he sits down. He usually sits too far back at the top & needs to shuffle his bum a lot further forward before he can slide down. I believe it's because he's afraid of falling head first, down the slide. But now that I know he's better at balance & better at controlling his muscles, it's time to correct that. But i wont pressure him - only when he feels comfortable enough.

Speech
- apart from his usual speech he finally started to use the word "missing". Previously just says "oh-oh" to indicate something's missing/something's wrong. Each time, he uses "oh oh" for something that's missing, I'd say "missing" out loud & try to get him to say it instead of "oh oh". Being crazy over cars, today he said "missing...Toyota Unser" (he remembers there's usually a Unser & Kancil parked at the top of the road).

- when I climbed up the slide the wrong way (ie. as though I was climbing a hill), to get him to do the same, he said very loudly & clearly "COME DOWN!". I was very happy.

- on 2 separate occassions, he was trying to warn other kids on the opposite side of the road to look out for cars cos they were walking on the road instead of on the pavement. He said "be careful...got car". He wasnt loud enough or clear enough. He said it too fast, missing out some phonemes. I think he was excited. But, eventually I know he will be able to say it loud enough & clear enough. For now, I'm happy that he wants to & tried to communicate with others & that he knows it's dangerous to walk on the road!

Wed, 5 Aug 2009

Very bad haze today. Didn't go to the park this morning. Instead, he was in his Neurosuit this morning for about an hour doing indoor activities.

Widening his stride

As he tends to trot when he runs, I'm trying to widen his stride. I've tried a few things but it's not working...yet. Actually, I think sometimes, it does look a wee bit better but not consistently done...patience...must not give up.

- I'd hold his hand & walk with him slowly, showing him how to take big strides.

- I'd place pieces of his foam alphabets on the floor with a small gap in between & have him step over the gap. He'll follow once or twice, but resort to running the course instead.

- When at the shops and there are different coloured tiles or patterned tiles on the floor, I'd try to get him to step with only one foot on those different tiles.

- when I still had the step-up boxes (they've been returned to therapist), we'd do the same thing.

- I try not to paste masking tape on the floor (therapist suggested this) to make squares for him to step into cos it'll be so hard to remove the glue.

Movement while in his neurosuit

It must be really hard for him to move in the suit.

- If he fell, he tends to be "stuck" and is unable to (yet) or hasn't learnt how to get back up. The suit itself is a bit heavy. He feels heavier if I were to carry him while he is suited up compared to without.

- Walking up stairs or stepping up onto a box is a lot harder in the suit. He could easily do it without the suit. But in the first 2 days this week, he couldn't lift his leg up to the step while in the suit! Now, he can, but very slowly, with his right leg. Left leg needs help sometimes. I guess after some months in the suit, he'll have strong muscles! The therapist reported that her son & another boy had bulked up a bit after 3 months of suit therapy.

- It tires him out much faster, not just due to the weight of the suit, but also the resistance provided by the bungee cords. He breaks out into a sweat faster too. So this morning, we had the air-cond on at home (but it's also cos we closed all windows to minimise the haze from entering) and he seemed more comfortable.

- Putting him in the suit does initially trigger his gag reflex. It's odd that a person might gag when tired, but he does. As recently as a few months ago, he would gag easily when running at the neighbourhood park. Now that he's built up his endurance, he doesn't except when initially put into the suit & after some time of running around in the suit.

Wooden blocks

While he was still in his suit, we played with the blocks on the trampoline, using it like a low table this time. He had time to play freely. But I also got him to stretch to reach for the pieces - stretching his right arm far to the right and also far to the left crossing the midline etc.

LeapFrog (reading)

We tried out the Leap Frog for the 1st time. It's great that that's another avenue to teach him reading! He was quite intrigued with the voice coming out. He was a bit hesistant when asked by the voice to point to the letters during the 'game mode'. He could "read" the simple 3 letter words in the picture if we sounded out the phonic sound of the letter as I point to the alphabet. E.g. box = "berh"-"ohh"-"kersk". And he'd say "box".

Speech

I wanted to pump air into a flat stroller wheel & told him so. He then said: mama's wheel...mama's tyre flat like a pancake. That's a lot of syllables in one go. He learnt the phrase "flat like a pancake" several months ago. But a few days ago, the helper said that his poo poo (in his diaper) is flat like a pancake & it really tickled him. He couldnt stop laughing for a long time!

MidValley

I had to post a parcel, so went to MidValley as parking was easier (compared to the neighbourhood post office) and could pop into Jusco for groceries too. He wasn't happy to just sit and wait while I filled in the form, so my helper "read" the papers with him.

I'm beginning to wonder if he's purposely running funny by pretending there are bumps on the floor (kids go through phases where they do funny things) or whether there's something I really need to check out, e.g. whether there is a problem with his muscles. He doesnt go "bumping" all the time, but it's often enough in a day for me to start wondering otherwise & it's been going on for a few months now. But the therapists didnt point out any problems & he still has range of motion. My friend's son about a year older doesnt jump the normal way. He jumps the way my son "bumps" about. If he walks slowly, his gait appears normal. So, will just continue monitoring I guess.

At Jusco, he could follow my verbal instruction to turn right/turn left at the aisles, which is great! He was walking in front of me so there were no physical cues given to him.

He was also interested to read out the letters of the signs around him, while I was waiting my turn at the cashier. So I really have to get moving on reworking some of my material to teach him reading (I think the font size is a bit too small for him). So much to do, so little time.

Concept of Left/Right

I tried testing his understanding of left & right before & it's often correct but not always. I exposed him to the right/left concept probably about a year ago, doing things like:

- I occasionally remind him to use his left hand while playing with toys (blocks, picture cards etc). He has a very dominant right hand.

- while walking up or down the stairs, I will say left/right while he steps using that foot.

- in the shower, I say which part of the body that I'm soaping (e.g.it's left leg turn now to be soaped), which also helped in him learning the names of the parts of his body.

- having him look left/right/left again before crossing the road while holding my hand (also part of road safety awareness).

To the beach!

Packed everyone into the car & went off to Kelanang beach today! This would be our 3rd or 4th visit this year. Traffic was good, weather was good - no haze, clear blue skies!

*will upload photos from hubby's handphone when time permits.

Benefits:

(1) Walking on sand gives him good tactile input & requires good balance.

(2) Walking in water gives resistance & challenges his balance even more (he'll happily splash around in ankle deep water, but if it's almost to his knees, he'll want to hold our hand)

(3) Talk about/show him the surroundings e.g. how the mangrove trees were different in terms of their roots, compared to normal trees. Showed him what animals live in a mangrove habitat e.g. crabs, mudskippers, fishes (cognitive, biology lesson)

(5) Catching crabs requires fine motor skills, hand eye co-ordination, faster reflexes. He caught a lot of crabs with his bare hands (with his fingers actually) during the previous visit. This time round, there were much fewer crabs & he wasnt interested. Instead, he was stomping on the crabs! Not to worry, he didnt kill them. They are much faster in burrowing themselves than he was in stomping them. Stomping with one foot requires good balance.

(6) Picking sea shells requires fine motor, hand eye, squat to stand, bending down. Later at home, you can use the shells in various ways: counting, visual discrimination, biology lesson, decoration during sandplay.

(7) Receptive language (speech input) - you can expand his vocabulary e.g. waves, tide coming in, estuary, hermit crab

(8) Expressive language (speech output) - he has the chance to use what he's learnt e.g. he surprised me by describing the clouds as "fluffy clouds", a term that I used only once, several months ago during a trip to the neighbourhood park.

(9) Bringing back sand for sandplay at home! There are areas on that beach where the sand is very fine & white.

(10) Sandplay at the beach itself of course! E.g. build sand castles, scoop & pour activities etc.

(11) Catching fish using a net requires very fast reflexes, balance, gross motor. We forgot to bring a net, so it was papa who caught fish using his bare hands. Papa the hero caught 3! We tried to help but fish escaped instead! : )

(12) Flying a kite requires gross motor skills, balance, visual tracking. We didnt bring the kite cos we knew we wouldn't have time to fly it cos we left much later than normal.

(13) Drawing/writing in the sand - doesnt require a mature tripod grip, so it's good to do this to let his creativity flow, without being hindered by his disability. Also good as a fun alternative to writing with the usual pen, pencil, colour pencil, marker, crayon, chalk etc on paper, whiteboard, blackboard. Fine motor skill still needed.

(14) A lesson in caring for the environment. Unfortunately, there was trash washed up on certain parts of the estuary (apart from the usual plastic, I came across a bottle, hard hat & tyre!). Use this opportunity to teach him that things should be disposed in their proper place or else it gets washed up on the beach etc & dirties the homes of the crabs, fish etc.

Note:
(1) We have to check to make sure the moon cycle isn't at the full moon stage cos the waves comes right up & there's no beach left. He's fearful if the waves are close to him.
(2) Bring insect repellant or at least wear long pants that can be rolled up. I was badly bitten.
(3) There's decent hawker fare at the purpose built "food court" but lots of flies
(4) There's a children's play area with the usual slides, climbing equipment etc.
(5) There's proper toilet but its yucky (very wet, smelly, no soap, sandy/muddy floor - some mums were rinsing their kids in the toilet). Bring your own hand sanitiser & toilet paper.

Foam alphabet puzzle mat

Cheaply & easily available at hypermarkets & supermarkets. I bought the EVA brand at about RM23 for a set of 26 alphabets & 10 numbers pieces. I've so much use out of them that I bought a 2nd set.

How did I used it?
(1) When young & yet to crawl, it was laid out in one layer & he lay on it. The tiled floor is a bit too cold for a young baby.

(2) When he was learning to crawl:
- it softened his falls
- it provided a bit of texture (grip) to help him move forward cos tiled floor was rather smooth.
- gave some visual stimulation as it is very colourful

(3) When he could walk, I lay it to form a "track" for him to follow around the dining table, to the lounge etc. Sometimes it's simply him walking on it (or almost) & sometimes, it's for his push-along toy bug to "walk" on it. These help with body co-ordination & hand eye co-ordination

(4) It was one of the many "toys" to teach him his numbers & alphabets.

(5) Fine motor: he loves to remove (by using his pointer finger to "dig out") the numbers/alphabets from the "frame". I get him to help replace them, which also involves fine motor & hand eye co-ordination

(6) As a subsitute for "step-up" boxes (gross motor, step up/step down):

As he gained confidence in walking, I moved on to teach him to walk up steps. But he's a very cautious boy & for a long time wouldn't want to try walking up the stairs by himself. So I piled some pieces on top of each other to create a wide enough small step & placed it around, like an obstacle course, together with other challenges. I had to hold the pieces together with rubber band so it wouldn't move or else he's slip & hurt himself. After many many times of trying with me holding his hand, he'd eventually try it himself. Gradually, I increased the height by piling more pieces on top.

(7) Writing: I currently also use it as an alternative to sandpaper alphabets. It similarly provides tactile input when learning the strokes in writing the alphabet. It is not as rough, but is more colourful. As with sandpaper letters, you do need to be with him to show him the strokes, at least until you know that he's learnt them.

Farm Animals & Barn

Farm Animals & Barn

How?

-Download images of farm animals & a barn. (I think I got the photos from a toddler activities website & modified the activity to suit my son)

-Cut & paste on cardboard/old cereal box.

-Find old tissue box.

-Use blu-tack to stick barn to box, with the barn door over the opening of the box & place on a raised surface (e.g. table/desk/counter top).

-Use blu-tack to stick animals in another part of the house, on a door/back of chair/fridge door

-Stick them at a height that requires him to really stretch up, but is still within his reach.

-Between the place you stuck the animals & barn, create an obstacle course, for e.g. step-up

boxes, balance beam, crash mattress.

-He'll have to go through the course to obtain the animals & "help" them return to the barn for the night. One animal per trip.

-Observe the child for signs of tiredness and interest. Modify as you go along, for e.g. if there are still half of the animals left & he's already tired/lost interest, then get him to carry back 2 or more animals per trip.

-Vary the obstacle course after a few times of playing this game to maintain interest.

Why?

-Gross motor: stretching up several times to obtain animals & place in box; obstacle course (balance & co-ordination)

-Fine motor: removing animals stuck on door (some versions of blu-tac are a lot more adhesive than others). In setting up the game, I also get him to help pull apart the blu-tac & place it on the back of the animals (it works the hand muscles)

-Hand eye co-ordination: when placing animals in box

-Matching: make 2 or more copies of the same animal & have him match them by saying for e.g. "it's the turn of the black horses. Can you gather all the black horses together & help them return to the barn?"

-Maths: subtraction - count the animals at start of game, then removing one by one (or two by two, at a later stage). Addition - count the animals being put into the barn.

-Cognitive: teach him the names of the animals; talk a bit about the animals (e.g. what they like to eat; sounds they make)

Variation?

-I use pictures of cute/funny dogs & drew my own kennel

- I also have pictures of birds & a birdhouse (obtained from a kids activities website)

- combine animals from the different sets & ask him to select animals that belong, for e.g. in a

kennel

- Use plastic toy animals instead of the cut out ones

Is it Christmas again?

Hand-me-down toys
Got hold of some old toys from my childhood days & received toys that his cousin has outgrown. Great! It'll be like Christmas again for him! These are some of the stuff I took back for him:

Boggle

Will use it as part of reading activities. Reading requires a lot of practice so I'll need different activities to stimulate him & keep up the interest. This one requires fine motor skills. I suspect to start off with, he'll want to scatter the cubes rather than patiently find the letters he wants. Well, I'll have to be creative & go with the flow. (reading, fine motor)

Spill & spell

Similar concept to Boggle, except, you shake it out of a tube onto an open floor. The cubes are smaller than Boggle, so I'm not expecting much from it until he's older. (reading, fine motor)

Pop up mini Tent

Useful for our day trips to the beach. In the past we made do with just black plastic bin bags to sit on!

Beach toys

Medium sized beach ball (gross motor) and a set of various tools for building sand castles, scoop & pour, etc (fine motor, wrist movement)

McDonald's Happy Meal toys

Lots of these. Vehicles. I think I'll use them to teach him concepts of first, second, third in a pretend race to the finish line. He knows his numbers (1,2,3) but not in terms of 1st, 2nd, 3rd. (maths)

Books

Variety ranging from those for a 7 year old to pre-teens. Nursery rhyme types to Enid Blyton. Will be some years yet before it'll be utilised!

Skittles & ball

Plastic bowling set. A friend lent a set to him last year, but he preferred to use his hands to knock the skittles down! Will try it this year, perhaps he'll play with it the way it was meant. Good for gross motor, hand eye co-ordination.

Monday, 20 July 09

Tesco
(1) The trolley I happen to get had stiff wheels, which turns out to be good as it gives him the resistance & he has to push much harder than normal. He loves pushing the trolley, btw. I tell him to hold both left & right ends of the trolley, so he gets to stretch his arms wider a little bit. He pushed for almost an hour. (gross muscles, resistance, stretch wide)

(2) I was reading the label on an item & he came up to say he wanted to help! I was surprised. So I asked him to put some tinned food into the trolley. Since he's too short compared to the trolley height (stretched his arms up!), he was dropping it in rather than placing it in. So I only gave him tinned & plastic bottle items & put in the segregated front part of trolley to avoid bruising fruits & veg. (social skills, stretch up)


Speech
He's beginning to say slightly longer sentences. My helper reported that when he saw the picture card of a curled up millipede, he said "millipede scared of me...at park". I made the picture card some months back to get him to practice 3 syllable words (instead of just 1 or 2 syllable words, to improve his breath stream). So now that he's putting more words together, it shows he's progressing...and he said it without prompting! (speech, memory)

Btw, his "sentence" was referring to walks at the neighbourhood park where we often see milipedes, either walking or curled up dead. I had also showed him that if I poked the milipede, it'd curl up & explained that it does that when it's scared. When he saw another picture card of a straightened out milipede, he repeatedly poked at it! I guess he was reflecting what we did at the park!

Car seat
I carried him out of the car when we arrived home from Tesco. He didn't like that. He wanted to do it himself. Great! So, I put him back in his car seat & he worked his way out of the car. (gross motor, independence)

Cranial sacral therapy
Therapist said both his knees are ok. Last week, she noted that one of it was a bit rotated out. In the past 2 weeks or so, I noticed he reverted to sitting leaning back a bit. But the therapist & I both noted that after the sessions, he tends to sit nicely, at a 90 degree angle.

Resuming activities after illness

It's been 2 weeks of reduced activities due to his illness (& me being sick too). He completed his course of antibiotics on Friday. His last round of nebuliser was on Thursday night.


Butterfly hill
Yesterday we resumed his gross motor activity. Just had about 10min of outdoor activity in the morning at the neighbourhood park. We climbed the small hill (I named it butterfly hill) to look for butterflies but didnt find any this time. Instead we were counting wild mushrooms. Introduced addition of bigger numbers. E.g 4+3 = 7. He knows how to add one more, but not add 2 or more than 2.

I chose this form of exercise because after 2 weeks without such exercise, he began to walk on tip toe more often & his walk was getting broadbased. So, climbing hills (the steeper the better, within limits of course) would stretch his achilles, gastroc muscles etc.

The grassy gently undulating terrain there was also good for him - balance! Since he loves to run in wide open spaces, it was perfect. No need to persuade him, or think of ways to trick him into it.

Crash mattress

What is it?
It's basically a large sack (with side zip) containing chunky pieces of foam in uneven sizes. The sack is about the size of a single mattress. It's on loan from his therapist - many thanks!

Why?
Lately, he seems keen on walking & running on slightly uneven surface (his normal mattress with blankets, cushions scattered!) & he's getting better at it. So I repositioned his "obstacle course" to incorporate the crash mattress.

Benefits?
It's for his balance. To walk on it, he still needs to hold my hand. Its too tricky - pieces are never in the same place.

Both sick

This is an old posting which I had drafted last night (Wed, 8 July 2009) but didnt get to finish as my son woke up, coughed, vomitted badly several times....so, I'll just post it tonight, even though it's not completed.

8 July 2009

We're both sick. Started last night. Mild fever but was enough to cause a restless sleep for him, which meant I didnt sleep well either. But at least I had the luxury of sleeping in this morning.



So, we didnt go to Titiwangsa this morning, or do that much today. I'll instead write briefly about what he did yesterday (7 July).



7 July 2009


Titiwangsa


Played for a short while only as he said he was tired (probably wasnt so well already) & the sun came out. He did manage the following:

- 1 x on monkey bar slide

- 2 x walking up the stairs

- 3 x tunnel slides

- 1 x tunnel

- inclined ramp

- walked on the pebbled covered drain (uneven surface, good for balance)

- he did try the arched ladder, which he hasnt done for many months. It's a ladder but instead of it perfectly vertical, it is arched so the bottom of the ladder starts off vertical, and the top of the ladder ends up horizontal.



Gardening


Wasn't so sunny when we got home, so did a bit of gardening. He likes to help nowadays, so he picked up dried leaves & cuttings. Good for squat to stand, bending down, using left hand, hand eye.


He also said "thank you" many times, when i helped him gather smaller cuttings into a pile for him to pick up & carry to the bin bag. So, got in some speech there.



Car seat


I've been letting him try to climb up into the car & his car seat & get off too. Sometimes he's better than other times. He often needs help when he finally gets into the car seat but one leg gets stuck under him (he sat on his leg but cant pull his leg out). He's getting quite heavy for me to carry him into the car, so I better start letting him practice! It's good for balance, co-ordination, independence

NeuroSuit

Last week, the deposit for the NeuroSuit was paid. The American therapist/owner is coming end of the month & I'm looking forward to starting the suit therapy.


Lots of hard work for sure & I've to be patient, but I these are what I hope to see in my son, with the suit therapy...

- significantly less drool
- better speech in terms of volume & clarity
- running gait a lot more normalised
- hip more stable
- arms straighter, less "bat wing" like
- able to do more gross motor skills, like stepping up higher steps unaided, pedalling, jumping, walking on balance beam unaided
- improvement in fine motor


There was an article in NST on NeuroSuit:
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Tuesday/Features/20090602093919/Article/index_html


Briefly, this is what I understand Neurosuit is meant to/has benefits of:
- correct the posture, through giving proprioceptive input back to the brain on what the correct posture is supposed to be. Cells & muscles have memory.
- intensify the benefits of any physio or therapies that he does while in the suit & so we'll see those benefits earlier.
- Since there are bungee like cords attached, it gives resistance & so strengthens muscles too.


This is the link to NeuroSuit's website, for more info:
http://www.neurosuit.com/


This is the link to some photos of a severe CP boy I know, who is sitting up unaided. He could only sit propped up in his wheelchair/stroller before the suit therapy!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=101893&id=607886440&l=ed984b5633

Titiwangsa & others

Titiwangsa

Slides:
- still keen which also means he himself will want to crawl/climb whatever obstacle to get to the slide. As a result, he climbed more steps today.
- He climbed up the wrong way to get to the top of the baby slides & shorter tunnel slides, which is good for his achilles tendon, gastroc muscles etc.
- He's a bit bolder now & went down a tunnel slide with 1 1/2 twists by himself, without prompting!

Swing: been sometime since he sat on the swing. I showed him how to pump himself to get the swing moving, but he didnt try it, just observed my legs.

Long suspension bridge
- still likes it! A tiny bit better in getting up & down each level of the platform, though I still have to help him - e.g. he bends his knee more readily when coming down & when going up, his leg is placed a bit more in front of him instead of slightly to the side.
- yesterday he walked backwards on the bridge (moonwalking tribute to MJ!?)

Short suspension bridge: I increased the challenge by bouncing up & down on it to get it more shaky (cos that's how it'd be like if there were kids running past him). Good that he didnt lose his balance.

Spinning tops: He was a bit better on it today. Phew. It's also good for strecthing his legs (to help in opening up his stride).

Monkey bar slide: he didnt want to do it today

Suspended balance beam: once or twice towards the end of the beam, he managed to place his foot one in front of the other instead of squeezing them side by side. Hope he does it more cos that'll help get a more narrow based gait instead of broad based now.

Rock climbing:
- surprised he wanted to do it ! 1st time ever! And not just on 1 set, but went up 2 sets! I had never asked/prompted him to try it. Helped him with his footing, but was otherwise able to get up.

Visit to great grandma's
- Had a bit of time before lunch, so squeezed in a short visit to his great grandma's.
- realised there that he poo poo, so washed him. Poor thing, he must have been at the playground all the time with that icky feeling cos he did smell a bit when we got there but just thought he passed wind.
- he spoke a few words (e.g. thank you, purple, don't want) that were audible & intelligible enough for grandaunt to understand. Hooray!

Smell
- I taught him the 'thumbs up' sign for good last week. 2 days ago, taught him the thumbs down for bad. Today, after he passed wind (kentut), he said: kentut...smell BAD (with thumbs down sign!) So funny!

Cranial Sacral Therapy
- his therapist noted the front of his skull was slowly opening up a little. Not so sharp looking.
- he played with some toys that helps with fine motor & hand eye (click clack & chunky foam animal puzzle)
- In preparation of the NeuroSuit therapy, I learnt to massage him: up & down the sides of his spine, shoulders, shoulder blades, arms, legs & hip. He was so ticklish esp arms & shoulder blade. He complained towards the end...but he was ok lah.

Hair cut
- hair getting long, weather so hot, scrathing his head more often ... time for hair cut!
- thankfully he can still fit in his small bathtub, while I cut his hair. Gave him beakers to fill & pour. It's good for wrist movement & crossing the midline (told him that if he wants to pour the water out of the bathtub, he has to pour it in the pail I placed on his left - he's right handed)
- handsome now!

Garden hose
- I had diarohea this evening, so didnt take him for evening exercise.
- he helped with watering the plants, using the garden hose. Good for hand eye, arm movements.

Mega bloks
Didnt have time to build structures but played with it as follows:
- tried to unzip the bag, but couldnt. It's ok, it's the first time with this bag. Just needs more practice
- right hand took out individual pieces from the bag & placed it on the swing, while counting out loud & placing it in separate groups according to colour (speech, fine motor, sorting), I also got him to stretch by moving the swing a little further away each time.
- left hand put back all the pieces at the end (no counting)

What activities did I do with my son today?

1. Chase the birds

- He loves to chase birds (& cats), so used this interest of his to sneak in some of my objectives. Brought him along to the local mamak while hubby & I had roti telur for breakfast. Maid supervised him while we ate & vice versa.

- Why? to run/exercise & maintain his level of stamina; to increase his speech volume (we told him he has to shout out loud "Shooo birds!" or else the birds wont fly away)

- Noted: his running has gone a bit funny again. Left arm in a more pronounced "bat wing" position. Perhaps it's because I've not taken him to the playground for 2 weeks (car's in workshop) when it used to be twice a day, on an almost daily basis.

- To work on more: Must think of ways to use other muscles....playing in baby pool perhaps

2. Help with household chores

- How? Got him to say "push" a few times whenI was pushing the old mattresses away for storage.

- Why? to use oral muscles to pucker up in order to improve articulation of the "o" and "u" sound
- To work on more: puckering

- Noted: misses out the first phenome "p" in "push", which also happens with other words especially words beginning with "m"

3. Learn to shower (self care skills)

- How? Squeezed out some shower gel unto his palm. Placed my hands over his & helped him soap his legs by moving his arms up & down his legs.

- Why? To practise this movement to help not just in learning to shower himself, but also in learning to pull down his shorts when he needs to go to toilet

- Improvement noted: No longer afraid of standing under the large fixed shower head. Also slightly easier for him to bend down & move up.

4. Pre writing skills

- How? Draw a few capital letters on the back of sand paper, cut it out & paste it on cardboard. I chose a few of the easier alphabets used in his name to start off with. Easier in the sense of straight lines, like "A" and "N" & not curved lines, like "G". Wrote the alphabet by holding his pointer & middle finger together and moving it on the sandpaper.

- Why? That's the way it's being taught in his kindergarten & it was also suggested by one of his therapists. I had also read about this method somewhere in the internet. I think it's to do with engaging his tactile sense (apart from just visual). Experts say learning happens faster when more than one sense is involved (or something like that).

- Improvement noted: A little better in keeping his two fingers together when tracing. Remembers sequence of strokes in writing "A"

- To work on more: sequence of strokes for "H"

5. Reading his "Move It! Builders" Book

- What's this book? Bought this board book when he was 2 years old to get him to use his fine motor. He loves anything to do with cars, dump trucks, diggers etc. Each page of this book features a machine with one part that is moveable e.g. wheels of the dump truck can be spun around, steering wheel can be turned left or right. Very well illustrated & designed, which helps in maintaining his interest. Bought it from Border's but also available at http://www.mytoysandbooks.com/

- Purpose & method (i): fine motor exercise by making parts of the machines move in his book e.g. pushing the bulldozer's bucket up & down; swinging the demolition ball forward & backward; sliding the crane's heavy load left & right.

- Purpose & method (ii): Introduce simple "sight" words, specifically the word "it" because it appears on every page. There are only 2 words on each page.

- Purpose & method (iii): introduce maths concept of addition/doubling. E.g. 2 wheels on this side of the dumpster, so must be another 2 wheels on other side, so 2+2 = 4

- To work on more: to use left hand more instead of just right hand

- Noted: he could not turn the very thick board page by himself, which is a bit strange because he used to be able to do it. Perhaps it's because he hasn't read this book in a long time.

6. Swing

- How? We installed a "circular" swing in his room - able to spin, not just pendular movement. Swing bought from Ikea.

- Why? To improve his vestibular & proprioception sense, balance & coordination

- Improvement noted: in the last few weeks, he's been more confident & able to climb up on the swing & played on it in different ways

7. Little Yoga book

– what is it? A book illustrating simple yoga postures (imitating animals) which toddlers can follow (on loan from Fe, thanks)

- Purpose:
i) Getting into those physical postures helps him to be more aware of his body; stretches muscles
ii) reinforce alphabet recognition- he likes to count the number of times certain alphabets appear on a page e.g. 3 letter "o" here
iii) reinforce simple sight words like “book”
iv) introducing simple maths concept & vocab - on one of the pages, there's a series of letter "z" which starts of small in size but gradually gets bigger. So he learns sequencing, & the words bigger & biggest

- To work on more: he cant do the cat posture

8. Thunderstorm

- a storm was approaching, so took it as a teaching opportunity to introduce the following:

i) the concept that when noise is far away, it's soft & gets louder as it gets nearer
ii) introduce vocab: wind starts off gentle, gets stronger, and is strongest

- Noted: He hasn't picked up the new vocab as he's using small, bigger, bigger, biggest to describe the wind speed. But was pleasantly surprised that he did the action to go along with small wind, medium wind & big wind (I had shown it to him many months ago)

9. Sticker activity

– apart from what's already mentioned in earlier post about this activity, today I also introduced maths concept of subtraction. For e.g. "ok, there were 8 more stickers to stick & you’ve just stuck another sticker, so how many more to go?" "7 more. Right!"

10. Mega Bloks & Pop Upz
- purpose:

i) use both hands to work together (e.g. when dismantling a structure)
ii) to get him to open up his palm more (e.g. when pushing down a piece of brick instead of just using pointer)
iii) to use left hand more e.g. to put a piece into place (instead of always using just right hand)
iv) to develop creativity (e.g. building a house for the kangaroo)

11. Speech

– done through out the day. Still misses out first syllable or first phenome. Certain words better like yellow. Communicates with you, e.g. kangaroo sleeping... dark outside (ie. night time)

12. Wearing shirt (self care skill)

– just started to teach this self care skill. One small step at a time...Just at the stage of using both hands to hold a shirt at the collar & pulling over the head. Can achieve it sometimes. Then shown how to put arms through sleeve & to pull down shirt

13. Toilet training

– still cant get him to sit on WC to poo poo. Too afraid? Fear of falling off WC? Painful stools?

14. Gastroc muscle/achilles

– He seems to be doing a bit more tip toe walking which is not good. Will need to get splint on more often & also passively stretch it for him...& weather permitting, climb steep hills again

15. Butterflies on a paper stand

– there's slight progress cos I could increase the distance a bit more, maybe 3 inches now