Therapy Update

Today Ryder had two different therapists come to the house for sessions. At noon the OT came to work on feeding during lunchtime as well on fine motor skills. She was so happy to see that Ryder was using his tongue to move food around in his mouth which he was not doing on her last visit. She did notice he seems to only chew on his left side so she showed me some different things to try in order to get him to chew on the right side as well. She also showed me some "games" to play using peanut butter to help strengthen his muscles used for chewing as well as getting him to start using his upper lip to pull things off a spoon. Both boys thought the peanut butter games were tons of fun so hopefully they will not figure out I am tricking them into doing therapy exercises! She thinks that I should look into getting an evaluation done for Ryder at a feeding clinic to find help for his weight gain issues. After mealtime we moved to working on the stairs. Once again the OT was really happy to see Ryder has made progress with going up the stairs, but we still need to work on going down them. After that we moved to the playroom and worked on some fine motor and hand strengthening skills. We have discovered Ryder has very weak muscles in his hands which can cause some issues later on with writing so it is good to work on strengthening them now.

As the OT was finishing up the PT arrived at the house. The PT was coming to do an evaluation because I voiced concerns to the case manager about some PT-related issues. Finally, after a few months of asking for PT it happened! The OT and PT talked a bit since they tend to work on some similar skills. Then the OT left and the PT did her full evaluation of Ryder's skills. After watching Ryder jump, run, walk, go up & down the stairs, throw a ball, kick a ball, catch a ball, and so much more she then did a hands-on exam to feel if he was tight anywhere, loose anywhere or low/high tone. We also talked about the aqua therapy evaluation and she disagrees and thinks that Ryder would benefit form it. She works with aqua therapy as well so she plans to meet us at a local indoor pool periodically to do some aqua therapy work. Apparently, there is a local indoor pool who has agreed to let her bring her Infant & Toddlers kids to the pool for aqua therapy for a fee of about $10 (still working out the exact details). She said he has skills around 24 month level which is not the 25% delay required to qualify for services, but she says his skills are atypical which does qualify him. This means that even though he is able to do the age-appropriate skills (about 6 months behind) he does not do them "correctly" or consistently. So her final decision for Ryder includes:

1) Periodic aqua therapy sessions.

2) 1-2 times per month PT sessions.

3) Possible orthotics. She is going to bring another PT with her on another visit who specializes in orthotics to see what she thinks. Ryder does roll his ankles and walk on the inside of his feet along with having one leg longer than the other.

I am so glad that I remained strong and continued to ask for this PT evaluation. She agrees that he is not really delayed, but it is more about quality and not quantity. He has lots of skills, but not all of them are consistent or executed correctly (such as using different muscles to compensate for low muscle tone in the trunk/core).