Thursday, December 10, 2009

Pediatric Treadmill


I have had several emails asking what has been going on with William since I have not been blogging much lately. I'm sorry to be so behind, but I feel like I have been running nonstop for quite some time now. Between running William to all of his therapies, keeping up with school and the house, and simple exhaustion from 3rd trimester pregnancy, I know I let the blogging world fall behind. Instead of trying to catch everything up, I'll just give a small sample of where we are now.
Physical therapy is going very well. Liesa has started William on the pediatric treadmill since he is starting to control his legs so much better (instead of just flopping them out there and letting them land where they may). When he comes off the treadmill, he gets to walk around in the harness and play in the gym. He likes to kick the ball and chase after it.

Between the kinesio tape on his knees and his braces, he has much better control over his legs and does not hyper-extend like he used to. I think the biggest obstacle he faces right now is confidence. There are times Liesa or Laci have him standing all by himself and he doesn't even realize it. When he figures out that he has nothing holding him up, he sits down and generally will not repeat the exercise right away.

Liesa also has him working with the bar, which he does not really like. He doesn't mind it so much when she has both hands on it and it is stable, but when she only has one hand on (and less control) he gets frustrated quickly. Again with the security.
Other therapies are also going well, it's just that we spend the most time in PT. Auditory-Verbal therapy has been a little slow going lately because I have not been traveling that far for several weeks, due to late pregnancy. We've been using Skype, but William doesn't respond as well to Krissa over the computer. We have been really working with him at home though and his speech is really taking off. He repeats just about anything and his understanding is GREAT! He can follow just about any command we give him, no matter how many words we use in the sentence. He knows all of his therapists by name and says each of their names. In fact, the other day we were in the waiting room waiting for his PT appointment. Liesa came out a door down the hallway and we could not see her, but heard her voice. William's eyes got big and he sat up straight and looked at me and said, "Miss LEEEE-sa!" Very exciting stuff!
His jaw strength is also coming along well with Oral-Motor Sensory therapy. I've noticed that he has much better control over his tongue and is now using it to lick things off of his lips. The added benefit to having better tongue and jaw strength is that he is eating much better than he used to!
Low-Vision therapy hasn't really gotten off the ground and we are still pretty unsure of exactly what he can and can't see.
So that is the latest on William. I will try to stay more up-to-date! Thank you for your continued prayers on his behalf.

"Our soul waiteth for the LORD: He is our help and our shield." Psalm 33:20