OT, ST, and GI

This info is technically a couple weeks old but oh well.

  We had Squeaker was assessed for Occupational and Speech Therapy, (OT, and ST). It was no surprise that she scored behind. I knew that... anyone that spent time with her knew that. The good news is Squeaker isn't far behind but because 3-5 is where a lot of progress is normally made in Speech and Fine Motor Skills there is a concern that Squeaker would fall way behind. With therapy we are hoping to help push her to keep making improvements. If she catches up then great if she stays just a little behind that's okay. The big thing is to keep moving forward.

  Squeaker lacks a lot of hand muscle and has slight tremors. The big goal in OT right now is stringing. The therapist (Laura) wanted Squeaker to have beads with extra large holes that she could string on pipe cleaners. The pipe cleaners hold up on their own making stringing easier, but still building the skill. The beads that would work ranged in price from 30cents a bead to $1.00 a bead.


Not to mention that none of them were local so I was looking at a week before they even got to my home. I decided to make our own. With some coupons I went to the craft store and purchased some polymer clay (Fimo, Sculpey) and made my own. I played with textures, colors, size, and shape. They came out really good in my opinion. Squeaker took right too them. Then when we saw Laura the next week she was in love. Big holes, not plastic, lots of texture, and very colorful.

  In Speech therapy the current goal is stringing more words together. So anytime she says something to us in stead of just saying it back to correct or encourage pronunciation we have to add a word. Sounds easy right? Try it. If your child asks for "Milk" you have to say "Milk Cup" or "White Milk" or "Milk Please". In the moment it gets really hard. Especially when the child starts adding a word. Now they are saying two words and you have to say three back. Ack! Squeaker's big thing lately is she'll come up to you with her arms up and say "Carry". Well I say back "Carry Me." After a few times she started saying "Carry Me". Okay great now I add "Please". Once she said "Carry me please", oh heavens what do you say? Thankfully I thought of "Carry me please mommy". Squeaker doesn't have to say all the words to get what she wants. But by adding words she learns how they link together.  I have the distinct feeling speech is going to be the harder one to make progress at.

   We also say Dr. King in his new office! It's like heaven. Large play area out front with great toys. A lot of comfortable seating. Then in the rooms there were toys too. Oh and it's much easier to get too since I don't have to go downtown. WAHOO! It was a really great place. What made it an even better day was Squeaker weighed in at 25lbs. You read that right 25 POUNDS! That means since starting the Clonidine 2.5 weeks earlier she had put on almost a whole pound. It's amazing what sleep can do. We would love to continue to see more weight gain like that but don't expect it. I'm sure we will still see bumps in the road but man it's a start. Not much else happened at the appointment. It was mostly just a check up. He did want to check her thyroid again (spoiler it's normal). We don't have to go back until October unless we have an issue.

---So you know no only did Squeaker weigh in well but her height is 35 inches. Which means her weight, height and BMI are all right about 15% for her age. That is a pretty high percentage for her and it just makes me really excited. ---