Physical Therapy

Little Flara started at a new Physical Therapy locale last week.  We were on a break from our previous place due to complete noncompliance from our little girlie.  Mike and I figured Day One at the new place would be our "make-it-or-break-it" visit.  I was a bit nervous in going... we had even rescheduled our first visit due to Flara being sick the day she was supposed to go and took her to our peds instead.  Day One, to my utter surprise, went GREAT!  Our therapist assessed Flara by talking me through everything, rather than by her touching Flara, with the hopes that Flara would warm up to her.  It worked-- Flara seemed to just think Momma was playing with her, although in a new environment.  I'm so thankful-- even as we waited in the waiting area, Flara stood big-eyed, wringing her little hands non-stop, and refused to move (until Big Sis went, took her shoulders, and guided her back to me).  She's so pitiful.  Flara's initial assessment placed her functionally/ developmentally as a 13-month-old, even though she is actually 19-months-old.

Daddy took Flara to therapy today while I was at my own doc's appointment.  As I was waiting to be picked up, Mike texted me a picture of Flara and Noël-- Flara had walked over to another therapist working with a little boy with autism, and sat down and played with them!  Noël went, too, and they all worked on puzzles together.  Quite cute-- and, quite amazing!  Mike said she really did well with our regular therapist, too.  Such a relief!

Her therapist did express some concern over Flara's perception of touch-- she has diminished senses.  We see this most prevalent during eating:  Flara over-stuffs her mouth 'til she's full like a hamster.  Then, she chokes... and, chokes... and, Momma and Daddy do very frequent finger sweeps to rescue her.  Apparently, she is overstuffing because her little nerves aren't registering the feeling of food in her mouth, so it takes her a mouthful to get that feedback.  She's fifth on a waiting list for speech therapy, but our therapist is trying to get her moved to the front of the line.  Worried about her frequency of choking, she even suggested we might cut back on her solids.  The girl loves her food sooooo much, though, I think I'm going to just feed her a single bite at a time, rather than giving her a plate of food.

We have also been encouraged to really start using signs with Flara to facilitate her language development.  I'm using "Signing Smart with Babies and Toddlers" at the recommendation of our TEIS instructor.  From what I've read, it seems like it will be a good system.  I had only exposed Flara to the Baby Einstein videos for signing, but this system allows for more conversational signing.  I'm actually pretty excited to be learning, and today marked my first "official" day of signing with Flara.  She's been watching very earnestly, so I'm hoping she'll pick up on it all.  =)