athelas

Visit from Hawaii Elks OT, JL:

What Happened: 

• Wilbarger brushing and massage with lotion (for sensory integration)
• Cranio Sacral Therapy – focusing on 4th ventricle to encourage CSF flow.
• She showed me how to do this daily.
• Trying to walk on pails…. neither Aidan nor Paddy could do this.
• Bouncing on trampoline in squatted position — “being a frog”– easy for Paddy, difficult for Aidan.
• Doing a simple maze with a vibrating ball point pen — for coordination, visual perception and sensory integration
• Eating Froot Loops with left hand — difficult coordination feat for Aidan (who is hemiplegic) but fun since he loves Froot Loops and hasn’t had one for a long time.

The OT usually tries to include Paddy in order to increase Aidan’s motivation and provide modelling by example back and forth.

Follow-Up:

• Try the daily cranio sacral routine.
• She left balance boards which the little ones enjoyed and tried right away.
• I asked her what she thought of Brain Gym and she was enthusiastic.  I am thinking about doing daily warm-up exercises in the am before we start homeschool.    They seem fun and harmless and it would be nice if they helped a bit.
• Paddy liked the simple mazes so perhaps I should dig through the curriculum closet and see if I can find him something like that to do.