Occupational Therapy!

Back when I blogged about Jack's 3 year check-up I mentioned that his doctor wanted him to go to Occupational Therapy. Since his doctor referred him we got in right away...I guess normally there is a waiting list. We go to the Children's Therapy Center in Kent and we love it! One of the nicest things about therapy is that I can take all the kids!!!

Waiting in the animal chairs for Miss Julie to come!

Miss Julie is Jack's therapist and we love her. She is so patient and that can be hard when it comes to Jack. At the beginning of each session we have to go through the same he doesn't want to do anything attitude even though we go EVERY week. Thankfully his attitude has been getting better and better. Here she is working with him climbing and using his big muscles and also using his fine motor skills to get the "ice cubes". Those are the main things we are working on. Jack has an overall lack of awareness when it comes to his body and his muscles. He will make noise like grunting instead of actually using his muscles. He also needs to work on grabbing things with his fingers (tripod grasp) instead of a rough grab with his whole hand.

With that being said he has made a HUGE amount of progress since we've been going! He can now....open doors both kinds of knobs - open the refrigerator - dress/undress himself (minus the shirt) - put his shoes on - go up and down stairs standing up - eat with a fork - go potty on the big potty without using one of those little potty seats - open the sliding glass door (we are still working on this one, but he's getting better).

While Jack is working with Miss Julie, Owen loves to run around and play with the other things in the room. He LOVES the rock wall. One of the nice things about getting to bring all the kids is it can be good motivation for Jack. If he doesn't want to do something all we have to do is ask Owen and then if Owen wants to Jack does too!

Ella likes to sit on the blocks or play with all the yoga balls they have. I am going to talk to the neurosurgeon at her 6 week pre-op appointment and ask him he thinks she should have some form of OT due to her Hydrocephalus. She really is doing so well, but I think she might need a little speech therapy.

This particular time we were at therapy I was watching Logan. I don't normal watch her on Thursday's, but this week I was. She did great! She loved exploring all the equipment too!

One of the fun exercises she does with the kids is the Lycra Swing. It's what I think a womb would be like. I asked Miss Julie what it does and she said it helps with full body awareness.

This is not Jack's favorite thing!

Owen could seriously live in it!

Ella let me take this picture looking all cute and then she wanted out!

Here Jack is working on his fine motor skills by cutting out paper strips and then making a paper chain. Since starting homeschooling we have been cutting a lot more and he is getting better at that. It's been great to see all the positive changes and I can't wait to see more!