Therapy Update

Therapy has been a Major part of GiGi's life (and our family's life!) essentially since she was born.  She started in the First Steps early intervention program when she was just 8 weeks old, and received Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Speech Therapy (and feeding therapy for a while), and Developmental Intervention  - each therapy every week until she was 3.  The early intervention program ends at that time, and then kids who still need services can enroll in the Early Start program.  Amazingly, Gigi was able to transition OUT of Speech Therapy totally this winter - she is now considered age appropriate for her speech/language skills!!  This is so incredible to us and such a blessing after she was believed to have significant apraxia of speech at age 2, and was exclusively learning sign language to communicate!!!  Her progress in speech has been so amazing to witness and she would now even be considered "chatty"!  GiGi is such a people-person - I'm so happy for her that she is able to talk, sing, and communicate fully. 
So after an incredibly intense first 3 years of therapy....what does it look like for GiGi now?  She now receives physical therapy and occupational therapy through the early start program at her preschool - this is much less (only 120 minutes per month, rather than a session of each every week).  I am very thankful for the early start program, but it is a whole different ballgame than First Steps.  First, she receives much less therapy just based on their service limits.  Secondly, we went from Constant communication with her therapists (we were present for nearly all of her sessions - the majority were provided at home) - to essentially zero communication with the therapists.  I have met the PT once (happened to run into her in the hallway), and have never met her OT.  We receive updates 2 x per year, and informal reports from the classroom teachers.  Not that this is a bad thing necessarily - just very different from the total intense involvement we've been used to.  We also take her to office-based physical therapy every week, because she needs so much additional help in this area.
GiGi's major challenges at this time relate to her physical abilities and motor skills.  This includes things like walking, running, balance, and what they call "self-help" skills like dressing and undressing, potty training (whole other subject there), and brushing teeth.  Probably the most noticeable issue is her balance - she has a trifecta of issues working against her here.  1.  Vision issues, 2. Hypotonia (very low muscle tone) and 3. her encephalocele surgery removed some of her occipital lobe, the part of the brain responsible for balance (and vision).  SO although her balance is terrible and progress is slow, with all of the odds against her, we have to keep in mind how well she is really doing and are very grateful that she can stand and walk at all!!

Here's some recent videos and pictures from her therapy sessions with  Julie in PT.  I love her laugh in the first video (having fun in therapy - yea!!) and her determination in the second one to pull ALL the way up!  Makes me want to go do some pull-ups myself!! 

 

 

 Julie distracts her by talking about things in the room and with stuffed animals, etc. to get her to work on her balance on the "log".

Gigi in "beast mode" coming out of the tunnel.  I remember when she would cry and refuse to even enter this thing!

The "horse" is a new addition to the therapy routine.  We've thought about getting her into therapeutic horseback riding but she's terrified of animals so I'm pretty sure it would be a recipe for disaster!  So for now, this electronic horse is great for her balance - kind of like riding a mechanical bull but much more slow and controlled.