First week at KECC

James finished his first full week at the KECC this week—he made it all four days. Aside from a little crying the first day at drop-off, he walked in like he owned the joint the rest of the week. The Belle Center folks deserve a lot of praise for months of hard work trying to make drop-offs easier last year, and so does mom.

Notes from the week:

In occupational therapy (OT), Sue is working on playing appropriately with toys (i.e. not throwing or banging), an ongoing effort to be sure. This requires a lot of hand-over-hand assist, which means literally putting your hands on top of James and making him do what you want him to do.

In physical therapy (PT), Barbara is working to keep him on his feet as much as possible, even when playing, to continue to strengthen his muscles. That means we're trying to get him to play at tables or surfaces that require him to stand. Barbara has also suggested having him sit on a basketball or stand on a pillow or cushion while he plays to work his core muscles.

In speech therapy (ST), Alicia is working on reading books and getting James to repeat sounds, especially animals—we've heard him do dog, horse (not "neigh" but blowing lips), and cow, and he tries to do the kissing sound. She's also doing a lot of hand-over-hand signing and she has a musical toy she's using to work on receptive language: getting him to press or activate the thing she names.

At home James likes to dance to any kind of music, loves his new bouncy horse musical toy (he sits on it and it plays music when he bounces), and is getting really good at pressing the red button on his refrigerator toy with his index finger.

I know this is all a lot of text—I hope to get better, and more visually interesting, as this develops!