Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Tommy's gross motor skills don't follow charts

Tommy's gross motor skills were slowly progressing during 7 months. His Physical Therapist (PT) thinks Tommy was choosing not to be mobile because his decreased muscle tone is mild and his body is already strong enough to get around. We got into the conclusion there are a few factors that contributed to Tommy's lack of motivation to be mobile.

  • He seems to be a manipulative toddler because mommy spoils him too much. 
  • He may be tired of all of us pushing him to get mobile. He may probably want to try it on his own.
  • We were not giving him enough space to explore around. 

Therefore, our PT decided to do something unusual, taking him out of the therapy for a little while. We did and we were astonished of the amazing progress he has done since then. He has gone from barely moving to a lot of motion. He also got Aqua Therapy because our EIP team was worried of his lack of motivation to get around. He has accomplished in the last 7 weeks what he didn’t in 7 month. He has suddenly gone from sitting up on his own while he lays down on his back to army crawling and occasionally creeping to pull up; from pulling up to occasionally climbing in and out the couch without cushions; from standing up without support for a few seconds to cruising on the crib.

I have noticed Tommy started to sit up from a lay down position when he was about 11-12 months, but he completely stopped doing it. According to the typical milestones, babies crawl first and then they learned to sit on their own. But Tommy wasn’t crawling yet. I also noticed that Tommy was able to kick the ball forward since he was 12 month. I guess he learned this skill by watching other kids at The Little Gym. I have also noticed Tommy is able to crawl on hands and knees, but he doesn't want to do it in regular bases. If he doesn't creep before he walks, we will put him to crawl on hands and knees later because crawling strengths the body, improves fine motor skills, and supports brain development.

Currently, we are doing the "No Physical Therapy" as a therapy. Basically, we are just working on Tommy’s balance with exercises that are playful for him. 

  • While he is sitting on a bench, he tries to catch a balloon or a ball.
  • He is learning to push a toy, our Physical therapists agree that push toys for babies are not appropriate for Tommy because he is good size toddler. He is using a shopping cart toy that let him to keep a better posture. 
  • We have created more places where he can naturally pull up. I put Safe-er-Grip
    by Mommy's Helper in the bathtub to allow him to use it as support to pull up after we are done with his bath. I also put a slip-proof bath mat.
  • Let him to go any where in the house with supervision.
Tommy is doing a great progress in his gross motor skills. 
It seems that all of them at once, but the most important he
 is finally motivated to get around. I cannot wait to the day 
I see him giving his first independent steps. See the photo
 below, he is doing very good by standing against the wall.

 

3 comments:

Sara P said...

these all sound like wonderful things:) no therapy as therapy, that is something i never would have thought of, it sounds like he is doing great:) and such a handsome little boy you have:)

Aunt Melissa said...

That pic is sooo cute!

Anonymous said...

You are so interesting! I don't believe I have read anything like this before. So good to find somebody with a few original thoughts on this topic. Really.. many thanks for starting this up. This website is something that is required on the web, someone with some originality!
my web page > structured settlement annuity calculator