Motivating Tommy to Walk (Part II)

Motivating our son to walk hasn't been that easy because he is a little protester. His lack of motivation to get mobile is stronger than the hypotonia.  Back in September, he did an amazing progress in his gross motor skills, but he slowed down around December. I took it easy this time and we gave him a break again. It is working as it happened back in September. His gross motor skills have improved in the last 5 weeks. He is riding his walking bike without protesting and he is pushing a push toy our PT borrowed. He is walking one hand supported; he is standing up and walking by putting his hands against a flat surface. He learned on his own to ride on and off his bouncing zebra. He is standing with his hands free when he is playing with his fridge toy or when he is in the crib. For our surprise, he did his first-three independent steps. My husband was so excited and he started to scream,  but Tommy felt and hit his head before I could get to the living room. I missed it! Hopefully, I will see it next time. 

Video of  Tommy walking with his push toy.

Video of The Tommy's Mobile (first bike)

Our 7 powerful tools to improve our son's gross motor skills 

• Rocking. His body is getting stronger. He is getting a nice straight posture, but I still think we have to work more to strength his torso. Tommy loves the song Row, Row your boat.  I am using this song to strength his abdominal muscles while he is rocking. I slowly push him back until he has to hold himself. We do it back and forth until I finish to sign and I start over again. He thinks it is funny!
  
• Pony Ride. I remember when I was a child, I used to like pony rides. We started it with Tommy last week it. It is a fun way to improvs his gross motor skills and balance. According to the book The Parents Guide to Play, "as you  crawl and wiggle your way through the house, your child is learning how to find and keep her center of gravity. She or he will also be stretching her imagination by pretending she or he is riding a pretty pony –or perhaps a dashing steed."Tommy is defiantly using his imagination because he bounces on us. 
  
• Climbing. We are encourage Tommy to climb as much as he can going up and down the stairs. He needs more practice going down the stairs, but he is getting the idea. Climbing improves balance and gross motor skills while strength lower-body and creates spatial awareness.
  
•  Aqua Therapy. Tommy is doing great in the Aqua therapy. His therapist thinks he is very smart because he gets everything very quickly. It is matter of time for him to transfer all the skills he is getting in the pool to his daily activities. 
  
• Slide. Our neighbor has borrowed his kids' slide a couple of time. Tommy likes the slide. He keeps himself upright until the end of the slide, which means his torso is getting stronger. Today, we took him to the park to use the slide because it wasn't too cold.
  

• Toy Box. We are using the toy box as other tool to keep Tommy standing and cruising. While he takes his toys out of the toy box, he is working out his back and abdominal muscles. 
  
• Trampoline. We haven't try it yet, but our PT and Lianna, the writer of the blog My Live with Gabriel, have suggested a trampoline with a bar to help Tommy to improve his gross motor skills. Lianna sent to me the following link to get an idea of how to look for a trampoline: http://www.kiddietoys.com/trampolines-c-119_177.html.  We want to get a trampoline for Tommy because we know he will have fun while he is improving his gross motor skills without having the pressure of the therapy. He likes to "jump". What we do is to hold him by his torso. We count 1-2-3  and say Jump. Then, he pushes himself up and I light him up. He is getting too heavy for me. Therefore, a trampoline is becoming a need for our play therapy. 
  

We are very excited that he is getting closer to walk. His Physical Therapy said Tommy is figuring things out. He is not depending so much on us to improve his gross motor skills.  We know that Tommy will be walking sooner than later because he is getting in the latest stage to start walking independently.

The power of bubbles

One of my favor therapy tools is "Bubbles". Bubbles are more than soapy water. They have a special power on children to make them to work without knowing it. We use bubbles for oral motor therapy, but we also use them to improve Tommy fine motor skills.

Tommy index fingers where bending backward, it wasn't that bad, but I am very persistent to help Tommy in every aspect because I know it wasn't a big problem then, but it could be a big problem later if it is not corrected. Then, his team and I are working to strength the muscle of his index fingers. I have already seen improvement since November when we started to help him to strength his index fingers. He is insulating  his fingers in a nicer way for pointing and pushing buttons. We got the Bath Time Bubble Maker by Summer Infant for Christmas. This is a good bathtub toy to strength the index fingers. The button is not hard to press. He starts the bubbles maker by himself and I turn it off to encourage him to press the button again. I encourage him to point while I am counting the bubbles, but the fun part for Tommy is to pop the bubbles. The bath time bubble maker is an inexpensive toy, but it has a lot benefits in our fun way to do therapy.

Tommy, "The Boxer"

Tommy took the role of being a boxer by the end of December. Boxing is a boy thing! He is doing really good with pretend play. He fights all rounds possible with daddy, mommy and anyone or anything around him. It is so funny how he likes to box even with the phone and the computer. We tell him "puño" and he gets his little fists ready for boxing. What I like about he pretends boxing is that Tommy combines pretend play and roughhousing play which are very important for thinking skills. Enjoy the photo of my little boxer. 

The joy of being a child

Matthew 19:14

"Let the little children come to me,

 and do not hinder them, for the kingdom

of heaven belongs to such as these."

Pajama Party

Tommy and I went to a Pajama Party for toddlers this evening. Kids were jumping around and having fun. Tommy was looking at them very curious. We were there for 45 minutes doing crafts. Tommy did his first snow man book. It is time for Tommy to spend more time with other toddlers. Waooo! He is not a baby anymore.

Tommy helped to glue the construction paper

My best friend

Hi, I want to introduce you 

my best friend, "El Tucán". 

He is colorful, funny and noisy.  

I share with him the best moments of my life.  

The little Picasso

I am so excited that Tommy seems to be an artist like mommy ; ). He enjoys scrabbling so much that he gets excited as soon as he sees the blank page and the crayons. We are spending 10 to 15 minutes daily for scrabbling to strength his fine motor skills. I have read that it is better that toddlers color on big piece of papers because they don't know they should color inside the edges of the paper. But Tommy colors in regular size paper and he flips the page when it is getting filled in. My husband makes fun of me because I am so amazed of "Tommy's art". He just sees insignificant scrabbles. But I see more than that! I see how Tommy's fine motor skills are improving. He is drawing straight lines and kind of circles. I also found graphics in his scrabbles which make everything more interesting for me as an artist. See the scrabble below, you will find the A and the Z letters link together (Look at the left of his scrabble).

“I used to draw like Raphael, but it has taken me

a whole lifetime to learn to draw like a child”

~Pablo Picasso

It takes me a few seconds to paint like Picasso.

~ Tommy

The art of blowing

How fun it is blowing bubbles or a whistle! This is a very fun activity for young toddlers. But for kids with hypotonia (decrease muscle tone) it is something that they cannot take for granted. When Tommy was 12 months old we introduced single straws and Tommy discovered how to blow through the straw.  I followed Tommy's lead and blowing bubbles through the straws became part of our fun oral motor therapy. This was also the beginning of Tommy enjoying blowing hundreds of bubbles and the melodic sounds of a whistle as any other toddler.

Tommy blowing bubbles through the straw

Tommy blows bubbles in the park (18 month)

Tommy blowing bubbles (22 month)

Blowing bubbles or whistles encourage breathing coordination and movements with the mouth and tongue muscles, allowing children to practice eye-hand coordination. To deep the blower and bring it close the mouth encourage bilateral hand coordination, which it's important for writing skills. While children blow the bubbles, they track the bubbles very fast allowing them to exercise their eye muscles. Blowing bubbles also assess language skills and promotes language development, according to MommySpeechTherapy.com

We have used different straws, bubbles blowers and whistles that I have chosen according to the difficulty of blowing each one. The best places to find them are the dollar stores and the party supply stores. You can also search online to find new innovative straws, bubble makers and whistles. We don't allow Tommy to hold them becasue the ones I have gotten are manufactured for older kids, which means they have small parts that can cause choking hazard. But for his birthday, we got a nice set of bubble blowers  that he will be allowed to deep and blow. I am looking for a flute or a trumpet as other gift for his birthday. 

Tommy blows his straw whistle

Tommy blows his wind star whistle

How proud we are of him! He is doing all kind of things. The fact he is not walking yet doesn't stop him to learn and doesn't discourage us to keep boosting his brain. Therefore, the next step in our art of blowing is from deep and blow to blowing bigger bubbles. After all, it is a fun activity. 

NOTE: Always chose bubbles blowers and whistles with round shape for the mouth area. Other shapes may promote tongue protrusion.