It was another great day at Learning Spot!
Paige continues to have amazing success working with Juan Pablo! Today, he imitated and consistently used 4 new words. His favorite new word was "obo" for globo because who doesn't love to ask for a balloon! Karla continues to rock her PECs system and has progressed to using a sentence strip rather than just single word requests. Kara and Paige were able to work together in her speech session to shadow prompt how to sequence her request to state "I want music!". Karla was able to transfer this skill from Kara and Paige to her family members; how AMAZING is this?! What a life changing skill to have communication with your family! This is something that can be taken for granted so easily, but to be even a small part of an equation that allows a child to talk to their family is a blessing.
Katie (OT) worked hard with our sweet boy Angel to sequence letters to spell his name. He is a little spitfire with a smile that will melt your heart, but getting him to sit still and engage in fine motor tasks is no small feet! Mary (OT) was able to work with Isaac on strengthening and head control. Working on strengthening a child's neck muscles so they can more readily engage with their environment with an upright head position is so important for development and engagement. By the end of the session, Mary was so proud when Isaac was able to keep his chin tucked when pulled into a sitting postion from laying down, with assist from his therapist.
Mary also had a big day of educating! This is a very important part of our trips with TEAMworks. We love to educate those involved in a child's care so that progress can be made once we leave. All of the parents and staff at Learning Spot have been so eager to learn and collaborate with us on each child's care. Today, Mary was able to show positions for continued head control with Isaac's family and educate Emma's family regarding coping strategies and confidence building activites. Emma's mom had voiced concerns about Emma's frustration tolerance when faced with a challenge, and Mary was able to help Emma make a list of coping strategies and list out all of her strengths to use as a reference when she was feeling challenged. We are pretty sure all of us could benefit from this activity!
At the end of the day Eric and Sherrie were able to help out Diana! They took on the special project of adjusting Diana's mother's wheelchair. Diana's mother's health has been declining over the years and she now uses a wheelchair for her main means of mobility. Diana is like family to us and we love being able to use our skills to help out when we can!