One of the items Karin asked me to pick up before our next session was one of those bouncy fitness balls. She wants me to start using it on Raquel to help tone down (hopefully) some of her sensory processing issues.
Yesterday when she arrived, Raquel seemed happy to see her - even though she kept coming back to me for assurance at first. Karin immediately went for the fitness ball. She sat Raquel on it and bounced her up and down for about 30 seconds (she sang the ABC song - so a long as that takes to do). Raquel LOVED the thing. She laughed and laughed and laughed! Karin followed the ball with deep joint compressions. None of us could believe what a difference it made in Raquel's temperament. This morning didn't start out so well and I was a little concerned about how the OT was going to go. This simple thing seemed to calm her significantly, and make her a lot more focused. She would get frustrated at times, but the entire session was done with a smile on her face - even when frustrated. She would get up and take a "break" but come right back. Karin showed me certain ways to hold her arm to help with the hand-over-hand techniques and overall just gave me some fantastic input and ideas to make the little, annoying things I've been dealing with, much easier. She also wants me to do the fitness ball routine followed by the joint compressions 3 times a day and note the changes.
She overlapped briefly today with Wendy and they worked great together. Karin sat back and watched - saying that Wendy knew her best and wanted to observe their play therapy. Wendy commented on how calm Raquel appeared and was very encouraged by the fitness ball. She also showed me some infant massage techniques that I could use after her bath at night.
All in all - a good day. This picture speaks volumes!
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