Great Accomplishments With Physical Therapy

This morning was the last physical therapy session for hopefully just a few weeks. The Regional Center assigned Jan a certain amount of hours towards Raquel, and today she used all that were given. Jan will now turn in an evaluation report along with her recommendations to keep Raquel under her care until she turns three. She is hoping to start seeing her every other week instead of weekly, since she's made such progress. Due to the paperwork trail, this may take several weeks before she is authorized to do so and her therapy resumes.

But we had wonderful news this morning. After reviewing the paperwork, Jan noted that Raquel had met - or EXCEEDED - all of the goals assigned to her during her initial evaluation! What wonderful news to hear - especially given the fact that her delay in walking was the one thing that got her assessed in the first place!

Jan was so pleased with how Raquel was today. She was going up and down curbs and hills, climbing on the equipment, walking backwards, sideways, pivoting herself around - just obviously much stronger and able to do more things. She walked all over that place to near exhaustion. I could barely get her home and in clean clothes before she fell fast asleep. Jan showed me some more techniques to use when I'm working with her on the stairs, and asked me to tell the psychologist in our transition meeting that she recommends "Adaptive Physical Education" for Raquel. I guess this is therapy in a group setting. Not exactly sure. But our transition meeting is next Thursday, so I'll get more info then from the psychologist. I should also be given names of schools in the area (probably just a handful) that Raquel will qualify for and that I can hopefully start checking out.

This encouraging PT news was actually bittersweet to me. Earlier this week, one of her therapists made a comment during conversation that she didn't know if Raquel would ever have the ability to do something that I had asked about. It wasn't a specific task, it was just a general thing. So general that I don't even remember my question. It wasn't a huge thing at the time, certainly didn't bother me at the time, and I am 100% confident that it wasn't said in ill regard, but I became very emotional once I started replaying it in my head. And not because I'm being unrealistic about where Raquel is developmentally. I feel that I have a very accurate assessment of her abilities - especially considering I deal with her therapy on a daily basis.

It bothered me because I felt that she was already being labelled. And that part I hated. As a mother, I have never - not once - given up on her, even during her worst times. I've always believed in my heart that Raquel would catch up eventually and have a normal and productive life. I still feel this way. Look how far she has come already! That comment just made me start to not only question myself but also think about how people are going to judge her as she ages, if she continues to have these challenges. I see how she is judged by complete strangers that assume her sometimes distracting behavior is my lack of parenting. The rolling of the eyes, the "MY child would never hit ME" comments, etc. are very annoying, even though they don't bother me as much as they used to, or happen nearly as often. (Side Note: Cari told me that Elizabeth tells parents that the next time they get "the look", to give that person the "mental finger." It really does work!) Next time you see an upset child in a grocery store or mall, please think of me and Raquel. They may be going through the same thing we are. Again, it's 1 in 150 now. That equals a lot of people going through the same thing.

Janine overlapped with Cari for the afternoon ABA session. Raquel did really well - and was very happy throughout. We discussed how to integrate the sensory input into the session as well as developing her motor planning. Seems like we still need to play around with this a bit. Janine wants me to find out from Karin next week how she recommends transitioning a sensory child into a preschool setting. She also said that starting next week, we are going to be doing weekly outings, replacing one in-home session, to help with the transition.