A Happy Girl Today

Raquel was in such a great mood today. She had a good session this morning with Cari, but didn't feel like working for the most part, though she did score well and was pretty vocal. It seemed like she needed a lot more breaks today than usual.

She also had her vision and hearing tests. Her hearing is fine but they couldn't pass her on the vision part because she was too distracted. For the hearing, she sat on my lap and the nurse stood behind us with these noisy toys and would randomly make them go off to see if Raquel would turn her head in that direction. She didn't miss one - and they were in random intensities and she'd hold them in different directions. For the vision, the nurse would drop these balls from across the room and see if Raquel would watch them drop. The balls were pretty small to start with and the smallest was probably the size of pearl bead. She was watching them at first, and then got too distracted with them being on the floor and wanted to go play. The nurse then got out blocks of different colors and would ask Raquel to pick the color. Since I wasn't confident that Raquel knew "purple" when asked, I made it kind of like the matching trial in her ABA sessions and asked her to "match" or "put with same." She did this a few times, but, again, became very distracted and wanted down to play. The nurse basically told me that I know she can see and hear and that getting a pass on vision for a child this young is extremely difficult. And, once she starts school in January, her teacher and therapists will be assessing her on a regular basis.

Speech was funny! Mary brought one bag of toys - THE most desired bag, mind you - along with a pillowcase full of toys. Raquel saw her pull up through Gabby's window and came to greet her at the door. Mary could not even get the door closed behind her before Raquel noticed the bag. She sat down on the floor and looked at it, and then would look up at Mary. I didn't know what to expect!

Although Raquel was pretty quiet during speech, she was very engaged in all of the activities and seemed to really enjoy herself - even clapping for herself when she'd do something Mary would ask of her. Today Mary brought these drawers with an object on the outside. Mary would ask her to pick the ball or the car on the outside of the drawer and open the drawer. She did this a few times and pulled out the plastic ball inside. Mary then asked her to put the ball in these magnetic cups she affixed to a cookie sheet.

She also had this magnetic doll house where we would affix little pictures inside to the room it needed to go in. Although her fine motor made this difficult to do, she did her best and was praised for her efforts. We also played with actual doll house furniture. It allowed Raquel to manipulate smaller sized items and she did really well. She also had fun putting the little people in and out of the bus.

Then she got out this little red fan. Mary would turn it on and we'd watch it spin, and then Mary would say, "Stop!" and turn it off. She asked Raquel to turn it back on by saying, "Go!" and Raquel instead said, "Do it!" so she did. The next time, Mary asked her to say, "Do it!" and Raquel said, "Go!" She's so stubborn. But Mary really likes to see this side of her. She's excited for Raquel to start school and says it will be great for her and she's curious as to how her being out of her comfort zone will play into her learning.

A great start to our therapy week!