Monday, March 21, 2016

How's George?

My last blog post was 2 years ago!  I can't believe how fast time flies.  I have not written anything since my last post about our Natural Play Therapy classes.  So, what have we been doing?  Playing of course!

  October 2014    

After our classes ended I started to incorporate some different activities that I could enjoy with all my boys. We purchased a YMCA family membership and travel once or twice a week (45 minutes away) to go swimming in an amazing pool.  George loves to swim and go down the big slides.  He also gets great physical therapy climbing the 34 steps up to the slides and pulling himself up on the Lilly pads in the pool.  Likewise, my big boys have fun with all the pool features which include a climbing wall in the deep end.  After our pool time, George goes to a Kid Zone area with other little ones.  The workers have been great with him.  This gives me time to play with my big boys.   We rock climb, play pool, ping pong or exercise together on some of the equipment.  

We also added trips to the Silver Dollar City family amusement park in Branson.  We used the boys' Christmas money from family to get some season passes.  This was great fun and we will be doing it again this year.  There is something for all the boys.  George loves movement so all the rides in the little kids section are a hit with him.  He is also happy hanging out in his big stroller while his brothers ride the big rides and once again I get some exercise.  It is a very hilly park, especially when you are pushing 40+ pounds.



Currently we have 2 days a month we travel about an hour for our speech and occupational therapy.  We incorporate some time together here as well.  Lately, we have been going to Skyzone for an hour of jumping on all the trampolines.  Then we eat lunch and go to therapies.  Both boys help as needed with therapy time to keep George engaged and interested, plus George wants them to play with him at this time too.  That is nice to see.  We know this because he grabs their arms to join him.  The last couple of times he didn't need his brothers and actually tried some new activities and it was with a new therapist.

As far as goals, we are still plugging along.  Communication has been a big goal for years and while we would love to "hear" his voice, it just isn't happening right now.  That doesn't mean he is not communicating with us. With Natural Play Therapy (NPT)  I have learned to be at peace with where he is at and I truly am. While we still model some sign language, George's brain really struggles to make his body do what he wants.  We are addressing that issue with some detox protocols and primitive reflex integration therapy.   I will discuss that in another blog in the near future since that is a big part of our lives as well.

This year our speech therapist helped us to obtain a NovaChat communication device for George.  He is learning to tell us his wants and needs with it.  Like everything it is a slow process but he is understanding more and more every week.

George is choosing what he wants to do in the playroom.

I have noticed recently that George seems to be following directions a bit easier.  He has done a couple of simple tasks at our requests that he has not done before.  He is also learning to play games on an IPAD whereas before he would want us to do everything and he would just watch.  We are working on matching objects on the IPAD now and it is going well so far.  It is definitely motivating for him and he is using his fine motor skills.  He loves anything with music, so the apps with music are a big hit.

We are going in to our fourth year of using the Natural Play Therapy approach and I truly consider it our foundation.  I can pull other therapies in as needed and make them NPT friendly.  The way it has strengthened my relationship with George and his relationships with his NPT team is priceless.  When team members come over he gladly leaves whatever he is doing and takes their hands to go upstairs to his playroom.  I had a neighbor come over one time when a team member was leaving and George looked at her and figured she was there to play with him.  He took her hand and took her up to his playroom.  It was adorable!

We don't really have any 'behavior' issues with George.  I do believe if we were trying to force goals on him that he was not ready for or if we were placing too much emphasis on what we thought he 'should' be doing then we could possibly have some behavior issues.  I don't consider him not staying with me in public a 'behavior' issue.  I believe he is doing the best he can and he, for whatever reason, does not respond to his name and come to us.  I don't believe it is defiance though.  Thankfully, I have seen some small improvement in him as far as staying with me and not darting everywhere.

We have other large goals that George has not met such as potty training and working on touching and eating food. We are still putting him on the potty daily.  It is hit or miss if he goes and there is no connection with him needing to go. I work on spoon feeding him off and on instead of his smoothies.  I am not doing this as consistently as I would like.  As a mom, home schooling 3 boys,  I can only tackle one major issue like this at a time.  To work on all of them everyday is totally overwhelming, so I am giving myself permission not to do it all right now.  I do believe we are still working on these areas with our detox protocols and reflex therapy.

We will be moving, hopefully, towards the end of summer.  I am looking forward to getting settled and making some new play areas for George.  I am hoping to create lots of areas for climbing, movement and play.

I finished my NPT classes in 2014 and am very comfortable in using what I have learned.  I still want to have an NPT outreach once we are settled in our new place.  There are many more Natural Play Therapy classes available now and it is good to know there is support out there when I need it.  My biggest hurdle is finding people in our rural area, but I am confident we will get there.  I just need to get more creative and I will when the time is right.

George is currently getting 18 hours of scheduled 'play' a week.  I have 13 more hours I am looking to fill right now.  We can pay people now, which is really nice.  We are always open to volunteers coming if students want to build their volunteer hours, even if it is just once a month.  It is so helpful for George to interact with different people.

We are so blessed to have our 2 amazing Team Members, Rachel Bates and Rebekah Alger, working with George every week.  They both have such a playful spirit and give him much love and support.


George showing Rebekah what music he wants to listen to as they play.

Rachel and George coloring for a couple of minutes which is HUGE!
George used to run the other way when we took out the
coloring books and crayons.


Thank you for reading and for your interest in George's progress.  Please leave comments below with any questions you may have or anything you would like to add.


2 comments:

  1. Hi Yvonne! I'm glad to hear you're all doing so well. I love how fun yet relaxed your activities sound. It's really inspiring.
    Say hi to George for me :-)

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    1. Thank you for stopping by and leaving your comments! :)

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