America day 15 - Kaufman Center Session 5

I have been loving speech therapy! It always starts with my favourite things to do! Swinging and bouncing!

There is a bit of side lying in there too, to help loosen me up

This is a frozen go gurt tube and the whole purpose of this one is to get me to crunch it with my teeth and eat it. You can see I am getting pretty good lip seal by the shape of my mouth. This is exactly whay we are trying to achieve.

The main thing Mummy and Daddy would like me to achieve is to drink from a straw, so I am working hard to learn to suck and I am on my way!

The hour was finished up with a reward. The Z vibe. I have finally remembered the techinical name for the vibrating toothbrush! I love this one!

America Day 15 - TheraSuit session 13

I am starting to do new exercises more and more. There are so many great things that can be done using a wedge.

And some of them are hard!

Learning to balance whilst standing can be difficult too, but I am going pretty well! Food gives me some motivation - I need to be nice and straight and tall before I can get the spoon!

And this was something new and exciting! I cried when I was being strapped in... I hate being made to do something! The funny thing is I cried harder when it was time to go home and I had to hop off. I LOVED the bike!! My list of equipment to get is slowly growing. I only have a posture chair at the moment, but a bike is definately on the list now!

America Day 15 - HBOT sessions 28 & 29

To be honest because Mummy is behind with writing the blog, she has forgotten what happpened. It was nothing out of the ordinary. I wriggle everywhere when I am in there and I have started to vocalise more lately too. These sessions are just rolling right along. It will be a shame when our time at Oxford Hyperbarics is over.

America Day 14 - Kaufman Center Session 4

We started with more spinning exercises

And Ball exercises, to get my vestibular system started.

And then we moved on to something completely new and different. Jessica was checking to see how I tolerate different textures. This is a sandpit full of rice, and she also put shaving cream on my feet. I didn't mind either.

I did pretty well with my straw today. Jessica said she wouldn't be surprised if I was sucking from a straw by the time we leave next week! Fingers Crossed!

America Day 14 - TheraSuit Session 12

After the great day I had on Monday, we moved it up a notch, so it was LOTS harder today!

Hip abduction exercises were on the list today. A brand new exercise where I move my leg out to the side. The goal was to kick the ball off the table and on to the floor. It was very hard. As much as I tried I could only tap the ball a little way, but with some help the ball went crashing to the floor.

I did another new exercise where I simulated walking. I lifted and pushed down with my left leg,

And did it again straight after with my right.

I stood  up on my feet for a long time! It was a new record!

It was nearly an hour on my feet! And look at my legs! I have extra resistance on my legs now, so I need to push up with  my legs to stand up. My leg muscles are starting to bulid too.

It is really tough work...

It was so, so nice to sit down!

It was such a busy day!

America Day 14 - HBOT Sessions 26 & 27

I had both sessions with Mummy today. These HBOT sessions are starting to work like  a well oiled machine. I go in, I roll about and wriggle, someone will walk past and smile and wave. I will tap around on the glass and more often than not lately I will make a dirty nappy and stink out the chamber! I have been staaaarrrvviing lately too! Gosh I can eat a lot! Perhaps if I didn't eat so much I would go though less nappies...

America Day 13 - Kaufman Center Session 3

Today was a great day for Speech Therapy too! Like Friday, I started with some vestibular exercises-

Swinging in the swing

And bouncing on the ball!

And the vibrating toothbrush (I think it might have a technical name too!) is always fun. This one has a different head - it is a dog and it will eventually help me to seal my lips.

They even had me try listening to a special kind of music. It is something that is supposed to help me develop a breathe, suck, swallow pattern to help me with my drinking. This cd had flutes playing. I didn't particularly like wearing the headphones!

The most exciting thing that happened this session was that I managed to suck from a straw! It was a special one way straw so I didn't need to suck as much to get the water from the bottom of the cup. When I stopped sucking the water didn't slip back down. There was also a button on the lid of the cup that could be pressed and would suck water up with out me trying. Just to give me the idea.