Intro to physical therapy

80 started physical therapy June 13th.  The pediatrician referred him because he is a little developmentally delayed but more importantly because he felt like the gross motor development of his arms was outstripping his legs. His PT is Heather and she is very nice and calm with 80.

Sessions start with stretching, moves onto a few reaching exercises, and then core strength.  Why core if the focus should be on his legs?  Well babies develop from the inside out, which is why tummy time is so important.  If he doesn't have a solid core he can't develop strong arms and legs.  Actually the same is true for athletes, come to think of it.

He goes to therapy twice a week, so has only been three times.  I feel like he's already improving.  He's already able to briefly sit up unaided, though he still has no protective reflex when he crumples over.  He is reaching with the left hand as well as the right, and reaching more often.

His current routine:
Stretching

• Reaching with opposite hand/foot, stretching up/down, then touching hand to foot in the midline.  He brings up both feet when we bring the active foot to midline, the goal is to get him to disassociate the left from right foot.  For now I put him on my stomach and tuck his inactive foot in my bra to keep it from moving.
• Sitting and leaning forward to put the hands on the ground by the feet.  He really hates this one.  It's a guaranteed cry. Every. Time.
• Twisting right knee over the left side, and left knee over the right.
• Some foot stretches where she pushes on the balls of his feet to lenghten his achilles. 

Exercises

• Sitting, reaching forward to play with a toy, using both hands to play with the toy.
• Sitting on an exercise ball, bouncing up and down, the therapist bounces him to the right, to the left, backwards and forwards.  It builds his stabilizers and develops the protective reflex to bring his arm down when he leans too far to the right or left.
• Laying on his stomach - reaching forward for toys.  Working on him bringing his arms forward to push up and eventually facilitate crawling.
• Laying on the boppy pillow, arms forward resting on the ground.  Reaching for toys and putting weight on the arms to keep his head from falling to the ground.  The last time we did this he just put his head on the ground as if to give up, lol.  Tired boy.
• Suspended midair "airplane mode" rotate left to right, backward and forward

Heather uses the Leapfrog Discovery ball for reaching at PT. I looked online but this particular toy is discontinued.  The best replacement I could find was the Vtech Move & Crawl toy.  It works just as well, if not better!  He doesn't want to cooperate at PT, mostly I think because he is still getting used to it.  Thursday he made it exactly 2 minutes before he started crying.  He has cried through the entire 30 minute session all 3 times.  So, while he does the exercises and stretches, he doesn't exactly enjoy them.  I wanted to get similar toys to work with at home so he won't develop a bad association with the exercises.  We shall see on Tuesday if my 12 dollars were well spent.