Physical therapy. Occupational therapy. Speech therapy. These have been a weekly part of our lives for the past year and a half. I should actually say that therapy has become a daily part of our lives. Our very special therapists, who we have become quite attached to, work with the twins during their weekly sessions, but they also teach us things to practice between their visits. So we are doing therapy daily. Therapy has been frustrating, time-consuming, stressful, overwhelming, and at times so, so challenging. But it has also been very rewarding. I wanted to update how things are going with therapy and document the twins' progress.
Rhett started physical therapy when he was diagnosed with torticollis/plagiocephaly at 4 months. He started out with therapy twice a week, changed to three times a week, and now works with his favorite therapist, Lauri, once a week. He has made great progress. When he first started, he was working on turning his head side to side and stretching his neck muscles. Then he started working on reaching, rolling, and grabbing things. After that, scooting, then crawling, pulling up, and walking. Now he is almost caught up with motor skills, but we are still working on core strength, coordination, and balance.
OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY:
We added occupational therapy when Rhett turned 10 months old. Since Rhett was showing signs of being developmentally delayed, we hoped that the therapy could help with his motor skills, cognitive planning, sensory processing, and life skills. Rhett did not like occupational therapy at first. I think because it was really hard for him and he had to do things that were not natural to him. He became very attached to his therapist, Kelly, and I think that made all the difference in the world. Throughout the year, Kelly worked with Rhett on pointing, poking, holding things, transferring from hand to hand, self feeding, throwing, and more. We were so thrilled when she told us this past month that Rhett was caught up and did not need her services any more. Here is a picture of our sweet boy during his last session of occupational therapy.
SPEECH THERAPY:
At the twins' 15 month checkup, their pediatrician was concerned since R&R were not talking at all. We had a speech evaluation done in early August and both of the kids qualified, so we started speech therapy at 17 months. We love our sweet therapist, Kathleen, who comes once a week to work with us. Around 20 months or so, we noticed a huge language explosion! Rhett actually started signing and saying new words at the same time. New signs right now are airplane and help. It is so interesting to me that the twins use the same pronunciation of a word, even if it is wrong. For example, Rhett said the word monkey first, pronounced "mun-uh," and a few days later Rhys started saying it the same way. I wanted to note the words that we hear frequently now at 21 months:
momma
dada
baby
bye-bye
bird
bath
eye
ball
car
puppy
up (they say this for up and down)
snack (pronounced "nak")
water ("wah-wah")
sticker
cheese
cracker
apple (this is a FAVORITE word around here!)
more
uh-oh
pumpkin ("punka")
walk
rock
swing
berry ("baby")
bubble
book
moon
all done
ice
ham
bear
bee
raisin ("why-o")
bite ("bye")
night night ("nigh nigh")
chicken
noodle ("noonle")
car
ball
banana ("nana")
milk
monkey ("mun-uh")
bowl
shoes ("zooz")
Rhys ("weeee")
Mike ("Mi")
Sugar ("Guger")
Bubba
Here is Rhett practicing a few words:
And a few more words in the bath tub one evening:
They are starting to really communicate with us! It seems like we are adding a word or two every day. We do notice, however, that they seem to have their own language with each other. We like to call it "twin-ese."
The twins are still currently receiving speech therapy. Our therapist wants to stay with us through their 2nd birthday to make sure that they continue to stay on track and start using two-word phrases around that time.
Many of you have had to listen to me complain about therapy or our therapy schedule at one time or maybe many times! Even though it has been challenging, we are so thankful for the services and thankful that we have this opportunity to receive help. More updates coming soon!
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