Weekly Update -- 8 - 14 March 2010

Yay, I'm 166 weeks old today!

Masinja had a pretty calm week again. He did very well in OT. He has made quite a bit of progress with stringing the noodles so his OT decided to kick it up a notch and move on to beads. It is a bit more challenging for him because the holes are smaller and he tends to cover them with his fingers while trying to hold the bead. He's still struggling with drawing vertical lines but he has pretty much mastered horizontal lines. He is doing much better with the Duplos now too and even managed to copy the patterns that the OT made with them without too much trouble. His OT was finally able to track down his Sensory Profile and clarified that he does have some tactile and auditory sensory problems. Not too sure yet how she is going to address those issues but I would imagine she will incorporate it into his therapy sessions.

Masinja did really well in Speech today too. He has made a great deal of progress with identifying boys and girls. In fact, we went to Target the other day so I could buy some more workout clothes. While I was trying some things on in the dressing room Masinja climbed up onto the bench and said clear as a bell, "Masinja is a boy." I couldn't wait to get to Speech this week to tell his therapist. She switched to a new deck of cards that has various occupations depicted and the "boys" and "girls" are actual people instead of cartoon characters. Masinja did a pretty good job of differentiating between boys and girls with the new deck of cards so his therapist decided to take him for a walk around the clinic and see how he did with real people. He was about 75% correct which is pretty good considering there weren't any boys. I think sometimes it throws him off if there isn't enough variety so he decides to make his own! He did really well with gross motor imitation and copying the structures his therapist built with the wooden blocks too. He has made a ton of progress and his Speech therapist can't wait for his 6-month review so she can determine just how much!

Masinja had his 30th ECI session which was also his 6-month review. He has made a lot of progress so we were able to remove some of his goals and add new ones. For the next 6 months we are basically going to focus on getting Masinja to feed himself with a fork and spoon and drink out of an open cup. He hasn't been able to use utensils independently because of his issues with grasp. We are also going to focus on helping Masinja learn to play with others as well as engage in pretend play. As far as language development is concerned the goal is to help Masinja become more proficient at verbally making his needs known. We discussed again that he will be starting preschool in August. The goal is for him to go at least 3 days a week. Once he starts preschool he will be transitioned from an IFSP to an IEP. The biggest difference is that with the IFSP his goals are set based on our concerns whereas the IEP goals will be set based on the concerns or recommendations of his teacher. We still have input with the IEP but not as much as we do with the IFSP. The last thing that we discussed was the possibility of adding the vision teacher to Masinja's team. Both his OT and his Speech therapist at Children's mentioned to me last week that in addition to PT, OT and Speech, the ECI program also employs a vision teacher. When I told them about his ophthalmology appointment a few weeks ago they both asked me if the vision teacher was on Masinja's team. In light of his "wobbly" vision Masinja's teacher, or primary provider, is going have the vision teacher come out and do an evaluation and see if she can give us some additional strategies to help him.

That's all for now.

Peace,
T.M.M.