Therapy - Session 1

Well, session 1 is done!  I promise I won't write a recap to every session, but I will post as we progress.

Up first - OT!  T worked with Ms. Maggie today.  She was not the therapist who evaluated Trent, so she and I spent about 5 minutes hitting the high points of our areas of concern, and off she and Trent went to play in the gym. She said she wanted to do more observation with him to see which direction she wanted the therapy to take which makes perfect sense.  After 45 minutes, they were back to talk me through what she had seen.  We are going to work a lot of his self-regulation skills and we already have some homework and things to try.  
1) We bought a sensory brush.  We will use this multiple times a day to help relax/redirect him.  I have some literature to read, and I am so excited!

2) We are going to work on removing the word 'No' as much as possible when talking with him  As that is a big fit trigger, we are going to work on setting expectations (which I feel we do) but then when he asks for something outside that, for which we do need to say 'no', we'll work on using different words to explain what the expectation we set was and just focus on what we need to do.

Next hour was speech/swallowing.  We were supposed to see Ms. Megan who evaluated Trent (and he loved her), but her water broke for a baby not due until November, so our thoughts are with her!  We saw Ms. Julie instead and focused a little more on his food/swallowing issues because his speech needs are more clearly defined.  I actually sat in on this session as it was a little unexpected for Julie to be his therapist, and she hadn't reviewed his file yet.  She was extremely helpful and positive and said we're going to take this very slowly to keep his trust up in us and not make mealtime a challenge.  It may be months before we see results, but it's nice to know we're not going to be fighting over things!  We have several things to bring next week and also a homework cooking assignment (he likes sweet potato fries, but she wants us to make our own w/ coconut oil and serve twice...the second time adding carrots!!!).

Overall, I am so optimistic about what this is going to do for our family and specifically for T.  Baby Gurl isn't due for almost 4 months, so we have a good amount of time to really focus on him, and for that I am so thankful!!

Because, seriously, doesn't this kiddo deserve the best?

Therapy Begins!

It's been about a month since we had our speech evaluation.  I forgot to blog about Trent's occupational evaluation, but it was a very similar appointment with the conclusion being he could benefit from therapy.  {I have a tag at the bottom of my blog labeled 'therapy' if you want to read about some of our journey that got us here.}  After both therapists writing their reports and submitting to insurance...here we are!  

Today is Trent's FIRST DAY OF THERAPY!  He will go twice a week for 1 hour for each type of therapy (occupational and speech), so we will be here for 4 hours/week.  I {so far} could not be more impressed with the center we have chosen.  Both of the therapists Trent will be working with on a regular basis are amazing.  So kind, friendly...Trent was smitten with both which is such a relief to me.  I am also so thankful for the amazing insurance my company provides.  We will only be paying a co-pay for these services, and we can get LOTS of treatments.  Whoo-hoo!

I type this post as I sit in the waiting room.  I won't need to be here going forward, but I wanted to be here at least at his first appointment in case he (or his therapists - ha) needed me.  I'm sure he won't.

I will post an update later today with how it went!