Daniel has been in therapy since he was 3 months old. He was born with multiple physical disabilities that led to a 4-week stay in the NICU. Once he came home, we immediately set him up for services. He started the Early Invention (EI) program with the hope that it would help him catch up by the time he turns 3 years old. The EI program gives support and services to kids with developmental needs. It also provides us tools on how to help Daniel’s development within our family’s daily activities and community life.
He started with physical therapy mostly because of his clubfoot, but also because he had torticollis in his neck; a condition where the head tilts to one side. Occupational therapy (OT) came next to help with his fine motor skills. Speech and feeding therapy started a lot later, because he wasn’t even trying to eat solid food until he was 1.5 years old. Both PT and OT started out at just once a week, but quickly increased to twice a week.
Daniel is so close to being caught up to kids his age that we’ve reduced both OT and PT to just once a week. Right now we’re really working on Daniel going up and down stairs and not holding onto anything in the process. He’s also learning how to jump and being comfortable walking on different terrain like sand, grass, and rocks. In OT he’s working on his colors, shapes, numbers, and using different coloring utensils.
Daniel is very good with memorization with movies, books, and songs. He can imitate entire movies and remembers the words to songs. His speech has gotten really clear just in the past few months and he’s saying a lot of new words. In speech therapy we’re encouraging him to say 4+ word sentences, which he’s getting really good at.
Feeding therapy is probably the most challenging thing for Daniel. He has weak jaw muscles so foods like meat are hard for him to manage. Sometimes he’ll chew something for 10 minutes and still not swallow, so we make him spit it out. We’re teaching him how to take bites of food instead of shoving the entire thing his mouth.
He’s learning how to use utensils and we praise him when he feeds himself. Sometimes he’s just not confident enough with a fork or spoon so we build that by clapping and congratulating him. Daniel is really motivated by affirmations so we try to make sure he knows he’s doing a good job.
Daniel loves eating macaroni and cheese, strawberries, blueberries, pizza, crackers, cheese, and Fruit Roll Ups. He’s recently discovered different sauces and loves dipping chicken nuggets into ketchup or honey mustard.
Daniel is very social and loves when his therapists come over. He likes playing with them and gets very excited when he gets to go outside with his PT. I’m so proud of the little person he’s become. While a little feisty, he’s still really sensitive and is very empathetic, especially with his siblings. He makes sure to comfort them and checks on them when they’re upset. He’s incredibly smart and I’m excited to see what his life will be like after he’s done with therapy and he’s in school playing with other kids.
