Let's Get Physical

The best part of ECI compared to all the other specialists, is they come to my house. It's one appointment I don't have to travel for. This week, ECI came back for another physical therapy evaluation to determine if it could be time to start his physical therapy up to work on his head control and stiff limbs like our neurologist suggested.

There were two physical examinations that were completed. She was looking at gross motor and fine motor skills to see what Beckett was able to do and she basically gave him a score. He should have been between 96-116 on the scale for his age at this point. For gross motor, he scored a 78, and fine motor he scored an 80.

She noticed that he is lacking in his head control, he does have stiff limbs and clenched hands, he's resting his head to the right rather than going both directions, and his hands remain at his sides rather than trying to grab things in front of him.

We set three goals to hit by the end of July:

1) she would like to see him holding his head up for 3-5 minutes in an assisted sitting position

2) turning his head equally to both sides

3) he can bring his hands together in the middle of his body

The therapist also asked me a series of questions about some different things I may be noticing from him (different cries based on needs, facial expressions changing for a familiar face, recognizes being touched by a familiar person) and based on my responses he scored in line with a one month old in some areas and a two month old in others.

All of this to say we knew he was behind, we just had to get them to come in and see that for themselves in order to get physical therapy going. She believes that he would definitely benefit from PT, which we already know, we still had to go through the formalities.

Once we have our first session, she will continue to come every two weeks to work with Beckett and give me more tools to work on at home with him.

Next up is the get a speech evaluation to address the bottle feeding concern, so we should be getting that on our schedule in the next month or so.

Comments

Ketchup

Lots of things have changed in the last 6 months! We left our therapy clinic and it was heartbreaking. All our therapists in Washington have been monumental in Beckett's journey and there's no way he would be where he is today without them. We left all our neighbors on Dakota Ave that turned our time there into the most memorable of our military time. We packed up our house, and headed home to Texas! The first six weeks being in Texas were a whirlwind between airbnbs, hotels, families houses, while trying to find a house to buy, and Regan starting his job. So during that time I didn't try to accomplish anything for Beckett beyond getting both boys established with a pediatrician. Most of the other doctors Beckett needed to get into had to be sent referrals by his pediatrician anyway, so that was the best place to start. Their pediatrician is very sweet, but we've had a few hiccups with her office and their knowledge of Beckett's diagnoses which has been quite shocki...

Three-esta

In November, we had Beckett's Special Education evaluation. It was quite a crowd. In addition to me and Beckett, there was the Diagnostician, a Physical Therapist, Occupational Therapist, 2 Speech Language Pathologists, 2 Vision Teachers, and a Teacher for the Deaf. Prior to this meeting, we were sent questionnaires to fill out regarding Beckett's development so they had some sort of idea about what where he was at when they did get to meet him. After their introductions, all the specialists observed Beckett's movements, and interactions, while they all took turns asking questions about his development that were specific to their individual evaluations. I answered what felt like never ending questions while they all fawned over Beckett, and they sent us on our way. As the diagnostician was walking us out, I had a little check in the see if she thought he would qualify for Special Education services. She was nodding yes, as she made sure to tell me she'd let me know onc...

NAPA Knows How

Our time at the NAPA Center was truly incredible. I had seen online a handful of accounts I follow of kids doing intensive therapy, and I was definitely intrigued but I wasn't sure where to turn. A fellow Liss mom had mentioned the NAPA center so I went to Google to do my research. At the time, registration had closed to get into an intensive session for 2023, so we were waitlisted, which was totally fine since we were still in Washington and getting to a session wasn't really feasible at the time. When registration for 2024 opened up, I applied, and waited to hear. A few weeks later I got the email that he was selected to attend an intensive session in Austin the summer we arrived back in Texas, which couldn't have worked out better. We figured out how we were going to make it happen between work, school, and getting settled into our new house. One of my college roommates that is still a dear friend lives in Austin, conveniently about 20 minutes from the Napa center, and ...

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