I took Lauren to Kennedy Krieger today, which is now known to Lauren as "my building". She told me on the way there that she likes therapy. I think that's great. However, she doesn't like anything else today, except Christmas trees. She told me that the minivan is "too big", daddy's car is "too small". She wants a car that's "just right" for her, like she's Goldie Locks or something. She had a similar problem at dinner last night whereby she told me "I don't like corn", "I don't like barbecue", and "I don't like milk". When I asked her what she wanted for dinner, she told me "gingabed mas". Huh? I followed her point and said, "gingerbread man?" looking at the new decoration on our kitchen table. She looked at me like I had 3 heads and said, "NOOO. Gingabed MASSE!!" "Gingerbread house?" I asked. "YESS!" She decided she wanted to eat the gingerbread house for dinner, and nothing else would do. What do you do about that? Our decision was to put her down from the table and let her go watch tv.
Last week, Lauren was in the bathtub and we were having another discussion about her cast. She told me, "I can't use this arm (the casted one)" and "I'm working on getting stronger". Out of curiosity, I asked her, "What do you think? Is it working?" . . "Not Yet . ." she told me in her innocent sing song voice.
On Tuesday (Dec 1st), she got her cast off (!!!). I've been worried that she'll just go back to doing what's easiest for her, as has John. However, I have seen her use the right arm in a couple of situations that she normally would not have used it. She was trying to make Delanie feel better after a boo-boo, and patted her with her right hand. When she was eating dinner, there was a fork in her left hand and she pulled the plate towards her with the right hand. And, after school yesterday when I picked her up, she insisted on carrying her lunch bag out with two hands (even though it weighs maybe 2oz). I'm proud of her for these efforts. She is using her left hand mostly, but at least right now she's more aware that she can use the right one too.
I asked Lauren's therapists today about how often restraint therapy is helpful and why don't they cycle it on and off and they had a couple of responses. There's not a lot of data currently, but what they have shows that the intense therapy for 3-4wks shows the best results and that you don't get much additional benefit after that. If you take the cast off and put it back on frequently, kids tend to show more resistance to the constraint therapy and get negatively conditioned and defiant. Also, they want her to learn to use both hands together when there are no constraints.
Now back to the funny things my circus of 2 and 4 year old kids do:
Lauren and Delanie were sitting at the kitchen table a couple of nights ago (when the cast was still on) and Delanie was helping Lauren color. I had given them each a piece of gum and they were content so I went downstairs to change a load of laundry. After a minute, I heard, "Mommy, Mommy, come here!" I went bounding up the stairs to see what was the matter and found Lauren's gum stuck in a strand of hair that was dangling right in front of her eyes. She was lurching forward snapping at the gum with her mouth like some kind of guppy as it swung away just in time for her to miss it. It was the funniest sight and we all started laughing. I took the gum out of her hair and put it back in her mouth, went back downstairs just to have the same thing happen again. So I gave up on the laundry. Just another example of why our household has a hard time holding it together.
When the girls were done coloring, they went back to Delanie's room where Lauren pointed to Delanie's clock radio and said, "What's that?" "It's my radio," Delanie replied. Then showing off her superior knowledge, she reported, "It's also a clock. See! Right now, it's twenty-eighty-five." She went on to tell Lauren that it's twenty-eighty-five maybe five times in a row before deciding that Lauren was sufficiently educated. (See Amazon Wish List for book on reading time for Delanie)
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