Head Rolling

Abby has a fair amount of tics and involuntary movements. She flaps and spins and rolls her head. She has facial tics and other sporadic movements. Most of the people around her don't even notice she does it since we are all very used to it. Any time she starts something new (like a new year of school) we are reminded that, although it's normal to us, it is not typical to have these movements.

For the most part it doesn't bother her. She rarely complains. Every once in a while I look at her as she rolls and rolls and rolls her head when she tried to watch tv or look at a book it makes me sad. It must be so hard to not be able to sit still when you want to. She has some strategies to help (like folding her hands or sitting in certain positions) but they only minimize it. She can't stop it completely.

We were recently sitting watching tv and I had a free minute to tape her watching tv. This was a very mild case of rolling since it was during the day. By nighttime she can barely watch tv.

Abs in her walker

More video I dug up. :D

Mechanicrawl

During the course of Abby's PT she took a lot of weird paths. She could do more difficult things before she could do simpler things. For instance she could sit up (in a Boppy) before she could roll over. It was all part of the way "she is wired". When she started to crawl (at around 13 or 14 months) we were amazed at her progress. We didn't think she would crawl for a couple more months but she decided she was ready.

The funny part was that when she crawled she looked like a robot. It was mostly because it was a completely "taught" skill. We had spent months working on it in PT and teacher her how to manipulate her body so when she finally crawled it was a mechanical motion... not the natural one of most babies.

We fondly named it "The MechaniCrawl"



**Hope you enjoyed the bonus material of the Grace temper tantrum. :D

Early PT

A lot of people, in the past, asked a lot of questions about what PT looked like for a baby. We think of physical therapy in terms of building muscle and training our bodies. But when you are working with a six month old how can this possibly be done. In Abby's life she has had four physical therapists and each has approached her "condition" a little different. Some insisted on pushing her (which we LOVE). Some let her off the hook more than we would like. But all have done pretty amazing things with her development.

I recently came across some old video's of us working on her PT at home. She was about 8 months old here and working on rolling over.



And, yes... we were using food as a motivator. :D It doesn't look like much but it is a specific body motion geared towards rolling over.

This one is from when we were teaching her to sit up on her own. She was about 13 months when she mastered this skill. It was a completely taught skill. She had no ability to do this on her own.



The last one is at 13 months working on sitting up from laying down.

Rhombencephalosynapsis and the playground

Recently I took the girls to the park. I didn't have Abby's helmet and almost took them home. Thankfully she was well rested and having a GREAT motor day. I thought it was interesting, when I looked at the video, to see the differences (in motor skills) between the two girls. Same age, same environment, same everything. Most of the time we don't even notice the disparity in skills but every once in a while I take notice.



I think the part that I love the most is that despite it being ten times harder for her to get around the "balance beam" she keeps at it! :D

My Flappy Girl

When people hear that Abby "flaps", "head rolls" and "tics" they probably don't have an accurate idea of what that means. It varies throughout the day but I took a minute to take some video of her watching TV before bed. You can see a lot of the spastic movements she has. Oddly enough, she doesn't seem to mind it one bit.

It's a wonder she doesn't have a cast

I posted this on my other blog (so if you read that one too sorry for the repeat :D).