OT Exercises, "Level TWO"

Da Creature was so proud this week.  As he put it..."I made it to Level TWO Mommy!"  This means that he survived the first awful week of core exercises and overcoming the initial refusal of every part of his body to balance or do anything it was told to do, and got MORE things to do for the second week on top of the original hard things.  Life's a video game for da Creature, that's for sure.

So, ride along with us for a bit, as I share what we are doing.  Next week we'll have the newly engineered and super-improved spin table (having a mechanical engineer for a grandpa is a wonderful blessing for da Creature) and more of the therapy room equipment will be delivered by then, too, so you can see Level THREE, but for now...here's his very proud Level Two! :)

NOTE:  all the exercises we are using were custom-chosen by da Creature's OT, and are specific to HIS needs as determined by lengthy (and *cough* expensive) evaluations.  This blog is about DIS CREATURE'S journey through the spectrum of fun, and not intended to address the needs of ANY OTHER CREATURES.  Got it?  MY Creature's stuff.  You can always tell your OT that you like the ideas and ask, but no theivin' and then gripin', OKAY?  Thanks, the mgmt.

Bicycle

 Bicycle...Da Creature's very lanky and uncoordinated but devoted sister is helping him learn his exercises...she's the giant fun house mirror to his tiny feet.  They do the bicycle for one minute.  We had to put dots on the tops of his knees so he could understand what "keep you knees together and pointed at the ceiling" meant.  He's all floppy in this pic, so it's still a real struggle for him. 

Elevator

Next is the elevator.  Legs up, legs down, ten reps.  Not a hard one, just have to stay on those elbows!

Pat-a-Foot

Pat-a-foot involves ten reps of each foot tapping the opposite foot on the giant funhouse mirror sister.  He's slacking in this picture, but admittedly, it was very distracting to have Mommy taking pictures.

Tick Tock

Tick Tock is very hard for da Sister.  Da Creature is beasting it out though.  He likes it especially when she's groaning and moaning at him because for some crazy reason he's GOOD at this one.  You go side to side and you can't flop your feet on the ground, and you have to keep them straight.  Pretty standard stuff, really, but still mysterious why this one is easy for him.  I'll take it though!

Wiggle In, Wiggle Out, AKA "the Butt Scoot Boogie"

After a brief respite of schooching forward and back they head back to the floor for one more ab exercise, and then, it's BALL TIME!!!!!  (These are really really hard for da Creature, but he's working hard and they are getting better every day)

Twist and Pat

Twist and Pat.  You thump your legs, thump left side with both hands, thump legs, thump right side, and do it for ten repetitions of the whole pattern.  The difficulty comes in that you also need to bounce as you're doing it.  This seems inanely simple to me, but I quickly discovered da Creature no bounce right.  He can't work that out.  It's very very hard for him.  So, he's having fun now trying to get all those parts moving at once.  Soon, I'm sure I'll have to hide the balls!

Out and Back

Out and back.  He's good at this one now.  The first week was hard.  You sit on the ball, then roll out, using your legs, then you roll back up to sitting.  This is now his favorite exercise.  :)

Crossover Claip

Crossover clap:  nightmare thing to teach.  Roll forward, legs straight and together, then opposite hands pick up from floor and clap the funhouse mirror hands.  Balance is so very very hard.  At first, I had to hold his legs.  At least now he can stay sort of on the ball.  This set of ten (in, then out) can take fifteen minutes with all the resets.  I'm hoping his rate of improvement will continue and this will get easier.

Catch w/ 2 hands, throw w/1

Catch with two hands; throw with one.   This would be difficult enough for da Creature on dry land, but on the BOSU ball, it's so very very hard.  He loves it, and there is a nifty thing on its way to throw balls into (a mesh tent movie themed ball goal that's super awesome) but for now, we're throwing the balls in a plastic bucket, which proves that one can do the same task with less nifty stuff.  My goal, though, is to duplicate the stuff as much as possible so that his brain only has to process the task, not the stuff every time.  Stuff takes a lot of processing space that the tasks need.

Paddle Pass on Mats

Paddle Pass on mats involves standing on the ever-shifting mats, balancing, and catching the ball with the suction-cup paddle.  It's a LOT harder at home, because we don't have mats yet, and are using the sofa cushions.  It's hard at OT, too, because any task that involves his gross motor lack of skills with balance is really difficult for da Creature, but it's still fun, because every so often, you hit Mommy in the face with the ball, and she has to smile.  *wry smile*

Bean Bucket Search

The last thing we do before letting him play with the therapy equipment is the Bean Bucket search.  If you'll look at his hands, you can see the avoidance of the feeling of the beans.  Not even the promise of keeping the quarters makes him particularly happy about this exercise.  He just doesn't want to stick his hand in there, and he gets VERY VERY VERY frustrated that he cannot tell the difference between the beans and the things he must find...marbles, bells, dice, paper clips, quarters, erasers, pocket things.  But then he's done and can play so the anger and meltdown pass quickly.

I cannot imagine how we will add the spin work with all of this, but I know we will.  Next week, I'll write another post about how that goes.  I know this is helping, but I want that music montage where we did the work and the progress is so wonderful and good that the day to day work is a distant memory, a fugue of triumphal moments, not a daily drudge.  Meanwhile, let's drudge it out some more for hope and light and life.  Later's from the therapy room.

He likes the BOSU ball a LOT