Day 579 - Helmet Update, New SPEECH 🗣️ Therapy, & Resting Up for the Big Day

Monday, August 1st, 2022

These next 2 weeks are pretty busy with several doctor's appointments lined up. Tomorrow James is getting his GJ replaced.

Today we had a helmet in the morning. We found out our helmet therapist is moving in a month. So we scheduled a follow-up with her on her last day for possibly our last appointment too. We will do a head scan on that day. Today she just filed down parts of the helmet that were rubbing on his head. She could tell just by the discoloration inside the helmet. We also repositioned the foaming pads in the front that was causing some irritation.

We also had our physical therapist come today instead of Friday this week. However today was a little different because she brought along a speech & feeding therapist for a consult. This is also through Early Steps and not the hospital and will be once a month. This is a huge game changer because we don't need to drive away to the hospital for a speech appointment through Baycare. Our physical therapist has really helped us in pushing for additional therapies with Early Steps! So we will also be getting a third therapist who will focus on early intervention once a week. In total we will have PT twice a week, EI once a week, and speech once a month. The speech therapist will always be accompanied by our physical therapist as a consult.

These are our current goals with speech therapy:

The team (family, caregivers, primary service provider and supporting providers) will continue or modify the following strategies to achieve goals for Outcome # : Work on signs paired with words. Use PMV with eating after he gets used to it. Work on chewing exercises such as teethers to chew. Help him to identify body parts on himself and mom and start with just 1 body part until he gets it. Use just 1 word to associate waving goodbye. Use hand over hand to help James sign “more” then immediately give him what he wanted more of. Continue letting him taste things. Come up with 1 sign for a preferred toy or activity. Make signs fun and like games.  

P.S. You can email James your love and support as often as you’d like. Mom and Dad read these email to James as they come in. We all love them! JamesWestonAbramowitz@gmail.com