Growing in confidence!

Over the last month Jude has really made huge strides in his independence, especially in his therapies.  Every week we go to “school” twice a week.  Jude walks into that place like he owns it. First is Physical therapy, he has gone from having to real coach, redirect, encourage him that its safe to Jude confidently doing things without been asked. After he “completes” his first task he will move himself onto his second thing. After we are finished he says “bye” and “thank you” then we walk over to his Occupational therapist.  Jude loves her, I think it’s because she sings to him all the time and lets him play with puzzles! He loves learning. She works a lot with stretching his upper torso and neck. She also works with different textures, Jude has grown leaps and bounds with what textures he will touch or allow to be on him. Next we head to Speech, Jude has had to speech therapist there and he likes both. He goes into the room with a toy in mind that he already wants to play with. His speech therapist are working towards helping him communicate. We are learning signs, how to use a communication devise, and verbal speech (maybe he’ll show us all and talk non-stop) Trying to learn 1 language is tough, try learning 3 ways to communicate!

On Fridays we go for group therapy. He is in class with 5 other kids his age. Throughout the class period we cover all the therapies. He loves class! On the way there I will go down the list of people we will see and confidently says, “uh” (the sound he makes when he is “talking” agreeing with you) then he’ll “sign” their name (whatever sign he has chosen to give them that day)   Jude always wants everyone to go before him in his class. When the teach ask who should go first it never fails Jude will always point to one of his classmates for them to go first, he points to each child till everyone has a turn. I hope this sweet manner stays with him always J Jude has started blossoming in class he no longer has to have me right next to him the whole time and will actually walk away from me at times (not a lot yet but we are working on it). I say he loves his class but really we both love it!

Once a month we have someone come into our home. She works with Jude to help communicate at home with all 3 forms of communication. He loves when she comes over showing off all his things and all the new stuff he can do J

Twice a month we go to CMH for his feeding therapy. His therapist is amazing! Jude has a love hate relationship with her, loves her because she is great (she also sings to him) but he hates when she gives him massages (weird I know). He has made big strides in swallowing and oral stimulation but still has a long ways to go. Currently he is not swallowing but just tasting food. But he loves all food! He is a very complex child but she is always looking to understand him better! And he always

walks out of there with a sucker J

Lastly is his aquatic therapy! Jude has been with this Physical therapist for over a year and a half, we started out on land not water ;) but in January we transitioned him into the pool. Jude loves taking a bath but his first day in the pool was him crying the whole time and clenching to the sides  trying to grab me. Now he gets in with hardly any hesitation and cant wait to walk to the middle of the pool. The pool has a raising bottom so they raise it so the water goes no higher than his chest. Right now he does aquatics to help strengthen his core and work on his balance; he does not go under water or float on his back. Now when we pass the pool area on our way to another appointment he signs his therapist name, swim, and hippo (we don’t know why he signs hippo). Yesterday we saw his therapist at his vent appointment and we asked if he was going to go swimming with her next week started crying when we didn’t go swimming right then. She has helped him so much and has taught us a lot!

I love seeing how he is starting to enjoy therapy and how he is really starting to understand different parts of it. We are so blessed to have some amazing therapist who adore Jude and really care about him succeeding. I could go on about the different talents they have and how Jude has grown from being with each of them. It is weird for me to think that one day he will outgrow most of these therapies, they have been so vital in his development for so long. We are definitely blessed!