My son was born early, from what I understand. We are friends with his half-sister's grandmother-turned-adoptive-mother, and she knew both my 7 year old son and 8 year old daughter from birth. Apparently, birthmom tried, obviously unsuccessfully, to manually abort 7 year old son at 7 or 8 months gestation, and it sent her into labor. 7 year old son was born early with a heart condition (also indicative of FAS) and put on a heart monitor. Birthmom didn't like dealing with the heart monitor when it went off, so she strapped 7 year old son in a carseat so he wouldn't move and make the monitor beep. Before FAS was considered, I attributed his lack of muscle tone/control to this.
If I ask 7 year old son to scrub, say, the poo off of his mattress, he cannot physically be on his knees and scrub in front of him for any length of time without the back of his neck aching. He couldn't jump until last year. He just learned to gallop. Skipping is out of the question. Flip flops? No way. We recently got him a pair of Crocs (like the big boys) and my observant husband was spot-on when he remarked that 7 year old son walks like a cat in socks with them on his feet.
I remember teaching him to trace dotted lines. He would put the pencil on the paper about 1/4 inch to the right of the line every time. When learning to write, he starts well below the top line and extends his letters well below the bottom line. Everything is such a struggle for him.
7 year old son has made a lot of progress, so I am hopeful for his future. He can run, jump, punch (hey, it takes skill!), and he's even starting to try somersaults. We got him a bike that attaches to the back of mine and I can tell that he is learning to balance a little as it gets easier to ride with him. We also have a "dizzy disc" that he can now lay on his stomach with his arms and feet spread out and spin. That's amazing.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
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3 people said:
My daughter also has very poor muscle control as part of her FASD. I've even wondered if some of her feces smearing (that hasn't happened for a long time now...knock on every piece of wood around me!) was related to this. I think she was having BMs in her sleep (which may have been seizure related) and then smearing them around when she woke up.
We've done physcial therapy, occupational therapy and many of the skill building things you've done at home, too. We have a tandem bike that she rides with me, we play hopscotch non-stop (also helps with counting skills), etc.. and we've seen a lot of progress. It gives me hope.
Thanks for your blog! I always love connecting with other moms on this journey. ~Kari
Hi, I found you by way of Kari. One of my kids has lower than normal tone. She would love the activity of laying on her stomach on a swing and blowing bubbles through a large tubing into a bowl with dishsoap. It was such hard work for her though. But that was a good activity for her. That was during OT. I'm thinking of how we can do that at home, maybe putting two swings on the same hooks and putting and having her lay across them? Even jut swinging like that and trying to give high fives or whatever might be something to try. Thanks for writing, you have a lot of knowledge to share!
Kari, glad to know we're having success with similar things. Linda, thanks for taking the time to comment too. I love hearing what works for others, and you seems to really know your stuff like Kari. I've not heard of the swing activity. . .7 year old son and I will play "airplane" with him on my feet while I'm on my back to stregthen his core muscles, but I'm going to have to figure out the swing configuration here at home.
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