THE CLINIC EXPERIENCE
This week I wasn’t invited to the third session. O’s main trainer, Amanda was on vacation this week so I wasn’t surprised to not see her. This week we had a trainer we never met before. O was scared to go back with her and begged for her to allow me back. I compromised by walking O to the classroom. She became distracted long enough for me to quietly slip away without noticing so she could participate in this week’s activities. I patiently waited in the waiting room listening to my audiobook on loan from the library and closed my eyes. An hour later, I opened them to a bounding little girl proudly sporting two Pokémon cards, which she announced one was for her little brother.
Briefly the trainer told me O did great and she noticed the right eye was sluggish while performing the fixation games (no surprise there, right?) and she then explained our homework for the week. This week’s activities were the same games we already know with more variations. I was instruted to have O close her eyes and visualize the respective extremity we call out before moving them while performing snow angels. As a warm up we could have O practice visualization by having her close her eyes and have her tell us about her bedroom.
HOT LAVA
In addition to this we have a new exercise for homework this week. I was instructed to draw a straight line on the floor by using duct tape or something similar and have O walk on the line heel to toe. My reference to this activity is similar to what a police officer would instruct a suspected drunk driver to "walk the line." Since she's seven years old and doesn't understand what "walk the line" infers, we have to pretend there is hot lava surrounding the line to strengthen her balance. Hopefully she will never understand that reference.
During the therapy session the trainer utilized a balance beam and noticed Olivia would try to get through the activity quickly without properly focusing on the instructions. Olivia was to walk heel to toe forwards and backwards at a pace to maintain her balance without having to steady herself. They pretended the floor surrounding the beam was hot lava. In my mind I tried to brainstorm ways to accomplish this at home without putting duct tape on my beautiful hardwood floors.
I mentioned this activity to Andy the next morning. He suggested using the park across the street that featured inlaid wood timbers outlining the play area. It wasn’t necessarily a bad suggestion but my fear is we would never get the children off the slides long enough to finish therapy. I also thought about using the crack that separates the driveway into sections. At a later session, I was taught that something as simple as painter’s tape can be used and still protect the floors.
We are starting to get into a regular rhythm of incorporating therapy into our daily routines. O is already coming up with excuses not to do it but she is outnumbered. It's hard to do after a long day at work and school. It's even harder trying to give our boy child an equal amount of attention while we help O. It would be so much easier if there was some proverbial "hot lava" to help us balance everything and keep it in good working order.