Not so good news from physical therapy...

[lovinmystar]

It's September, time for Stella's "school year" to start. We've already gone to the open house to meet the teachers/therapists. Stella was excited to see some familiar faces. She saw her friend Anthony and her OT/PT therapists. She was so happy to see Anthony. Last night, she kept telling me that she wanted to say hi to "Ant O Nee." I'm hoping they will have a class together this year since they got along so well together last year.

 On Monday, Stella was evaluated to see how she was doing cognitively. She impressed the teacher. She just chatted away and did everything she was asked to do. She's right where she needs to be as far as cognitive skills go.

 Today they evaluated her fine and gross motor skills. She's still a couple months behind with her fine motor skills. That's somewhat expected due to her eyesight.  She's not doing as well as she should be in regards to her gross motor skills. She's walking, running, jumping, and kicking, but her balance is still off. The PT took a look at her feet and noticed that one of her heels was turned just a little bit. She puts all of weight on the left side of her body which throws her off balance and causes her to stomp rather than walk smoothly. She always leads with her left foot and has a hard time if you ask her to lead with the right foot. In order to get her weight shifted back to the middle, she is probably going to be fitted for orthopedic braces. As if fighting to keep her glasses on wasn't enough fun, now we will have to deal with this. Poor kid just can't catch a break. We will meet with the specialist when he comes to the school to look at some of the other kids and we'll take it from there. We need to remedy this now, because it will really take a toll on her joints if she continues to shift her weight to one side.

 Stella will be evaluated by the speech therapist next week. I don't think she needs ST anymore, but they will keep her in the program to prepare her for preschool. Her OT and PT both said they noticed a huge improvement in her speech since June. She's become quite the little chatterbox!

 So, it looks like it's going to be an interesting school year. It'll be nice to settle into a routine again. It keeps us from going stir crazy during the winter months. I'll have to enjoy this while I can. This time next year I'll have a 3 1/2 year old going into preschool! Where does the time go?!!