Hannah Therapies

So I realized I've forgotten to add pictures of Hannah's therapies from the past few months.  She's made such progress!  We are so proud of her and her drive and passion.  Plus she's got three wonderful therapists who all love her, which means so much to us.

This is Hannah's OT, Penny.  She was working with Hannah on clapping two puzzle pieces together like cymbals.

Hannah working on walking in her gait trainer.

This is Faye, Hannah's PT.  This was one of the first times Hannah was sitting on her own without any support.  Faye was timing how long she could sit by herself.  She made it 7 minutes and probably would have lasted longer, but I distracted her with my picture taking and she lost her balance.  :)

Boy do I miss being outside!  Faye made it a point of working outside as much as we could before it became too cold.  So she would either walk Hannah herself, or walk her in her gait trainer.

Faye worked on extension with Hannah by "rolling" her on a big exercise ball.

She loves "flying" like Superman!

We bought a powered car to help give Hannah some mobility.  Drew took out the steering wheel and added a red button that Hannah just needed to push to make it go.  We'll need to do some more practice with it because it jerks too quickly for her and makes her nervous, but I think it could be really good for her to get her around.

Hannah's speech therapist, Sherri, has so many great ideas when working with Hannah.  In this picture she had given Hannah bubble gum and was trying to get her chew it and then spit it into her hand.  Just to practice following directions and work on movements with her mouth and tongue.  Hannah didn't quite get it and ended up swallowing the (very) small pieces that she had.

Sherri was working on getting Hannah to say different sounds.  In this picture she wanted her to say, "Boo, boo, boo."  She'd have Hannah tap the picture each time she would say it.  Hannah wasn't saying the words, but she did do some of the tapping.

Faye and Sherri know each other very well and will come on occasions to do therapy together.  Hannah's very verbal when she's upright and working on her gross motor, so it's nice having Sherri there.  They make a great team!

On this day Faye was working on Hannah not only standing next to the couch, but also cruising along the couch.  Hannah wasn't able to do any of the cruising on her own, but it was good practice.

The last therapy session before Christmas, Faye and Sherri came together.  They had each gotten her a Christmas gift that would be useful during therapy.  Such a great idea and so thoughtful!

Drew had the week between Christmas and New Years off, and during one of those days Faye came to do PT with Hannah.  So we walked Hannah on the treadmill.  Faye held Hannah upright and Drew and I were each responsible for one leg.  It was really tough!  Very hard to bend her knees and keep up with the treadmill - and we had the treadmill set at it's slowest speed - 0.5. 

So then we did some walking in the gait trainer.  Look at that smile!

I wish I could upload all of the therapy videos that we have - she does so well!  I've wanted to make a slideshow of pictures and videos from the past year of therapy, so maybe one of these days I'll get around to that.  I think it would be neat to see the progress she's made over the past year!