Blow toys

7/13/11 Wednesday
I am pretty happy with Jewel's progress and determination with her blow toys; whistles, plastic flute, nose flute and variety of whistles. They are teaching her about direction of airflow and co-ordination and motor planing.  She is getting much better with co-ordinating her hair flow and with lip closure to blow out into a toy recorder (flute.) Today Jewel has mastered the nose flute :)  Yes I said nose flute, you can pick one up for about two dollars.  It is all about co-ordinating a deep breath in and keeping mouth open and exhaling through the nose while the tongue stays out of the way.  The key is to get the tongue back and down, the motion feels like when you swallow, the back of the throat closes and in this case the air is pushed up out of the nose. Apparently a very important skill to have.  All this work with the blow toys is to establish gross motor mouth co-ordination and control. It is also getting Jewel to use her own muscles with her own volition to get lip closure.  Her progress has been very exciting to watch and her pleasure from getting results have been most gratifying to her.  This is something that she can make work, all I have to do is make sure she is in the correct posture and encourage her to relax and queue her while holding the object in place and she does the rest.  This has been very self satisfying for her.  We are very proud of your great attitude and all your hard work Jewel!  Though relaxation and breath are the golden key for this success.  We have also been using the spirometer and this is teaching Jewel about the force and control of inhaling and exhaling.  It seems like Jewel's learning curve has been on a high lately.  I have been very exhausted these past days and I am trying to adapt to the changes that the older girls are going through and trying to stay grounded and focused.  Today Jewel had a good day with her P/T myofascial release session and I think this helped her with her speech homework.  She did some nice walking with her teacher Aunty Carol.  I am grateful all the help that is enabling Jewel to learn and have a better quality of life.  Upon doing a small mount of on-line reading on speech I found that some speech places encourage myofascial release to aid in this therapy.  I feel like we are on the path that Jewel is meant to be on.  I have been noticing an improvement in Jewel's leg placement and co-ordination in the gate trainer.  We have mountains of work still to cement in this area, from gross to refined leg co-ordination but I am very hopeful and optimistic.   Be well and stay focused on your prize, but enjoy the journey and breath through the tough moments.