Sensory Wednesday

Hello, you are again being regaled by the awesome and wonderful dad (okay, enough with the self promotion). Grace had and appointment today, so I had the day off.

Overall we had a good day. Grace was quite snuggly, and we sat together and sang songs (plus a little TV - gotta love Sid the Science Kid) for most of the morning. Then a good lunch and down to the hospital for the appointment (rather than the Clinic itself).

Today's appointment was for Sensory Integration Testing - the short, uneducated version (ie - the Jeff version) is it is a test or evaluation to see how she processes information. We learned that our suspicions were correct in that Gracie is Hypo Sensitive - meaning that it takes more pressure or stimulus to get response from her. As an example - when you calm a child by rubbing their back, you have to press more firmly and apply more pressure to Grace to achieve the same calming effect. To do too lightly will either do nothing, or over stimulate her rather than calm her.

We did learn some techniques to help us to calm her down, avoid transitional issues, and so on. We will have another appointment in this area, and then this will become part of our Occupational Therapy program after that.

After the appointment, Grace was pretty tired. We came home and took a nap for about an hour and a half. After that, back outside to play and walk in the yard. The uneven surface and the hill really have done alot to strengthen her legs and improve confidence - so we get out there whenever we can.

After mommy got home we had a nice supper and then a fun time playing. Grace's new joke is to ignore Lisa when she is trying to get her attention. We were rolling a ball back and forth between Lisa and I, in order to pique Grace's interest in rolling and throwing - whenever Lisa would say, "Grace, do you want to roll the ball?" or "can you get the ball for mom?" Grace would turn her head the other way as if to not hear her. When Lisa would call louder, Grace would turn further away - and then finally giggle out loud. She was totally playing us!

Anyway - the jokester girl is in bed, sleeping soundly.

Lisa will probably be back at the keyboard again tomorrow - so thanks for putting up with me. Have a great night/day.

Thanks for your continued support.

Jeff, Lisa, and Gracie