Yesterday's speech therapy appointment was pretty much a disaster. Of course I had my camera all ready to go and record her using the eye gaze system so that's probably the reason she was not compliant, at all. It is so frustrating and exhausting to sit there and try to mentally will her to do what I want her to do. She had absolutely zero interest in looking at the computer yesterday. She was frustrated and so was I! At one point I, KIDDING, of course said "I'm so beating your butt when we get home, Alex" - and do you know what she did? She looked at me, frowned and started crying - and I mean crying - crocodile tears and all. I felt SO bad. Alex has never had her "butt beat" in her entire life, so why that made her cry is beyond me. I'm guessing she felt my frustration. I KNOW she can do it, she's PROVEN she can do it. I know this all new to her and it's going to require baby steps - but when you want your child to do something and succeed, patience isn't always easy. Poor girl. The thing is, she KNOWS what we want her to do - and her blatant eye aversions are so obvious. Zach had stayed out in the waiting area with a friend of mine who was entertaining her youngest while her oldest was having physical therapy. He stayed out in the lobby for about 40 minutes (writing a 'book' for Alex, but that's another story for later!) There was about 15 minutes left to her session when he came in her treatment room and as soon as he walked in she turned her head to look at him and giggled. Lisa, her therapist, said, Alex, show Zachary how you can use your words and ask for pudding - so she looks at Zach, looks at the pudding icon and as soon as the computer said "PUDDING", she turned back to look at Zach and smiled at him....as if to say..."OK, see Zach, I can ask for pudding!" Sigh. I SO wish we could just get her to the point we need to for justification for a loaner machine. I can't help but think of the great strides she could make if we were using it every day rather than for an hour once a week. Baby steps....I have to keep reminding myself...baby steps!
1 comment:
I so hear you on this. I can't believe how much energy it takes to sit there and will them to do something. I was so glad to take a month off of ST. I dread going back.
It's pretty crazy that you have to justify a "loaner" machine. How is she supposed to get enough practice?! Can her ST be increased to more than 1x a week? Like your schedule isn't full enough, right?
I'll cross my fingers that next week is much better. Leave your camera at home. I bet that'll do it!
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