bits and pieces

Ella has her first appointment with a developmental specialist on Dec. 7th. From listening to others who have gone through the same thing, I expect very little to determined by this visit except how many tests she should have and how many other specialists it will be recommended that she see.

I have started to get a little more time to myself, thanks to other members of the family. I am feeling much more sane for it, so thank you all for helping out.

Ella seems very close to walking on her own. She can balance, as long as she isn't acutely aware that you are not touching her. If she realizes that you are not holding on, she smiles and you and lunges forward into your arms. She thinks it is funny when you try and make her balance and she falls over to have you catch her. She can walk pretty well only holding onto one hand, but she won't do it for long walks (up and down the hallway), only for short ones (moving from toy to toy, or from a toy to you). Now, given this information, I have heard of children staying at this phase for months at a time (up to almost 6 months in one case).

Ella still won't get up to standing unless she is on another human being, or does it using the PT bench we have. So, we are now working on strengthening her hip muscles (by having her bend far over from a sitting position) so that she can push up to standing from the floor, instead of always needing a raised surface (my legs, or the bench) and then walking her hands up to something higher to get herself upright.

So, on the physical front, it is now just a focus on getting her to stand up more independently, and walking.

On the language front: she still isn't talking and we have no way of knowing when she will ever get it. I spend a lot of time talking to her face to face, singing songs, etc. We are also working very intensely to get her to use the "more" sign.

It has been theorized that she has a type of learning disorder called dyspraxia. This means that she has problems with motor planning. This explains why she needs to be shown how to do something multiple times before she can do it herself. It may also explain the lack of speech because making her mouth muscles purposefully form a word is also a motor planning task. And, since I can't make her talk to teach her how, all I can do is try to get her to imitate me, which she doesn't seem very interested in doing very often.