Before
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After
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Poor fine motor skills
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Now able to connect interlocking tools; able to easily pick up a small stick to use colored scratch art; using 3-fingered grasp; scissor cutting dramatically improved
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Poor gross motor skills
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Can now commando crawl consistently utilizing reciprocal movement of his left and right legs; able to hold his arm in space; able to crawl 10 feet while holding a stuffed animal under his chin
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Would pick up items from floor -- such as hair and string -- and put them in his mouth; thumb sucker
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Oral sensory seeking completely stopped!
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Poor upper body strength
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Increased upright posture when sitting
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My client, a 3 year, 10 month old boy named ¨Jacob¨ had difficulties with fine motor, visual motor, grasping a pencil, strength, endurance as per scores on a standardized assessment denoting his scores in grasping 1st percentile (poor), visual motor integration 9th percentile (below average), and fine motor 1st percentile (poor).
"Clinical observations indicated that he had additional difficulties with upper body strength, reciprocal coordination of both sides of the body, decreased muscle tone, and oral sensory seeking; putting items in his mouth off the floor such as hairs, strings, and was a thumb sucker. He could not use scissors, a marker, or crayon appropriately as his grasp and very light output and therefore, motivation was not present."
In treating this preschooler, I combined some functional activities, vestibular exercises (log rolling) with Rhythmic Movement with reflex integration [from the Brain and Sensory Foundations course]. I specifically utilized the rhythmic movement directly related to the reflexes I addressed. The reflexes I started with were the TLR and the ATNR. Due to Jacob´s decreased tone and upper body strength, I utilized activities that he would enjoy making them engaging. With commando crawling on belly I realized he only used 1 side of his body. When I shared observations with his mother, she told me that he was premature and did not crawl. This made sense based on my observations (spinal galant) as he did not shift through the birth canal or later on crawl.
Hence, the home program consisted of log rolling (eyes open and closed), mini trampoline jumps, walking on all 4ś with animal tucked under chin as well as on his back, and he did some hand strengthening activities playdoh, placing coins in “just right” slots, etc.
After a month, I noticed that Jacob started to use his left leg once to twice during commando crawling but it was not consistent. I noticed after 6 weeks that he was definitely stronger as evidenced by pushing off the trampoline bar at higher altitudes.
"But, it was not until 2 months that everything came together, something neurologically had connected:
I attribute this to the nightly rhythmic movement his mother did for 3 to 5 minutes. We did up the time from 3 to 5 minutes at one months time when there was not much noticeable change going on.
I learned that each child progresses at their own speed, nightly assignments greatly assist with integration, and impacting other reflexes was a bonus and unexpected result (oral seeking ) from brain maturity of doing Rhythmic Movement nightly. Additionally, it was stunning to me that in such a short time frame these huge differences occurred. I have not witnessed such dramatic change in such a short time period in my number of years working with students.
(Bullets and emphasis added)