CONGRATS TO OUR GUYS!

Yesterday was a big day for our two guys.

1. BEN: I had an amazing IEP meeting yesterday for Ben.  The reports I got from his teachers and speech therapist is that Ben is a very hard worker and very determined to get the work done!  He is very smart and is moving ahead in his reading, writing, and math.  He is responsible and quite self-independent.  He is also being socially appropriate most times at school.  It seems like Ben's use of his speech device has been a great help for him in communicating when he is nervous or can't pronounce the complex words he want to say.  That's wonderful to hear! And it seems like people at school really enjoy having Ben around.  We are so proud of Ben!!!!

Ben also got discharged from occupational therapy at school after 7 years!  His handwriting (not his grip, haha- still painful to watch) has greatly improved and his keyboarding skills (hunt and peck) are continuing to move forward.

2. JONAH: Jonah got discharged from outside physical therapy after 2 years of working on his walking (toes pointed in) and his overall core/leg strength to help with his "slippery" knee caps.  Because no amount of therapy will be able to correct his knee caps, we are at the point where he has gotten very strong in his muscles and hopefully with that increased strength plus his knee braces, his knees will be safe.  

SPOILER ALERT: it's looking like boys will also be discharging from outside speech therapy soon.  This one is going to be very hard for me because, especially Jonah, has been in speech therapy since 3 weeks old- that's 13 years at Rehab Resources!  They are like family.  Of course, it's a blessing to not need therapy anymore, but it's always hard to end the connections you make with your wonderful therapists.  I will be meeting with our outside speech therapist in a few weeks to discuss discharge, but school gave me the green light that they agree the boys are ready to only get speech support thru school at this point.

We celebrated the boys' accomplishments yesterday by- you guessed it- Culvers!-and also a donut for Ben.  Of course, right?

Please look at the way Ben grips a pencil.  Because Ben did not have any occupational therapy during his 1st six years of living in the orphanage, he never learned the proper way to grip a pencil.  The occupational therapist at school worked YEARS (2016 to 2021) to try and correct his grip.  Slide-on grippers on his pencils work, but using those 100% of the time on all of his options for writing utensils isn't realistic.  What we finally decided as a team is to just let him hold his pencil however he wants.  Surprising, oer the years, His handwriting has been become quite legible.  Plus the other concern with improper grips like Ben's is it will cause the kiddo to have hand fatigue after writing for long periods of time.  However, Ben's writing capacity is probably 2-3 sentences at the most.  And any longer writing sessions would probably be something that he would be encouraged to type on a keyboard so fatigue is not really a concern.  

It is not a pretty grip to observe, but it gets the job done!

Jonah saying good-bye 

to his physical therapist.