House of Krause

Spending one on one quality time with your little one is so rewarding. It gives you the chance to really see what’s going on inside that little head. It creates lasting memories and allows the chance for real bonding. With all the stress, worry and just plain work of having a child with disabilities, it’s great to just spend some time having fun!  It’s funny, I find my older kids enjoy the activities just as much as Luke does (if not more)!

The proprioceptive system refers to the sensory information from our own muscles and joints, telling us about our own body position and movement. The functions of proprioceptive is to increase body awareness and to help with motor control and motor planning. It also aids in providing emotional security, we can trust our bodies, we feel safe and secure!

1.Animal walks

-frog hops (squatting to floor-hands and feet, alternating weight)

-big bear  (hands and feet on floor)

-donkey kicks (hands on sofa or floor, kick feet out alternately)

-kangaroo hops (jumping with two feet off the floor)

-leamer (squat low and jump up and forward)

-hippo or elephant (stomp feet and sway arms)

2. Good old fashion wheelbarrow walks (with support at hips/thighs/ankles)

3. Pillow crashing

-pile them up and run to crash into them

-step up and jump into them

-roll on floor into them

-stand and fall into them forwards/backward/sideways

4. Hold hands for “Row-Row-Row your boat” sitting or standing

5. Luke loves “London bridge is falling down”  we always give him lots of extra squeezes when he’s caught!

Thanks Jill for so much wonderful information! I’ll add more activities soon.

Luke does not like looking at himself in the mirror very much. Many of his experiences with a mirror have been during therapy sessions when we are trying to get him aware of his tongue placement. Mirror work is very difficult, Luke usually will not look.  Luke’s speech therapist “Ms. Megan” says often tell tale sign of speech apraxia is when a child is asked to stick the tongue out, then move it side to side.  Instead of being able to isolate the tongue, the child’s entire head moves side to side. This is true for Luke. You can see it in Luke’s video’s.  Anyhow, we’ve been trying to turn mirror experiences into a more positive time. Luke’s Play therapist Cindy is full of great ideas.  We have mirrored closest doors.  We spread out towels on the floor and let the kids put shaving cream all over them. We did finger painting, brush painting, drew mickey mouse faces and had Luke look in at himself. Preston and Lily wrote messages and just giggled and laughed and thought it was the coolest thing. They also thought Dad may come home and kill us. We did manage to get shaving cream all over the floor and even a bit on my new comforter. So worth the fun.  It seems there is always a way to turn a negative into a positive! Thank you to the wonderful people in our life that continue to show us ways! You have become like family to us!

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 18th, 2009 at 12:44 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.