December. 2012 (part 1)
I have been wondering whether I should share this child’s development in this blog. Finally i made up my mind to share. I was touched by his parents’ love for him. A young couple’s journey of love for their boy.
A little about Jonathan (Nick name).
Age : 3 year 3 months (born in September ). When I first saw him in our centre for some observation, Jonathan did not have the following skills:
- Unable to sit independently. he puts his hands on the floor to support his sitting position.
- Does not response to the environment;
- Does not swallow solid food; het only drinks milk;
- Does not speak;
- Does not walk and is unable to stand
After months of therapy:
- Jonathan is now able to sit by himself with no hand support on the floor, he is able to catch ball and throw by himself. Even if he lays down he is able to get up and sit up by himself.
- Response from his care provider grandma and his mother. They say Jonathan is now able to grab things around him. for instance, when he was near to the shelf in the mall he is able to grab things from the shelf.
- When his mother claps in her hands Jonathan will crawl near to her and shows her he wants her to carry him. Before the therapy Jonathan was unable to respond though his mother claps in her hands to show him she wants to carry him.
- Now if his mother shows him a ball, he will crawl to her to get the ball. If his mother shows something he does not like he will use his hand to push it away.He also responds to children who play balls, he will laugh in excitement.
- Therapy involving his speech organs development has helped him to swallow semi solid food like cereal, eat papaya and banana. This at least stimulates his oral organ development.
- At the moment Jonathan can copy certain sounds eg.. ah mee. mommy, ah wei (his mother’s name), ah yee.
- Weakness in limbs and joints made Jonothan unable to support himself to stand up. Only with adult support he can stand. However after therapy Jonathan is able to stand with support eg. he is able to stand playing at the child size table. I place some blocks on the table, he will stand and manipulate the blocks, He can copy the action adults do. His ability to stand for a longer time has improved. We all hope some day he will be able to walk and tospeak. Let us wait for that day to come in reality
In this therapy progress, his parents’ support and grandma support in development has really improved him from an unresponsive boy to a boy who responds to his environment. It may seem but small steps, but they are important steps.