Early Intervention

My son Joshua gets early intervention services. He has a metobolic disorder that causes him to have low muscle tone. First of all Early Intervention is wonderful. We get Physical Therapy, a Teacher, Social Work, and recently been assigned Occupational Therapy. All of those involved in my sons care are wonderful! My son loves them and so do I! We started out with just Physical Therapy. As time went on we incresed his services once we got his offical diagnosis of Mitochondrial Disease(disfunction in the energy process).

He was very similar. At six months old he had not rolled over or done anything. They came out to do his evaluation and showed me a feew things to do with him while I was waiting for a PT to be assigned. They did not have a spot for him until he was about 9 mo old but the things they showed me worked and he was a different child by the time they came to work with him. Try proping her up on all fours or place her on her belly and let her push up herself while you put your hands behind her feet so she has something to push against. As for pulling herself up you want to use a step or something sturdy and put a toy she likes in her visual path. Urge her to get the toy and asist when needed.

Where low muscle tone is concerned, that is not something that can be fixed by strength. Tone and strenght are totally different things. To explain tone it is more like a rubber band and how it stretches and expands. If your child has low muscle tone they have a muscle that is more like a worn out rubber band. You can stretch it but it doesn't go back to its orriginal shape fast or even at all. Depending on the severity depends on the childs ability to do things. This is a hard concept for many people to understand. It took us a while to understand it and accept that our son would always have this problem. He runs and plays like other kids but has a harder time doing things like climbing and other things of that nature. If you have more questions or need more info I will see what I can do to help. Feel free to email me directly at ____@____.com

we used early intervention for eating problems with my daughter, and we were super happy with their services. my sister is currently using ei for physical therapy for my nephew, and it has helped a lot with his walking. i think you will be very pleased with them. they offered us tons of ideas and support. it's such a great a service, and totally free! more people should know about it! good luck!

We went through Birth to Three with my oldest son for speech therapy.

Try putting her in a walker. I had my son in one at 4 months with nothing supporting him other that the holster. With in a month, he started kicking and moving backwards. He use to get frusterated with it, but he kept trying and I kept encouraging him. By the time he was 9 months he was walking while holding onto things. Also put her on the ground while laying on one of those mats that can support her. While she is on it put your hands at the bottom of her feet and push her legs up and down soon she will be able to do it on her own.

they are wonderfull they are great my son was not talking at age one and he needed tubes and they came in and did speech with him and hooked me up with all kids of aids and stuff and now u can't even tell my son had a speech problems i give them 2 thumbs up they really care about the kids and the parents as well they teach u along with the child so that u can keep up when they are not there
R.
Lancaster Pa

they are wonderful, they will teach you what to do and come in a assist. Your daughter will only benifit from it...

My son (who is 4 now) had early intervention for a couple of years because he was born prematurely. I would recommend them to anyone. They did a great job with him and he has come a long,long way since then. He no longer needs their services. He was done when he turned three. Good luck.

Hi R.:

When I was still in practice, we used a game called "fishy" for little ones with underdeveloped hamstrings and quadriceps muscles.
Here is how it works, you lay on the floor and get your daughter to watch your legs. Then you tell her you are going to play fishy. Just kick your legs like you are swimming. This has to start on the floor because obviously you cannot support yourself with your legs straight out on anything. Unless you would like to try the seat of a chair, keeping your body straight and kick ... it helps mommy ABS too.
Anyway, once she gets the idea on the floor, you place her on your lap so that from the hips down she does not have support, gently lift her little legs up and tell her to play fishy, she is now using the muscles she needs to sit and crawl.
I hope this helps you, please let me know.
Best of luck.

J. T.

my daughter has been receiving a slew of therapy since she was 5 months old. One of her therapies is PT. You could work on stretches(bicycling her legs, joint compressions) and continue to encourage her to pull up on furniture and toys. I found that wrapping an apron across the chest and underneath the arms to make a sort of harness while you walk is a great way to help your child to strengthen his/her torso and have full function of their arms. It also makes it alot easier on your back!! Also if you sit your child on a stool and take a cushion off of your couch. Place a toy at the back of the couch and have them stand up and reach for the toy. This is great for strengthening their leg muscles. These two things are things that the PT have suggested that we try. Our daughter has progressed/regressed so dont get frustrated it does take time :)

put her in an excersauser, it will help build up the musles in her legs, also if you have a boppy place it on the corner of you're couch upright and place her on it sitting up, but with the help of a boppy. It will hep stregthen the muscles in her back. Once those mucles are strong it will be all over and you won't get her to stop.

Goodluck,
M.

I have. And the worked with my son all the way up threw school and He still getst the help threw the school. They show you things that can be done when you alone with your child and after so many visits they reavelatue your child and see if there is any other ways that are needed in help with the development. My sons are twins and the first twin was the one that had gotten the help. He started out with easter seals. When he was barely 2mnths. He is know 8 years old with a level up to 6mnth behind his age level. For a while there he was years behind. But they follow them threw school.

They are realy nice people. And Almost become part of the family.

You and your doctor know your child best, but my daughter did not crawl until she was nearly 11 months old. She pulled up shortly afterward and walked at 13 months. She is a completely normal, athletic almost three year old now. Some kids just take their time, but it is good to listen to that motherly instinct and get her checked out if you feel she might need some extra help. Good luck.

My 3 yr old has been involved with EI for almost 2 years. There services are wonderful! He has made a lot of progress with much more to go.Best of luck

R.,
Hi. My 21 month old daughter has hypotonia (low muscle tone) as well. The goood/bad news is, most cases really never have a cause. Anyway, we have been in physical therapy for about three months now and are making a lot of progress. It's good that you are starting early! We have had excellent experiences with Early Intervention. Please feel free to contact me if you have questions. It's a scary time and you can feel all alone, but you'd be surprised how many kids go through this.
S.