Sydders

Sydney is doing well these days... just a short update. She's loving her "O.T." as she calls it. She has occupational therapy several times a week now. They just do lots of different things with her to help her get a full sensory diet. She is learning to process the information from all of her senses in a way that won't overwhelm her. One of her sessions starting in 2 weeks will be at the pool, which should be fun. And she does Listening Therapy at home twice a day, where she listens to a modified CD with headphones for 20-30 minutes twice a day. The CD has synthesized sounds built into it over the music, and sometimes the music gets louder or softer in one ear or the other or both. This helps her to learn to process things that could be slightly overwhelming to her. I'm probably not explaining it very well.

Here's an official explanation:
"The function of the ear is to feel and hear sounds and movement. It is referred to as the vestibular-cochlear system. The cochlea is the part of the ear that is our hearing sense organ, responding to minute vibrations and differences in sound waves. The vestibular portion of the ear detects movement of the head in space. It is considered the organizer of our body senses. It is our internal ear, allowing us to understand time and space from our body’s perspective. It has a strong impact on muscle tone, posture, balance, coordination,
integration of the two body sides, visual spatial skills, emotional responses and motor-planning.

The vestibular-cochlear system is the first to develop in the utero and provides the foundation for both time and space organization of all other sensory systems. Therapeutic Listening® treatment stimulates and exercises the vestibular-cochlear system. It is designed to enhance the accuracy of the sensory information sent from the vestibular-cochlear system of the ear to its multiple connections throughout the nervous system.

This approach builds on all of the scientific knowledge about sensory-motor integration as CNS organizer for meaningful function. Therapeutic Listening® includes the addition of music through the use of electronically altered CD’s to impact the central nervous system. This addition of music ties brainstem integration together with limbic system integration leading to more organized and functional behaviour outcomes. The addition of the auditory system to this treatment equation provides the considerable and unique power of uniting brainstem, limbic system, and cerebral cortex in the support of the development and emergence of higher cortical and cognitive function. "

Whew -- did you get all that? And to think she just thinks she's listening to kid's music that's a little strange.

In other news, we went swimming in Jaimee's pool yesterday and Sydney, clad in a lifejacket AND floaties was amazed and delighted to find that she could navigate around by herself. I wish I would have been able to capture her expression on film, because it was priceless.

Sydney can now blow bubbles by herself, and is starting to really interact with her friends more and more. She's laughing a lot. Some of it is fake, which is so funny. She laughs when she thinks she should, not just when she's tickled and it comes out naturally. Next thing you know, she'll be telling knock knock jokes.

We've already got some of her uniforms for preschool this Fall. I can't believe she's turning 3 in a little less than 2 weeks. What a girl, our Sydders.