Physiotherapy and Occupational therapy
Sensory Integration therapy (SI)
Gymboree play & music sessions
Vojta therapy
Vojta therapy is based on releasing correct reflex through pressuring specific parts of child’s body and holding the child in a certain position. It is quite a stressful method for the child. Children usually cry while being exercised even though they don’t feel any pain but just pressure. Nevertheless we found that this therapy is very good for Alicja’s general development so we keep doing it.
Thanks to Vojta therapy Alicja can hold up her head lying on her tummy as well as turn from her back to her tummy and return. Exercises that we do now aim to teach Alicja how to crawl.
Face and body massages
Castillo-Morales therapy
The Castillo-Morales concept involves the general development of sensory-motor capacities with a specific treatment focus on the orofacial region. Like with Vojta therapy (which acts on the whole body) the purpose of Castillo-Morales therapy is to restore in a child with facial palsy the capacities that healthy children naturally have. It also aims to diminish the visual and the functional differences between the healthy side of the face and the paralysed one. Thanks to the facial massages and feeding trials based on this method Alicja started to do things such as putting her fingers in her mouth, playing with food, discovering with her fingers all tiny details of her own face and imitating mum and dad by doing her face massage on her own ;-)
Baby massage
Any baby and toddler have a huge benefit from a baby massage. However, it is particularly beneficial for children like Alicja who have sensory problems and anomalies of the nervous system. Baby massage improves digestion, helps increase circulation, relaxes and calms the baby, raises the child's sense of self, helps bonding between the parent and the child. While the base of the massage is similar the one we would do on a healthy baby, following advice of many different therapists, we have established our very own massage routine. This includes throat massage, inner and outer mouth massage, special feet massage as well as joints percussion and muscles and joints pressure.
Sensory Integration therapy (SI)
Children with sensory integration dysfunctions frequently experience problems with their sense of touch, smell, hearing, taste and sight. Along with this will often come the difficulties in movement, coordination and sensing his/her own positioning in the space (where one's body is in a given space). The therapy involves occupational therapy with the child in a room specifically designed to stimulate and challenge all of the senses. During the session, the therapist works closely with the child to encourage movement within the room.
With our daughter’s poor vision and hearing the therapist has paid special attention on her feeling of touch as touch is the only one of Alicja’s senses that works correctly. Thanks to SI therapy we discovered how much moving, rocking and bouncing means for Alicja. Bouncing is now one of her favourite pass times, both at home (we have bought a home swing) and at the playground. We are now finally part of all this proud parents who can take their children to play at the playground :-)
Another important goal for Alicja’s SI therapy is to desensitize her hands. At the moment, she is very much afraid of holding different objects and textures in her hands, so she is missing an essential part of any child’s development.
Bobath therapy
NDT-Bobath therapy focuses on showing a child correct movements that he or she can imitate on his or her own. This therapy is much less stressful for a child than Vojta therapy. Vojta therapists are more concentrated on the movement and Bobath teaches more the positions, so we think it is very beneficial for our daughter to have both therapies.
Alicja is good at copying the movements that we show her, even though if it takes a long time. Thanks to this she is able to sit on her own and hold her body up on her hands lying on her tummy. Next step will be to teach her how to stand on her healthy leg.
Cranio therapy (CST)
A cranio therapy session involves the therapist placing their hands on the patient, which allows them to tune into every patient’s specific rhythm of the body. The practitioner works gently with the spine and the skull. This helps to ease the restrictions of nerve passages, to optimize the movement of cerebrospinal fluid through the spinal cord and to restore the misaligned bones to their proper position.
Visual behavioural test
The aim of this assessment is to determine how well a child is using its sight by exploring following visual skills: eye and head position, location, fixation, visual field, colour preference, tracking, shift of gaze, contrast sensitivity, hand eye co-ordination.
During the test Alicja demonstrated her ability to use her vision within her immediate visual field effectively for her needs. It appears that she needs a good level of contrast but it is difficult to exactly assess it at the moment. Lights are strong motivating factor for her. According to the person who tested Alicja due to her hearing impairment vision may be her main mode of learning. It is important to get as much information as we can about her vision to ensure that her development progresses in the best way possible.
Gymboree play & music sessions
Gymboree sessions are designed for young children between 6 months and 4 years old. These classes help children explore rhythm, melody, tonality and beat but also colours and shapes while developing their social and intellectual skills.
Even though Alicja is obviously missing the melody part of the learning, she has a great profit from these classes as she feels rhythms, tones and beats, plays with bubbles and colours and observes other kids around.
First prosthesis
In order to make her first steps in standing and to learn balance Alicja has received her first prosthesis that she can wear over her own deformed leg. This prosthesis is a little heavy, too big and not very nice (it couldn’t have a nice, smooth shape as Alicja’s own leg had to go inside). We try to put this “leg” every day for at least half an hour and we make Alicja training with it.
Visually impaired preschool
Alicja attends sessions for visually impaired children once a week. During that time she has a good opportunity to develop her vision, her ability to play with different toys and games. She can also learn how to make choices and she can improve her intellectual behaviours. Alicja is very enthusiastic and interested in playing with her teacher. The positive effects have been already seen; Alicja knows the rules how to play with certain toys (usually the rules set up by herself), she has preferences for toys and colours and she is not afraid any more to touch different materials.
Hanen course for parents
It is a course for parents of young children who need extra support in their communication and speech & language development. It guides parents on how to communicate during everyday activities like mealtime, bath time, playtime or book reading.
Communicating well with our little one who is so severely both visually and hearing impaired is a real challenge. Yet, we already see positive results of the Hanen course: we learn i.e. how to be patient with Alicja, how to keep good face to face contact and how to follow her lead in play.
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