January 10, 12, and 17

January 17, 2006
What: Music Therapy
1pm-3pm

Ketchel - We've been doing the same things with him weekly, now, just making a list of things we're doing, the list says:
1)Get paper (x amount of sheets, Ketchel's choice)
2)Make book about ______
3) Sing the book
4) Clean up
5) Ketchel's choice of things to do

So we make a book with Ketchel, this time it was things he didn't like. Then we sing the book. Intermittently, Ketchel wanders off into a corner. The highlight of this day's adventure was his proclamation that a phtograph of Brooke Shields was "mommy". I think they want to move him into a special class at BOCES, because apparently he doesn't pay enough attention to BE implemented into a normal classroom.

Adam - He is adorable. We've been doing the same thing every week with him, basically. We make index cards of some sort, and then we sing some sort of song with them and he has to guess them. This week, it was "Things I like to do", so the cards read:
I
Like
To
Play
Outside
Play with
My Gameboy
Play Upstairs
Play With
Joshua

And we had to put them into a puzzle and "solve" it. It worked on his memory skills, and Chris's as well, considering he had to sing the song about 10 times altogether.

Aiden - he's saying more, and you can see more of his personality - he's spending less time inside of himself. He's not retarded, he was just slow to get speaking, if that makes sense. He understands, or seems to understand a lot, but he just isn't able to communicate. I wrestled with him a lot through this session - he loves to try to turn the lights off. I swear, the kid tried every route except *through* me to get to the light switch. Same thing each week with Aiden - just trying to get him to speak.

Evan - He has a good memory and understanding too! He told me as I walked him back to the room that I shouldn't be doing it, because I had to go to work. I usually go to work right after Evan almost every time. That'll change now, unfortunately, I doubt I'll be able to stay the entire time with Evan because of the class I signed up for. We worked on the bells and rhythms again. He couldn't even get left to right vs. right to left correct. Chris and I are wondering if its a neurological problem, because he's intelligent - he just has a very hard time with sequencing, he needs a lot of prompting and guidance.




January 12, 2006
Time: 10:30-12:30
Physical Therapy

I met...I don't remember his name, I think it starts with a B. He's a funny guy, like AJ, they both have great senses of humor and they're fun to be around. I repeat - its pretty boring in there, but that's just because I can't really do anything but watch the therapists. I am learning about some of the tools they use. Part of the system for reviewing and diagnosing injuries involves a range of motion detector - its like a big protractor that measures how far someone can bend a joint. Another tool they use is one to test the ability to resist pressure - I saw someone use that (it was like a big button) on an injured ankle. And during the physical therapy, at the end of the session, people with knee injuries have their knee tendons stretched out with a piece of equipment that looks like a medieval torture device. It has several pulleys on it, attached to the floor that extends the knee. Another thing they use commonly is the tinge unit - the thing that shocks, relaxes and strengthens muscles (They attach electrodes to certain spots and turn it on. Fun stuff).



January 10
Music Therapy
1pm-3pm

This session I had to leave after Aiden to go back to school for a music audition.

Ketchel - We did the list and the song book thing. This time, we did "Things I like to do" which included running, running with dad, and playing with mom. And games. I explained in greater detail above, so I won't repeat myself.

Adam - We did the cards and numbers, up to twenty one. He kept mixing up 12 and 21, he had a *Really* hard time with those two numbers.

Aiden - Justin, the kid that usually goes with Aiden now, wasn't there today, so we just sang with him. He actually said "Bye" in tune with the guitar, which was awesome. He also can recognize rhythms and play along to the beat of a song for four-five times(About eight seconds).