conductive education

Here Comes Audrey… Marching Along

~ Vickywoo ~ Leave a comment

Audrey has successfully walked on her own with a walker (both a standard plastic thing at home and a fancy rollater at conductive education)!

Yes, I cut straight to the juicy detail there.  It feels so exciting and terrifying to think she might be close to walking. 

When Audrey was a baby, I looked at the parameters for children with DS walking (from typical age to 5 the book said) and I thought; “well she will walk at typical age or not much later”, because I wanted to be positive, but also I believed in Audrey. I knew she was the greatest kid with Down’s Syndrome I’d ever known, I was so sure that with lots of help she could hit all those milestones as early as possible.

The reality is, even if we had been super hot on physio and/or lots of crazy gadgets for walking/improving muscle tone, Audrey would still be delayed. She has low muscle tone that is hard to deny. Plus she chose to bottom shuffle rather than crawl – this is practically walking, she has her hands free. So in her eyes, no rush!

As I look at this year, the year she will possibly walk independently, I feel a mixture of emotions. I’ve been so desperate to see her run around like her peers. She misses out on park time, outdoor play and even soft play (you need to be able to climb). However I’m worried about how it will change things – eyes needed in the back of my head? A child that’s no longer happy in the buggy or sitting in a high chair? I know this is standard progression and something mums of typical children have dealt with already by 14 months (is that the average walking age??), but Audrey is 3 in July and I still haven’t had to worry about these things. 

She is just starting to realise that Rex is taking up mummy time, she is calling out for me a lot, following me around and is trickier to get settled at night time. Audrey is really growing up. I love being her number 1, but it’s so hard when I can’t devote all my time to her. I hope her improvement in walking, standing and climbing will help give her some independence and help her to need me less, although I suspect I’m in for many months of struggling with how to split my time between demand breastfed baby and demanding toddler!

Stuff and Things 9

~ Vickywoo ~ Leave a comment

So, I’ve written two posts about Audrey’s physio sessions on a Friday and they are not physio sessions! Oops.

We were filmed last week by Katy (who is going to be featuring us on a fabulous website, relaunching in January 2016, don’t worry, full details will be supplied!) and Katy casually asked something about the physiotherapy and the woman leading the group gave a glare and corrected her – this is ‘Conductive Education’. So there you are, that’s what we do on Fridays that helps Audrey and upsets Mummy!

Getting Audrey out of a two-week virus with horrible face rash has been great, she is eating better, her face is back to its usual beautiful self and she is on form. Chatting and playing happily, in constant need of cuddles and then requesting to be put back down – she is bossy!

This week I went on a 2 day Makaton for Professionals Foundation Course which was great. I now know the signs from Stages 1 to 4 (plus some additional) and a bit of background, as well as teaching methods. I find Makaton and lots of early years education very inspiring and I’m excited to share more signs with Audrey and potentially move towards working in an area where I can teach/use Makaton regularly.

Christmas is rapidly approaching and if you don’t already know, I am a BIG FAN. I love mince pies and Christmas songs and twinkly lights and the general good mood that swoops across the country at this time of year. Audrey is still a bit young to fully understand the joys that await, but we are getting there… The dancing Father Christmas we get out every year was a bit scary for her last year – she’s loves him now. He’s had lots of cuddles and I’ve listened to his “Oh if Christmas makes you happy…” Song more times then I’d like to at this point in December and Audrey has already worn her Christmas jumper 3 times!

Today we had fun at a Christmassy version of a local music class we go to. I watched a little girl sit with Audrey and dance with her and they both checked out each other’s feet… Another little girl very kindly gave Audrey an elephant during the crazy scramble for toys and I was just generally loving seeing children just get involved with each other – not seeing any differences. 

Actually kids do often point and stare at Audrey; because of her glasses. In a shop the other day, I heard a little boy say “That baby had goggles on!” Which made me laugh. We also got on the bus the other day and a 4 year old thought Audrey was hilarious, she said “I’ve never heard a baby talk before!!”.

In other news, Audrey’s baby brother is giving me a good kicking, we are on week 29 and counting, but having two children terrifies me, so best to keep him in there kicking for a while longer.

Here are some snaps from Audrey’s Conductive Education… It’s so amazing to have a picture of her standing up/walking!