Inspiring story

Jace returned to speech therapy today after a long break. It was inspiring to hear his goals, note how he's starting to verbalize more sounds,and said "yeah" clear as day just yesterday. We will work more towards voice output this year and continue to help him build his language. I am able to tell in Jace's voice if he's going to say yes or no, as he gets quite whiny when it's no but the hope is that we can reduce language and body barriers for those working with him who do not know him as well. I am so excited for him! I stumbled upon a fabulous and inspiring story that increased my level of hope for Jace's future. As I have been thinking about his friendships for when he transitions into middle school, this really nailed it for me from the story. See the link below to read the full story about these two friends. Love it! :)

“This is what I’ll say about disability – it may be a roadblock to friendship for some people, but if that’s the case, the other person is likely not a person you want to be friends with, anyway.

http://cerebralpalsy.org/inspiration/inspirational-relationships/friendship/?utm_source=fb&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=inspire

Hippotherapy

I've been wanting to add Hippotherapy for a few years now into Jace's schedule...determined to do so this year before summer. Info on hippotherapy:

Hippotherapy, a treatment tool utilizing the movement of a horse, is medically oriented to address sensory, motor, and perceptual deficits. It is used to treat individuals with acquired and developmental disabilities.

In 1997, at the Ninth International Riding Congress, a conceptual framework for Hippotherapy was presented to 700 people, representing 31 countries by the American Hippotherapy Association. These eleven points are briefly summarized:

1. Neural plasticity and Self-Organization – Hippotherapy can move a client beyond the point where traditional tools have plateaued by accessing the central nervous system in a new way and new movement strategies promotes modification, reorganization, and enhanced movement capabilities.

2. Control Parameter-The movement of the horse’s back transmitted to the patient can be a control parameter for upright sitting.

3. Preferred Patterns of Behavior – Hippotherapy creates an instability in old patterns of behavior and encourages the emergence of new motor and alertness patterns.

4. Rhythmicity and Entrainment-The movement of the client and the horse becomes coupled so that they interact and influence one another.

5. Perception/Action – The movement through space, changing support surface, and visual flow provide vestibular, somatosensory, visual information to the client, which is simultaneously integrated and translated into action.

6. Postural Mechanism-The multidimensional movements of the horse provide ample opportunity to explore, contolr, and coordinate posture and movement that in turn influences cognitive and communication function.

7. Arousal-The horse’s movement provides powerful input to the arousal mechanisms of the central nervous system.

8. Motivation-Hippotherapy provides motivation through the demands of the task and the interaction in an interesting, enjoyable environmement.

9. Variability of Practice and Problem Solving-During treatment the therapist varies the direction, speed, or amplitude of the horse’s movement challenging the client to actively participate.

10. Adaptability-The dynamic nature of hippotherapy encourages the individual to continue to explore, select, and adapt appropriate movement strategies relatice to the changing context.

11. Function in Multiple Environmments-The development of adaptability assists in promoting functional performance in other environments.