July 6, 2009
The best therapy that's not therapy
Max absolutely loves being in water so much, my husband and I have joked about buying him a water bed. So he's in heaven when he's in the pool. Bonus: the pool toys give him all sorts of opportunities to work his fine-motor skills. As demonstrated here!
Max has been getting physical and occupational therapy since he was a month old. He had a stroke at birth, so we knew he was at risk for all sorts of problems, and I got him into Early Intervention right away (I literally called them from the NICU). While he may sometimes get distracted during speech, occupational or physical therapy, for the most part he considers them a normal part of his life.
But sometimes, as I'm sure you've realized, the best therapy happens when kids are playing. In the bath, Max manipulates a watering can, colors on the wall with bath paints and makes pictures with shaving cream. In the pool, he grasps and throws a ball, pours water from buckets, kicks around and works hard on balancing.
I have to admit, it's therapeutic for me, too, to see him enjoying himself so much. When Max is happy, the angst I sometimes have from being a parent of a kid with special needs seems to just trickle away.
Ellen blogs daily over at To The Max.
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Comments on The best therapy that's not therapy »
Deanna @ 8:51 pm
I so agree with you!
My son (almost 6) has sensory issues which lead to impulsiveness, aggression, minimum attentiveness to simply put it…he is very active and gets into many things and trouble when not outside everyday.
Last summer, swimming everyday, we noticed that his aggressivness went down 10 fold. He was more able to attend as well. We are seeing the same occur this summer. We chose to not put him into summer school this summer because of what you pointed out…playing can sometimes be the best therapy. Although, he still goes to weekly speech therapy and bi-weekly OT.
MaddyM @ 11:42 pm
Real play, as opposed to 'repetitive' play has been a long time coming around here, so I thoroughly agree with you.
Best wishes
colleen @ 12:08 am
I used to always feel guilty when I would cancel therapy for a week or two so we could go on vacation…but our vacations visitting our families, and having the kids be able to play with their cousins is always the best therapy for both of them. They always learn so much and have such a great time from playing with the kids that they dont normally get to see very much!
Barbara @ 1:41 pm
It is only 'play' if the child chooses it.
Jeannie Anderson @ 9:03 am
I totally agree. When Mr. Busypants was 2-4 we saw more gains in his language skills when we went on vacation and swam a lot. It was incredible.