At Lydia's 1 year well check last December we expressed concern to her doctor about her not walking. And by not walking I mean not even attempting to walk or pull herself up on anything. In fact, she wasn't even crawling. She would sit content on the floor and play with whatever was around her. Her doctor was concerned by the fact that she had the ability to do those things she just wasn't. So he recommended that she be evaluated by the Children's Developmental Center. She qualified to receive weekly occupational therapy to work on her gross motor skills.
This is Lydia with her therapist Tawnya. She comes to our house every Friday for a half hour and works with Lydia. It took a long time for Lydia to decide she liked Tawnya...and now they're buddies. Tawnya has helped Lydia crawl, go up and down stairs, pull herself up on things, and walk. Truly, these were all skills that I never thought we would have to teach one of our babies...they just naturally do those things. But this most likely is linked to her being born premature.
The latest step in this process has been for Lydia to start wearing ankle/foot orthotics or AFOs. The AFO on her right side goes higher up her leg because of a lack of muscle tone. She prefers to use the left side of her body so hopefully this will help her feel more secure on her right foot. She's supposed to wear them as much as possible during the day. But she's a firecracker and it didn't take long for her to figure out velcro is easy to take off!
Definitely they haven't slowed her down and I'm thankful for that. Tawnya has been great to work with and a big help to Lydia. Hopefully, we can continue on the slow road of improvement and keep this little girl playing hard!
