Four Months of Therapy

I'm often asked, when speaking of Z's therapy, how I think she might have developed without the intervention. I had occasion to speak of it with her physical therapist at our appt last week and she told me, in cases like Z's where the delay has nothing to do with, say, autism or Down's, therapy concentrates on how to get to standing properly (as an adult would rather than in the upside-down-V fashion); specific "exercises" to improve core strength for standing and walking; not flopping to sit but carefully lowering oneself down to the ground (as an adult would); and in the end, gaining about one or two steps on what she might have accomplished on her own. Being in therapy certainly has made me more aware of Z's progress, esp in the little things. Momentum was slow to build at first – for nearly a month we plateaued at pulling to stand and she was naturally cautious of lowering slowly –, but lately I see targeted improvements, e.g. raising onto her knees, standing from a sitting position on a low stool, come to fruition within two weeks. Another sign of her burgeoning strength is her new passion for climbing on formally insurmountable furniture.