The energy is palpable the moment you walk in the door. The receptionist always greets Nea with a smile and a hello. If Nea smiles back or says hi....the receptionist makes a positive comment.
"You said hello to me today! Thank you!"
Now she may not know that we are working on social skills and greeting people, or heck, maybe she does. But she makes sure that Nea understands, "hey, I know you stepped outside of your comfort zone" As a parent, that means a lot to me. When the therapists (OT, PT and SLP's) come out to get kids for their appointment times she greets the kid first of course. But if anyone else notices her or comes towards her she notices them as well. I've watched therapists get down to eye level and make sure to say hello to kids. Nothing goes un-noticed there. If a kid walks towards the fish tank to check it out...something is said. In short, every kid gets special attention and recognition for just participating in "waiting room" social life.
Nea must have really felt it today. We were sitting and waiting for "A" to come out and get her. Nea picked up a book and brought it over to me. She's still not into "reading" but she does like to talk about the book and turn the pages. That's serious improvement from where we were a few weeks ago! As we are moving through the book, a little boy walked over to us. Nea was standing in front of me and I was holding the book in my lap so she could see. This cherub faced boy became involved in the story as well, and he wanted to help turn the pages. His mom was shocked that he come over to us (complete strangers) in the first place and I was shocked that Nea stopped what she was doing and looked at him. Finally she reached her hand out to his face, and touched it gently, saying, "Baybee" He smiled, and reached towards her chest to touch a pumpkin picture that was on her shirt.
And immediately 2 Moms were just about in tears.
I don't know this boy, I've never seen this boy before and I have no idea what needs he has that would bring him into Pedi Rehab. But for whatever reason these 2 kids made a connection. (Also, this "baby" was around Nea's age. I think she's just calling other children "baby" when she sees them.) I was so proud of my girl for acknowledging another kid her age, reaching out to say hello in her own special way and allowing him to reciprocate. In my eyes, we didn't need to do any therapy! We had success in the waiting room alone!
OT gets harder as Nea makes progress. She is tolerating everything so well. And therapy works in a way that when you get comfortable with one thing....we move you right along to the next.
Her speech therapy session was interesting today as I was able to watch Nea's 2 y/o-ness vs her Autism. She was whiney at times with Diana, but without a doubt it was a total fake. She even shot Diana a couple grins along the way! Oh, whatever, child! She was also able to do some computer work today. I love this picture so much because I love how comfortable she is with Diana.
Overall on this brisk fall morning, we had a good day at therapy. Progress is still being made, success is still at our fingertips.
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