Hellobee

Although D’s regular days of physical therapy are long over, that doesn’t mean my stint as his therapist has ended! D’s early intervention occupational therapist has us still doing several different exercises to encourage appropriate development and gross motor skills. D is not a fan of following directions; he likes to be in charge! Thus I’ve had to find ways to incorporate the motor skills into play routines (with help from our OT of course).

D has always loved music, so pairing actions with songs has generally worked the best for us. Here are three activity + song pairings that we’ve got in rotation these days!

• Goal: Practice standing up from sitting (while I hold his feet pointed forward, fighting against his urge to point his right foot out) and sitting back down repetitively. This theoretically encourages him to balance on his feet more naturally.
• Song: Wheels on the Bus – “The people on the bus go up and down, up and down…”
• Pairing: Pretty obvious, but he’s happy to stand up and sit back down over and over again (even if he’s a little off beat). The biggest struggle has been finding a chair/stool at the perfect height so it’s as easy as possible to sit down and stand up.

• Goal: Stretch D’s ankles by turning them in and out, also to combat his tendency to cock the right one out.
• Song: The Tiny Window (found on a translated Bob Zoom episode on Netflix, which is apparently a translation of a Brazilian kids show!) – “The tiny window closes whenever it is raining, the tiny window opens when the sun is shining, the window opens, it closes, it opens closes opens, the window closes, it opens, it closes opens closes!”
• Activity: When D’s strapped in the high chair, I sit in front of him and turn his ankles together for closes, apart for opens. Easy peasy and he’ll let me do it for as long as I want!

• Goal: Practice chewing motions
• Song: “This is the way we chew chew chew, we chew chew chew….”
• Activity: Using a rubber chewy tube, press up on his back teeth (on each side) 5-10 times in a row. He will often grab the tube and start chewing it by himself! If I try to go in cold with no song he will typically just keep his mouth shut.

We also frequently do the traditional motions for the rest of the Wheels on the Bus song, the Itsy Bitsy Spider, Heads, shoulders, knees and toes, I’m a little teapot, If you’re happy and you know it (clap your hands, shout hooray, etc.)… those are great for lots general gross motor skills!

D appears to be eating the Itsy Bitsy Spider…

Sometimes I can’t come up with an appropriate song choice, and then my “default song” for making up my own words is Frere Jacques since it just needs repetition rather than rhyming. When he was younger and not yet mobile, I used to bicycle his legs singing something like, “Who is kicking, who is kicking, that is D! that is D! Look at his little feet, don’t they go so fast, kick D kick, kick D kick.” There are literally endless combinations and I still pull this out for other activities (like brushing teeth!) and it really seems to help – either because he likes it or he’s confused about what the heck I’m singing! Perhaps this tendency is hereditary – my dad was really good about making up songs for us when my brothers and I were young. Some favorites are the “I’m proud of you” song and the “We’re going to the library” song. K knows the “I’m proud of you” song and often requests it after he’s done something noteworthy!

After songs, mimicry is the next best way to get D to do what I would like. Often if I make a funny face or a strange sound, D will try to mimic me as best as he can! Mr. T has also taught him to do the “mind blown” action + sound effect through this method, which is super adorable.

• Goal: stroke inside of cheeks to stimulate oral muscles
• Activity: I grab the inside of my own cheeks with my index fingers and make funny faces and monkey noises at him. He’s then perfectly happy to have me use my pinky fingers to make that same funny face (but this time with a repetitive stroking motion) while making the sounds. He won’t let me stick my fingers in his mouth without some kind of game, so this has been a huge success!

Now I just need to come up with some songs or activities that can make the long and/or painful doctors visits more bearable!

Am I weird to be making up songs all the time? If your LO has to do certain exercises, have you come up with any tricks? Please share!