Flint, Mommy, and Galen

Flint, Mommy, and Galen

Friday, April 17, 2015

Floortime: A Therapy for Autism

There are a few versions of therapies that I'd like to try for Galen.
Floortime sounds just like it's named. You literally sit on the floor and play with your child at their own level. (https://www.autismspeaks.org/what-autism/treatment/floortime)

This is what we did when we got home after his diagnosis on Mon (though, I didn't realize it was an actual type of therapy then). It hurt so much to get up off the floor that we ordered a thick yoga mat. This has SIGNIFICANTLY helped me with getting up and down off the floor.

Today, I was playing on the floor with Galen and asked him if he liked me on the floor playing with him and he said "Yeah". We played for a long time, probably at least 2 hours (not the entire time, since he ran off and came back, etc), but a really nice long time. He spoke a little and just enjoyed playing with us. We bought some lettered blocks after he experienced them during testing and those are some of his favorite toys right now (plus the stacking cups from Playskool). We played with the stacking cups for a long time. He's really good at them, even though he wouldn't do them at all during testing. I showed him how to stack them upside down too. Then we also played with the blocks. He and I sorted them by colors, then later I found "1 2 3 4" and touched them saying what numbers they were and then he took my finger over and over again having me repeat the numbers while touching the blocks. And he even added 2 other blocks (both orange C's) which I also said when he put my finger on them. 

Our replacement Baby Einstein turtle toy arrived today and is already being played with by both Flint and Galen. The broken one (the orange harp wouldn't light up) was played with a lot today too. Galen stared at it for mins today trying to figure out why the one light didn't light up no matter what button he pressed (that's what it appeared to me anyway).

For all the pain and difficulties we have sometimes (it is SOOO frustrating to not understand what he wants or needs!!), he's such a good natured child so much more often. But his melt downs sure aren't fun.

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