Dear friends,
Karin Dom therapists are still available for online consultations. The work and visits of the children, though virtual, go on schedule and we continue to work with almost all children, even from a distance. The most important thing now is that the children keep their usual rhythm of activities at home, because without stimulation they lose motivation very quickly and miss opportunities. In addition, they begin to react more negatively to the tasks assigned, and sometimes they refuse to work. Therefore, during the time our consultants and therapists work online, our primary goal is for children to continue home-based activities and not lose their motivation and pace of learning and skills development.
Staying at home in the state of emergency is a great challenge for families with children with special needs. For example, for our little girl who has been diagnosed with a spastic cerebral palsy, it is very important to have physical activity on a daily basis. In order to decrease her muscle tone, it is necessary to apply stretching and perform specific exercises. Prior to the state of emergency, the child visited Karin Dom for therapy with a physiotherapist and speech therapist. She was willing to come, showing a great deal of affection for the therapists, and fulfilling the tasks assigned. Now that she can’t visit Karin Dom, all responsibility falls on her parents.
The family started online consultations with our physiotherapist, who, with practical guidance in real time, kept giving parents precise instructions on what and how to do, how to position the child, and what exactly to perform at the moment, with which hand to grasp the object / toy, etc.
The child is great at matching two identical pictures, which requires a good concentration of attention. Mother asks questions, and when the child is doing well, she adds to the question, and so practices the speech and communication skills that are a challenge for the girl.
Here are some more home play ideas to improve fine motor skills:
Playing with macaroni to improve fine motor skills and eye-hand coordination.
Macaroni, apart from a culinary recipe, can help us a lot with playing with our child and learning new skills at home. With the help of macaroni, you can get your child involved in play to improve fine motor skills and eye-hand coordination.
See how the child overcomes the new difficulty and copes with the task! The mother is supportive, provides reduced physical prompting, and encourages purposefully, at the right times. Try it, too! Do not be discouraged, if it does not happen immediately, give the child time to learn the new skill.
A game of transferring cotton balls from bowl to bowl
Helps with eye-hand coordination. The child is concentrated on the activity and tries to follow the instruction – to transfer one cotton ball at a time. Admirations for the mother!
Our therapists encourage families, give appropriate advice and guide the work at homeso that the parent can feel more comfortable and confident that the child is continuing to learn and develop in the desired direction. And the results are not late. Children progress step by step.
See more of their successes during a pandemic:
Progress during the consultation: The child opens the car door, enters into the car, drives and gets out all by himself – thus he learns the sequence of actions. He can also remain seated on a chair to work.
Progress during consultation: Change in the child’s play. In the beginning, the child plays with the string, just pulling it and placing it in the mouth, the consultant suggests to mom to tie it to a toy. After 4-5 attempts the child realizes that by pulling the rope, the car approaches so he changes his play accordingly.
Monitoring the feeding of a premature baby. Progress: Introducing solid food.
Progress. The child stacks rings on a stick and unfolds the pages of the book in succession:
Next heros are participants in our first Cards with Games for Babies 0-12 Months.
Mom and Dilyana – then at 8 months chronological age and six months corrected, took part in photo shooting for the playing cards that Karin Dom prepared with suggestions for home-based activities for the youngest. Now our grown-up model is learning how to drink liquids from a cup; to eat with a spoon; to use a pot and improves her coordination and fine motor skills.
We are extremely happy that at this point we are even closer to children and families and our young children are progressing despite the pandemic and the restrictions imposed.