It’s easy get goal oriented when your child first starts receiving regular therapy. Overwhelmed by the threat of delays, I felt very pressured to do everything I could to help Clara-Bear meet her goals. I thought doing my home carryover meant repeating every therapy session step by step. If I missed a step, she would never sit up or eat. When she was an infant and goals were milestones, a missed milestone was more than a sign that she was different. It was her entire future. Therapy was her only hope for a happy and independent future, and if I missed a day then her life would be ruined and it would all be my fault. I had a wicked case of Mommy Guilt.
Clara-bear did not share my anxiety. As a baby, she just wanted to play and be loved. A goal oriented mentality of drill and exercises bored and frustrated us both. We were on the path to therapy burnout before she was a year old. My daughter taught me early on that breaking down the goals into baby steps then taking a nurturing and guiding approach to home therapy would still get her to her goals. Therapeutic play could build our relationship instead of defining it. I could still be the Mommy I needed and wanted to be while helping with her therapy needs.
Students in therapy school are taught to break down a task step by step, called Task Analysis. Some of these steps can become mini-goals. Ask your child’s therapist for a task analysis of one major goal and to brainstorm with you on creative ways to use age appropriate play to meet these mini-goals. The more creative you are, the more fun you both will have. For example, my 4 ½ year old daughter can’t jump. I could make her try to jump on a trampoline every day, but we’d both get sick of that pretty quickly. But I can have her try to lift her knees and march as I sing, play together in the inflatable bounce house, and stomp on bubble wrap. We can jump in the bed and have pillow fights. I can sneak therapy exercises into dance parties, complete with disco ball. I can turn her cube chairs on their sides and have her take giant steps to get from chair to chair. Does she do any of this perfectly? No! I’m doing half the work for her. But when we started, I was doing all the work! We’ll meet her goals, laughing and loving all the way.
Frugal and Fun Home Therapy Tips are for informational purposes only. They are not intended to replace professional guidance. Always consult with a professional before applying the results of your research to your child's home therapy. Some of these ideas and observations are my own, some I think I've thought of by myself but could be the result of conversations and postings with other parents, teachers, therapists, my own online research, from books, or from parenting magazines. Whenever possible, I will credit the source, but since I have read so much over the years I can't always remember where I learn things. Duplication of others’ ideas or work is not intentional.
