Ramon believes that once we get Nathan doing aerial standing consistently, we’re on our way! Yesterday he was able to repeat the aerial standing 5 times. The previous time I showed this exercise, we had to use a schmata to give him some feedback. Yesterday we removed it and he was able to stand without the schmata and without a toy to stimulate him. As you can see in the video, it’s just the initial stage of this exercise – he has to be able to stand completely straight, and hold. But as many of you wonderful supportive friends have told me, PATIENCE! This journey will take a long time but the important thing is, we’re on the path!
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bg248mmJDMs&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0]
This one I”m showing because it used to take him between 20-50 seconds to perform this exercise. Now he’s doing it in between 5-15 seconds.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4aFsoPr0F0&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0]
Here you can see he has much more stability and a little bit more balance:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHdrp6RDE2M&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0]
Once again, look how straight he is!
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yNndaxVDhQ&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0]
Compare to this one, when he last saw Ramon in Toronto:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CYfwwkBVXE&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0]
Yesterday we had the pleasure of having Oulaa over to lunch. Her son Youseff has been working with Ramon for close to 2 years now: http://www.youtube.com/user/oulaalaoui . We had a LOVELY lunch and conversation and I felt like in our approach and way of thinking, we’re peas in a pod. She did give me some wonderful advice. She has been doing this much longer than I have, and she said it takes a lot of patience and perseverance. Some kids progress rapidly and they’re on their way quickly, other kids take a lot longer, a million repetitions, and an incredible amount of belief in their potential. She told me about her journey with Youseff, how he progressed rapidly and then hit a trough, and it’s taken him a very long time to start climbing out of it. But like me, she believes that now is the time to fight for her son, that even if he doesn’t show tremendous progress quickly, she has to keep trying and never give up.
As much as I wish Nathan was the rabbit, not the turtle, I have to admit that I feel deep, tremendous gratitude that he is on the path, that we found CME, and that I am seeing tiny tiny progress day after day. Honestly I think Nathan may not even be the turtle, he might just be the snail, but it doesn’t make a difference to me – what matters is that he’s in the race! We have a path, he’s on it, and how long it takes, doesn’t matter. Or so I try to tell myself 🙂 Please don’t think I’m a liar when I post in 3 weeks that I am having a hard time because he’s not progressing. There are good days and bad days. But I am trying to change my view and to always return to the fact that he’s in the race and he’s on the path. So please remind me next time I whine!!!
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