Speechless

E’s preschool had their Open House tonight.  One of her teachers had taken a piece of construction paper and folded it in half.  On the cover she had each child draw a picture in September.  Then they described to her what was in the picture.

Kindergarten teachers refer to this as chicken scratches.  It actually was an improvement because E used more than just purple.   Her description was “This mommy is blue.  I’m gonna color it” and “This is me.  It’s all me.”

One of the common co-occuring conditions with CAS is fine motor skills delays.  E has a degree of limb apraxia as well.  She was never able to learn sign language because she couldn’t control her fingers.  Just about a year ago, her fine motor skills were assessed and she was in the first percentile.  This has been pretty typical of what we have seen since from her since she turned three.

The first inside page was another drawing done in January.  There are some attempts at some shapes and I can even see what looks like a face.  E’s description was “Santa went to my house to give me presents.”

On the third page was a picture E drew this week.  Now I knew that E had improved in the last nine months, but being able to see it all on the same piece of paper was astonishing.  I was absolutely speechless.

E’s description reads, “I want to come to summer camp with Sarah.”  There are two distinguishable people.  E made sure she gave herself curly hair and she added grass, the sun, and sky.

Absolutely. Speechless.

This is what quality O.T. can do!