Wow, it's been a long time since I've posted. I hadn't realized it's been so long. This time the gap is a good thing. Not too many frustrating things I need to write about to put them out of my mind.
It's cold out so Jane is back into doing a half hour sensory path I made for her in the house every day now. (When it's warm I feel the trampoline and outside play accomplish the same sensory inputs.) I'm trying to teach her much more precision now that she's 5, especially with her cross-body work which is where she really struggles. She has very little awareness of where her body is in space, has difficulty processing verbal commands, etc. So, teaching her just to do one single toe touch was a 30 minute process the first time and often needs updates.
But, she won't benefit from doing the exercise wrong so I try to pick one of her 9 different cross body actions every few days and monitor it.
Lately she's been working on crawling up the stairs. Yep, that simple. Just going hands and knees up the stairs. I didn't even know she couldn't do it until I watched her and realize she was doing a weird hodge podge of motions that were so clumsy I was afraid she'd roll back down them.
First, I had her crawl across the floor because she could not even process the word "crawl" when I said it to her. She went into her freeze mode when she thinks she's done something wrong and could not process any more language. So, I intentionally told her we were "doing something different" to release her from the freeze, and then smiled and said, "let's crawl around like cats!" on the floor. After she'd calmed down and was successfully crawling I added the word: "Look, you're crawling!"
She literally said, "oh, this is what you meant?" Because she'd only crawled on the floor before she lost the meaning of the word when I joined it to stairs. This is how her brain works. From one isolated task to another, no connection or extrapolation.
Once she at least knew what I meant I brought her back to the stairs and asked her to crawl up them. Then I realized she was doing a right hand-right knee and then left hand-left knee movement. I stood behind her and used only two words, "this" and "go" to direct her. I'd simultaneously tap her left knee and right hand saying, "this, this", and then command, "go" to make her move. We went the whole way up the stairs like this. She still did the wrong hand or knee more than 70% of the time, even after I'd tapped the correct ones--so great was her inclination to never do cross-body work. That was the first day.
On the next day she still needed me to tap and command, "this, this, go" but she was getting better. Each time the start was difficult but then she'd do better. It's now about six weeks later and she can almost do it on her own. She still chants to herself, "this, this, go" while looking down at her own hands and knees. She literally has to scan all 4 limbs before every single movement and think it all the way through and then lurch awkwardly up to the next step before starting the whole process again. It takes her at least 5 minutes to go up 9 steps. Seriously.
The last few times when I've watched her I've noticed that her new difficult spot isn't at the beginning but now it's at the top. About 3 steps from the landing she can see that the surface is going to change and seeing this throws off her rhythm. Three steps below she's already confused about how to move her hands so that one of them will land on a different sized step than the one she's already on (it's just a landing, not the top of the stairway).
Just as at first moving the crawling motion from the floor to the incline of the stairs utterly threw her, so now thinking about changing her crawl from the incline of the stairs to a larger horizontal surface of the landing is stumping her.
The funny thing is that she doesn't have to crawl on the landing or back down the stairs. At the top she turns and sits and then bumps down the steps on her bottom. She likes this part and it's a small reward for the big effort of going up. So, why is she stumped about the landing when she doesn't even have to crawl on it? Clearly just the visual change, coupled with the visual-motor planning needed to go up, turn around and sit, is too much for her.
I describe this whole thing to say this: she does this all cheerfully. It is excruciatingly difficult for her and yet she does it without complaint or even hesitation. It's amazing.
What would I do if she were protesting? How awful every day would be if she were whining and crying and being difficult?
I really, really don't understand her brain. At times her people-pleasing ways get on my nerves for all their fakeness. But I have to remember to be grateful for a girl who will work very hard to do the right thing even when her own brain can't even help her figure out how to crawl up the steps.
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