Standing Tall

Hattie has had an awesome few months! We received her stander, activity chair, and her switch from NuMotion! It’s amazing what this adaptive equipment has already done for her development. 

Before we got this activity chair, Hattie wasn’t able to sit up and play with her toys. Her Bumbo seat was not supportive enough, so she would sit in it for a few minutes then slump over. We would try and sit her up on our bed, surrounding her by pillows, but she would eventually face place into the pillows or arch back. So… anytime I had to get anything done around the house, Hattie was usually left on her back, on the floor, under her play mat. Now that we have this Special Activity Chair (brand is Special Tomato) she can literally play in it for hours! It has wheels, so I can wheel her around the house wherever I am. It is awesome! This thing is $4,000...Can you believe that?! Thank goodness for Medicaid, because they completely covered the cost for us!

The next thing we got was her Stander (brand is called Squiggles). This is helping Hattie learn to put weight into her legs. She has almost all of her weight on her feet while she’s in her stander, she is just very well supported. We will start by standing in this for 10 minutes a day, then work our way up to 1 hour a day. It is pretty cool seeing her stand up for the first time! While she’s in her stander, she has to wear her SMAFOS (her princess shoes) with a pair of tennis shoes over them.

 The last thing we got from NuMotion is her “Big Mack Switch”. This is a giant red button that attaches to a “switch adapted toy”. To activate the toy, Hattie just has to hit the red button, and it will work. Typical kids can usually figure out how to press a toy’s button, squeeze a singing teddy bear’s hand etc… this Switch helps Hattie understand that if she hits the red button, something happens with her toy. We only have 1 switch adapted toy right now that we received from a wonderful organization called “Santa’s Little Hackers”. It is an octopus that sings and lights up. Hopefully we can get some more toys in the future. Unfortunately, they are really pricey and not usually covered by insurance or Medicaid.

Another little thing that we got for Hattie are these arm braces. We use these during therapy to keep her arms straight so she can learn to support herself while she sits up. Hattie LOVES to have her hands in her mouth, so the arm braces help keep her arms down. They’re definitely helping her!

We started Speech Therapy this month, and Hattie is currently working on making choices! We started by holding up a toy, and her iPad. We would say “Do you want your toy? Or your iPad? Touch which one you want!” and we would repeat “Touch which one..touuuuch… touch..”. Sometimes it takes her a few minutes, but eventually she would almost ALWAYS touch her iPad (it’s her favorite).  Her Speech Therapist, Lisa, introduced us to a cool new App called “Big Bang Pictures”. It is a very simple App that shows a single picture, and you have to touch anywhere on the screen to activate it. Once you touch the picture if moves and makes noise. Hattie quickly figured this game out, and it was AMAZING to watch! This was such a huge accomplishment for her because it was the first time that she really understood cause and effect!! She has now learned that when she touches something, she gets it or something happens. The other day we asked her if she wanted “Milk” (her bottle) or her iPad. After looking back and fourth for a few seconds, she reached out and touched her milk! She was hungry :)! IT IS AMAZING WATCHING HER LEARN!!!

 Love y’all!! Thank you for following Hattie’s journey :)

-Abby & David