Tag: rifton pacer

A Field Trip

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One of the biggest obstacles we currently face in Solly’s journey to walking is motivation. Solly CAN walk in his gait trainer – in fact, he walks quite quickly if he sees something he wants – but he has to have a solid reason to walk. That reason changes quickly. Lately, his motivation has been helium balloons, golf clapping and cheering, and high fives, however, we struggle to constantly come up with things that excite him enough to walk.

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We love Target!

So, instead of finding novel objects or cheers to motivate him, Nanny Jen discovered that taking him new places might be the trick. Last week, before his weekly OT appointment, she popped his Rifton Pacer in the trunk of her car and carted Solly over to Target where she plopped him, in his gait trainer, at the entrance of the store. There were new sights and sounds to motivate, not to mention people to impress. Solly spent a full hour walking and exploring the store. He still needed some cheering to get him going (a few shoppers stopped to root him on), but little things like the dollar section and a table with folded t-shirts piqued his interest enough to move his gait trainer along.

Just yesterday, we took another field trip over to our local park, where there is a paved pathway that’s perfect for walking. With his hat on backwards and Nanny Catherine cheering him on, he easily strolled around the park.

Our motivation issue has been solved, for now!

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Cute Kid at the Park

 

 

 

A Little Stroll

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When we got home from NAPA Center three weeks ago, I tried to make more of an effort to have Sol spend some time in his gait trainer each day.

When I say “make more of an effort”, that generally means that I’m successful maybe every few days because, let’s face it, if I were to do every activity that every single one of Solly’s therapists want me to do at home with him, we’d have enough activities to fill up 54 hours in one day. But, we’ll save the topic of “Mom is medical coordinator, researcher, therapist, advocate, all-while-trying-to-be-Mom” for another post.

While chatting with Jennifer, Solly’s PT at Full Circle Therapy, during last week’s hippotherapy appointment, I told her that we were struggling to find something at home to motivate him to take steps in his gait trainer. She suggested that we allow Solly to have alone time while in his gait trainer so he can work on figuring it out on his own. So, we took her advice and starting last week, for about 30 minutes before dinner, Solly would spend some time simply hanging out in one of his gait trainers. For a couple of nights, he’d shuffle forward a little bit and get stuck, so I’d adjust him and let him hang out so more.

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