Ryker is getting into the Christmas spirit! Today he decided he loves light up Christmas necklaces. Good thing because in recent OT sessions he hasn’t shown much interest in a lot of toy choices! His drive to reach it, grasp it, hold onto it and eat it are very helpful to having a great, productive therapy session. Hopefully Santa can bring him a few more new toys to spark his interest and help him continue his growth! His Occupational Therapist recently completed his annual “recertification”. This doesn’t really mean much since there’s no question that his home therapy services are highly needed and will continue with their current frequency.
We often read or hear other parents talk about where their children are developmentally- referring to it by an age/month. She told us he was between 8-10 months developmentally for OT criteria. On one hand that could make us unbelievably sad. On the other, we recognize that is great for him to have come so far! It is widely known and subconsciously a necessity to NOT compared one PURA kiddos development to another. Let alone a typical child’s development to our PURA kiddo. Yet that is understandably (hopefully) much easier said than done! Everyone wants the best for their child and to see them hitting milestones and progressing. We can see daily the proud posts of other parents eagerly showing off the great yet “normal” accomplishments of their children. We are in the unique position to see the progressions of both worlds- typical and atypical, and can appreciate and understand what that truly means.
In closing, during this holiday season we hope you will all take a minute to stop and recognize the things in your lives and those of your children that you take for granted. Perhaps blissful ignorance is a strong yet appropriate word choice for this. Ryker deserves to be recognized, understood, celebrated and included just as any other child. His brother deserves that too! Both for himself and to see that for his brother- who isn’t anything other than typical to him. Mind your words and actions. Know that your own little people will learn from you, but perhaps you can learn from them as well. The true Christmas spirit! On Christmas Day and every day.
While this is written by a mother, it resonates with any mom, dad, parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, cousin and so on!
Ryker’s Rally Point 