Back in October our pediatrician noted that Charlie wasn’t voluntarily rolling over, getting into a sitting position from lying on her back, crawling, or pulling up. At almost 10 months that was a concern for him. So, we contacted NJ’s Early Intervention Program at his request. They tested in early November and found that she was only at a 6 month level for gross motor control (although she tested at 12 months for fine motor control, 14 months for social level, and 17 months for verbal level!). So, she was enrolled in the early intervention program.
All along, John and I believed that this was more of a case of Charlie not WANTING to do something than her really not being able to do something. We simply believed it was Charlie being stubborn rather than being developmentally challenged. We thought that she’d get there at her own time. Besides, not all babies are walking at 12 months! That’s a known fact.
We had an IEP meeting at the end of November and physical therapy started in early December. From the start, I wasn’t too keen on the physical therapy sessions. The therapist was insisting that Charlie crawl. She’d put her on her belly, pull up at her hips, then move her legs forward. Charlie hated this! Hate might not even be a strong enough word. Loathe might be better. Every exercise was focused on crawling or being on her belly.
The therapist kept insisting that we work on crawling with her. When I questioned her, she replied that all babies need to crawl. Which, as most people know, is a LOAD OF BUNK.
By the middle of December, Charlie was moving around quite fine by scooting on her hiney. She’s fast and can get just about anywhere she wants to go.
Does this look like destruction caused by an immobile baby?
And, she’s not on her belly, or facedown, which she hates. Any time she’s put on her belly she cries. This has been ongoing since she was about 6 weeks old. She’s also kneeling, pulling up on her own, standing with very little support, and cruising along the couch and ottoman. All things that she did on her own time schedule. Walking will come the same way.
We’d been considering dropping the pt sessions, but this past Tuesday was the straw that broke the camel’s back. After trying to force her to crawl by moving her legs, Charlie became hysterical. She was bawling and doing the little hiccupy thing as she was crying. I’ve only ever heard her cry like this after shots or after she bumped heads with my mother and we took her to the ER. She was super upset. But, the therapist wanted to continue with the session (she’d only been there about 10 minutes at this point). I kept taking Charlie and trying to comfort her but the therapist kept trying to get her to do more things while she was hysterical.
Really? PT with a hysterical child? You’d think someone that worked with children for a living would know that there are certain situations with kids where you just say, fine, no more for now.
I finally just scooped Charlie into my arms and held her, saying that I think that we might be done for the day. The therapist sat there with a blank look on her face and finally started writing up her evaluation of the session.
It took me several hours to get Charlie to calm down and for the rest of the evening either John or I had to hold her. Putting her down just caused her cry. She wanted reassurance and she wanted her parents.
So now, I’m in the process of pulling Charlie out of PT. We’re not going through this anymore. We can stand to hear my daughter bawl if it’s something for her own good, but this isn’t it. There’s no reason for a pt session to cause enough stress that our daughter is in distress.
So what if she’s not crawling. THousands of babies don’t.
So what if she’s not standing on her own or walking yet. Thousands of babies are at the same point. She’ll get there soon enough.
For now, we’re happy chasing her around as she scoots on her hiney.
The Shaky Octopus 