Shelby and Avery Update...

On May 30, Shelby and Avery had some evaluations at one of our local hospitals concerning their physical and occupational skills. Several people have asked us what the difference in the two therapies is and this is the ‘easiest’ definition that we have been able to find:
Although both types of therapy help kids improve the quality of their lives, there are differences. Physical therapy deals with the issues of pain, strength, joint range of motion, endurance, and gross motor functioning, whereas occupational therapy deals more with fine motor skills, visual-perceptual skills, cognitive skills, and sensory-processing deficits.
Anyways, the girls had previously been receiving therapies in both areas and when we switched pediatricians about a year ago our new pediatrician chose not to continue our referral for the therapies. As the girls have gotten older it has become more aware to Chad and I that while we would love to say they are just ‘clumsy’ (goodness knows that I am) they both have some issues that need to be addressed, so we were finally able to be given a referral back to our wonderful Dr. G (WE LOVE YOU DR.G!!!) and she again referred us for our therapy, but because the girls had been out of therapy for over 12 months they both had to be re-evaluated to see what services (if any) that they would need. We are glad to say that neither of the girls have to continue on with their occupational therapy and in fact, Avery is actually ‘scoring’ at a 35 month level (The girls are 29 months). Shelby is lagging a bit at 25+ (meaning not quite 26 months) but she is not ‘far enough’ behind to need services and she is well with in the ‘normal’ range for a preemie/multiple birth kiddos.
The girls were also reevaluated for their physical development and while the therapists are still ‘adding’ up their scores, it is very clear that both girls are going to need some assistance in different areas of that. I am hoping to hear more from them tomorrow or Tuesday at the latest and we will be able to set up some type of therapy schedule soon after that.
Shelby has a her speech evaluation tomorrow at 9:30am and then goes to get her new braces/orthodics fitted at 11am. Hopefully that too will help with some of her clumsiness.