Baby Physical Therapy

At Julia's 9-month checkup, she was sitting. Any other gross motor movements? No, I told the doctor. Not to worry. Kids develop at their own pace.

Fast-forward to Julia's 12-month checkup last month. She sits. Any other gross motor movements? The answer was still no. This time the doctor was concerned, especially when Julia wouldn't put any weight on her legs at the appointment. He referred me to the county's infant and toddler program, which evaluates little ones in various areas of development. If there is a gap of more than 25%, the baby/toddler qualifies for assistance.

Julia's evaluation was last week. She tested at 15-16 months for all developmental areas except . . . gross motor skills. At the time of the evaluation, she was crawling. This, combined with a few other skills, put her at 8 months. Therefore, the little Sunshine qualified for the physical therapy program. More than likely, there are two reasons for Julia's delay in developing her gross motor skills: (1) She has low muscle tone; (2) She has a laid-back personality.

Today was Julia's first appointment. The therapist came to our house, and it's a free service (thanks to NCLB). Julia was such a good sport for her first session. She worked incredibly hard for about 50 minutes straight. The therapist assisted Julia with standing, pulling up to standing, lowering to sitting from standing and walking along furniture. The poor baby was so fatigued at the end of the session that her little legs were shaking from all the exercise.

You can tell that Julia is ready to learn all of these new skills. She was in a good mood, and she fully cooperated. It will be interesting to see how far she will progress by next week's appointment.