Friday at the Farm: Therapeutic Listening

Yes, I'm half a week behind with the Friday post! Oh, well. :)  My excuse is that Gwyn and I both have strep again and she has an ear infection... My mother-in-law said it best to me last night that her tonsils can't come out soon enough!

Anyway, last Friday's therapy update is that I ordered and received the Sennheiser headphones so Gwyneth was able to start the Therapeutic Listening program.  Her Occupational Therapist Kacie got the headphones and tiny disc player all set up for us.  Here are the basics of our new OT endeavor:

• the specially designed headphones are "open-air" so Gwyn hears the disc, but can also hear sounds/talking around her
• the discs play music that has been altered by computers in order to help the brain and nervous system "respond" with the goal of improving skills in many areas (from posture to attention to communication and more)  More specific details can be read here: Vital Links
• she cannot have any electronic toys, TV, radio, etc going on at the same time because it would interfere with what she hears on the disc
• she listens to the disc for 30 min at a time, twice per day, preferably while doing an OT activity and not within 3 hours of bedtime (also, not while riding in the car)
• some of the activities we've done so far are self-feeding during breakfast, wooden puzzles, coloring with crayons, putting foam shapes onto wooden pegs, etc.
• it will be hard work for her since it is affecting her nervous system and trying to improve many things throughout her body - it could even regulate her digestion
• we will exchange our disc at the Farm every two weeks for the next level disc (the discs getting progressively more challenging)

I've been impressed with her tolerance of it so far, although she does a lot better if she's getting one-on-one attention from me at the time.  I tried wearing my large (non-earbud) headphones at the same time once and she was happy to see them on me.  She didn't try to pull her headphones off every few minutes like other times.  So I will wear my headphones when I can to show her my support. :)

I'm excited about this new program, but I realized that with going to full day preschool Monday to Thursday, we will only be able to do the 30 minute session once in the afternoon.  The bus picks her up at 6:45 am and brings her home now at 2:45 pm.  I plan to try the headphones right after she gets home, and hope it won't be too tiring for her.