Some progress with her walking

[Thomcat]

A while ago now physio gave us a walking frame for her. She took to it the same day and although still bum shuffles in the house she uses the frame every day and enjoys it. She tires and can't go for ever and it is obviously hard for her, you can see it, but she's doing so well with it.

Anyway, I've been trying to get her to walk with me, holding just one of my hands. A few weeks ago at the beach in Sherringham I managed to get her to take a few unsteady steps this way, so determined was she to carry a pebble and throw it into the sea. It was such a great moment. At last our first real preview of what it'll be like. The longer the non walking has gone on for the more that nagging feeling that it might never ever happen got worse.

Then this week she walked from the car, through gravel carpark, all the way round the side of the nursery building and into school holding just one of my hands

You can see from the way that she carries her legs it's hard for her but I could feel from how she was holding my hand she wasn't putting all her weight onto me to support her, I was there to balance her, not fully support her.

I know we have a way to go, but that's fine, I just needed to see some progress and I have and it feels great

Her SALT rang me this week to say how much progress she thought she had made in the 6 weeks she hasn't seen her for and was really pleased with her.

I completely agree with jimjams - tbh midday support is absolutely vital for my dd and will be for a good while yet - I don't think she could be manage to carry a tray to her table for instance without it all landing on the floor. And oh, the mess! Her MSA spends about 10 minutes cleaning her up after lunch. (I've suggested hosing her down)
Anyway, I'm sure you'll get it sorted if you breathe down their necks now. It's not a lot of extra money so hopefully you won't meet too much resistance (finger crossed and all that...)

Hiya. Thanks for the posts everyone, esp concerning the 1:1 business. I'll start the ball rolling on getting that sorted tomorrow. I don't know why I didn't think about it before, perhaps because I was heavily pregnant when her statement as reviewed, but no excuse will do really. I thought that if she coped at pre-school from 9.30-3.30, 5 days a week but with only 10 hours 1:1 then this was great. Thank you for helping me see the light on this, a special thanks to jimjams, thank you very much.

Marina - i'm such a soppy mare that that was instant huge lump in the throat stuff. The moment was caught on video camera and I went off to watch it agian after reading your post. So lovely and if possible even more precious.

Another biggie today - the teacher told me that lottie stood, not leaning on a wall, unaided for a short while and lowered herself to he floor, with control. I can't quite believe it tbh, can't imagine it, I need to see it with my own eyes. But WOW!

Dare I really hold out hope that she may actually walk off into school this september? I don't care if she doesn't do it in Sept, but it would be so lovely if she could, so I could stand with the other mums and watch her walk off. Blimey the other mums will wonder why I'm crying so hard if that comes true!

Oh, bless her. What a lovely thread.
Well done, Lottie!xx

you know TC once she realises how much she can do whilst walking - before you know it she will be running from you and sometimes you will want your non walker back.....

Too look at dd1 now - you would not believe she has not been walking for more than a year..... she is now running, stomping, marching - just so much....

There is a huge leap between nursery and shcool TC. it was a shock to me (and ds1 went part time for the majority of reception, mornings in school, afternoons in nursery). A lot fo it is in the willingness of staff, so for example nursery were fine with nappy/toiletting issues, school were not. And so much queuing in mainstream schools! I was stunned. Ds1 couldn;t handle that at all.