Restraint week, day 1

There really was not much going on for the past few months.... Really busy with visitors and the holidays. Our therapists wanted to give Annabelle a break so we weren't really going there or working specifically with lefty for awhile.

Well bring on the new year and another round of Botox! This time we decided to cast righty arm afterwards to force Annabelle to use lefty. No planned intensive therapy but I took some time off of work (no way was she going to day care without a functioning hand) and did some activities at home that promoted some serious lefty work...

Day 1 and she was already doing well. The cast didn't bother her at all, she thought it was funny and kept telling righty "not today righty, it's a lefty day!" The first day we kept things pretty simple and mostly focused on getting lefty to help during meals. Our pronation/supination was a huge area to work on so eating was good practice. We also made pink cookies for valentines day, she had to grasp the measuring cups and then pour them into the bowl, which worked out great. She didn't think of it much as work as there was chocolate chip cookie dough and cookies when we were all done!


Struggling a bit at first, but much improved just a few bites later!

I LOVE this picture, the rotation of her wrist looks so "normal"!


We also played some games that specifically made her reach out and grab things. She loves the Elefun game, not that she tries to catch the butterflies with her net but she holds the net, laughs at the butterflies flying and then will pick them up in order to do it again... It's a riveting game for mommy and daddy ;-)

We are already seeing progress from lefty arm and she's still in a good mood with regard to the cast. It is really exciting to see. More activities and progress to follow!