PT recap: Yoga, Balance, Crutches-"Peg-leg"

Today's session was mainly about balance. WOW I can say E has DEFINITELY improved!

We started off with an "obstacle course", involving stairs, ramps, one big stool, kicking, and then a balance board. E needs help on inclines/declines when trying to walk independently, but has made progress doing these with her loftstrands (not shown).

Here is E trying to kick with the right foot. For her, this is a pretty good attempt. Still working on extension below the knee--there has definitely been some improvement (she's not dragging, for instance).



Balance board action! Today she did pretty well. Note the knees caving in--still, overall, she's standing tall.



Better balance board action! She also take a big step at the end of the video (really trying to use those hip flexors)--note the knee coming AROUND rather than UP. We're trying to have her realize the difference. So far, it hasn't worked.



Next up was the Yoga challenge, where E picked a bunch of poses from different cards. Her shoes were off. Standing poses or poses where her arms needed to be in the air were either done sitting down, or sitting on a balance ball, or standing. She is definitely getting better at extending her arms fully, trying to keep her legs straight when standing, and trying to keep her knees out while bending (not shown).

Next was the Therapy Trail. This is a little trail outside where there are different surfaces to walk on--wood slats, slate, gravel, sand, cobblestone. E used her loftstrands while hunting for little farm animals I "hid" along the trail.



At the end, Emily tried to see if E could walk with only one crutch. We'd never tried that before. E did okay--she wasn't comfortable with it, but tried it for about 10 steps.