PT recap: An Hour Without AFOs

Theresa worked with E sans AFOs today. She did pretty well--better than I would have expected!

The idea behind this approach is to challenge her balance/movement by giving her support further and further away from her core, while allowing E to (hopefully) initiate or complete posturing or movement herself. The goal today was to try to get her to stand up tall, with minimal support (at the ankle). Since she can already keep a standing position (with her AFOs) (for a while, but not indefinitely), Theresa also wanted to see how E reacted to getting from the floor, to a squat, to a standing position. She can do this when wearing her shoes/AFOs (with poor form) occasionally.



E wanted to use a ride-on toy; she's done this before in bare feet, with some success. Still, she is taller now, and with the shoes on the movement is usually labored. This is the best I've seen her do it in shoes!



Overall I am very pleased with this. I'm not a total convert, but I definitely see the benefit in working without AFOs. We'll see how she progresses in a few weeks--with exercise and "sneaker time" at home. We're going to start with 10 minutes a day of work, and then maybe some more of just playtime without the AFOs on. I still want her wearing her AFOs and shoes the majority of the day.