Tuesday was this sweet, hilarious little monkey’s 4th birthday.  She had a fun day at co-op, hanging out with grandmom, and then being sung to around a lovely cake (made by her biggest sister) at small group.  Happy birthday, sweet Coraline!

We had already celebrated her birthday big-style on Sunday, along with a few sisters whose birthdays were never given proper fanfare over the summer due to our slightly crazy camping regime!

It’s been a busy few days of happy celebrations, but in the midst of all that, something else quietly began this week.  On Tuesday, Delia and I left co-op early with Trevor to go for a long-awaited appointment with a neurodevelopmental practitioner to begin a new therapy program that we are all very excited about.

Over a year ago, a good friend began sharing the success her daughter was having using a therapy called neurological reorganization.  This method uses a series of exercises, which mimic those that encourage infant brain development, to create new neural pathways for improved processing in the brain. I was immediately interested in looking into it for Delia, but at that time, she was still so hopelessly uncooperative.  We had already been advised by her physical therapist to give therapy a break for a little while.  “Life is therapy for her,” she told us.  “Go to the playground. Just get her out doing normal kid stuff with her siblings.” And we took her at her word to the tune of taking a full year’s break from therapy of any kind.

To be honest, we hadn’t really meant to take such a long break, but each time we met with a new therapist, they seemed so puzzled by Delia, and so uncertain of what to try with her.  We really did feel she was benefiting more just from being at home in our family and getting comfortable.  She just needed to feel safe first.

In that year we have seen her relax.  We have seen so many of her negative behaviors just slip away.  We have seen her begin to blossom and show her personality.  I have seen her really begin to trust me (and maybe even like me a little bit!), but we really haven’t seen much new progress in her communication or other developmental areas.

Meanwhile, a second good friend began using a therapy very similar to neurological reorganization, called the NeuroDeveopmental (ND) Approach (click the link to read more about this approach) with her daughter.  Again the results were quick and impressive.  It was as though her daughter’s mind just began to wake up.  We once again immediately thought how perfect this approach sounded for Delia.  And this time, we felt ready to jump in with both feet.

At her evaluation on Tuesday, I was expressing to Linda Kane, the ND practitioner, what a great relief it was to finally talk with someone who had met other children like Delia and had been able to help them make great strides.  I told her how frustrated I had been when, despite Delia’s willingness to sign and attempt words, her speech therapist had wanted to focus solely on teaching her the PECS (picture exchange communication system) method of communicating.  Linda replied confidently and without hesitation, “Oh, no! I think she’s going to talk!”  I wanted to lean right over the table and kiss her.  She is the first professional ever to say that about our amazing girl, and I believe her!

We have now had two days of finding our feet with Delia’s new program, a rigorous collection primarily of sensory input exercises that will probably take us over a hour to complete each day. So far she has been extremely cooperative and even asking for more! Time will tell how far she will go with this, but I wanted to be sure to chronicle our journey here right from the start, wherever it takes us.  The kids are convinced she is different already.

Here she is doing neuro to her baby doll this afternoon (which is pretend play, folks.  Pretend play!)