Constraint therapy and maybe a splint or Mommy the physical therapist

Hey y'all! As you know, Isaiah has started outpatient PT not too long ago and it's been going pretty well so far. Mainly because we work with him daily. Isaiah worked really hard at PT today, he was exhausted after 40 minutes. Although he doesn't give Nancy the stink-eye anymore he still remains pretty serious. Every now and then he'll look at me like he's asking:"Mom, what does she want from me?". So for now we're switching from weekly PT to every 2 weeks so we won't have to take him out of his comfort zone as much. That of course means I'm going to be his physical therapist for the most part. Hmmm, maybe I should add that to my resume.... While we are very confident that eventually it will barely be noticeable that his right hand is affected we are considering different approaches to help him accomplish this goal. One thing that we're going to start tomorrow is called constraint therapy. Usually, the patient will have to wear a cast for several weeks or months such as this one to immobilize the good arm and thus forcing the patient to use the weak arm:

But since Isaiah's brain is still forming the paths for both sides Nancy suggested a less permanent way. We'll constrain his good arm for an hour every day using a sock or by pinning the sleeve to his shirt, while we are working with him on using his right hand. It sounds kind of mean and he probably won't like it too much but it'll help him tremendously. Just for fun, try not to use your good arm and hand for every day tasks. The more you try it the more you'll see not only how difficult it is but what amazing things your brain can master! With time you can train yourself to use both hands almost equally well! It'll give you a good idea of how hard stroke survivors and people who suffered any type of brain damage have to work. Of course for Isaiah that is a bit easier than for an adult since his brain is growing so fast. Another device we're considering for the near future is called a splint. There are many different variations of it but one that is commonly used for infants looks like this:

As I have mentioned in a previous post Isaiah tends to keep his right thumb tucked in and the splint can help correct that by helping the thumb to stay in the right position. That again will help him with picking up small items and grabbing items. By correcting it this early we have great chances that he will be able to use scissors, pens, brushes, etc....with both hands. We are possibly looking at Occupational therapy in the future and there is a possibly that he may need speech therapy, just as there's also a chance for spasticity, but as always, only time will truly tell.... And as always we'll take it day by day as the journey continues. Love, Mimi