Soccer and Alphie

Sophie received a soccer ball from Santa this year that is pretty awesome.  It talks and sings and is very responsive to the slightest movements.  That Santa sure does know how to pick them.  Sophie is loving playing soccer by kicking the ball off her foot rest and she has a grand time throwing me the ball by rolling it off of her lap.  She loves the interaction of the back and forth and you can tell she is very proud of her ability to move the ball herself.  Her gross motor skills are improving in leaps and bounds.

Sophie is getting a lot of therapy this year and I think it is really paying off.  She has joined a physical literacy program for children with epilepsy/neurological conditions and she is loving it.  Each Saturday she joins a volunteer for three hours along with other children and they have fun being active.  It is a government initiative with the epilepsy support centre and it has been great so far.

We are also lucky enough to have a recreation therapist coming to her school regularly to help improve the inclusion element of Sophie in gym class.  Sophie's EA has taken on the suggestions with much enthusiasm, unfortunately the teacher still doesn't include Sophie in gym class and to this point hasn't really shown any interest in learning ways that Sophie can be included in her class in the future.  Thankfully we have an amazing rec therapist that can teach Sophie's EA so it is the teachers' loss.  Right now they are trying to create an adapted badminton racket.  Awe.Some.

Sophie's fine motor skills are also forever changing and improving.  This is an Alphie robot toy my mom got her for Christmas 2012 and Sophie was not interested and didn't have the dexterity to do anything with it.  Just a year and a bit later and Sophie is fascinated by it and is trying very hard to push the small, fairly difficult buttons all by herself.  I always try to rotate around her toys so that she doesn't get bored and I am glad that I never gave up on this one.  It also is great for literacy and numbers depending on the card you choose.