[tri-med] The Little Room

It isn't quite the Little Room - this was "Alex's World" but the idea is
similar in concept. If I had thought of Christmas Lights I would have done
that too :-))
As the following says I am a lazy sod - so this is a cut and paste from the
archives :-)

>>We might think that a baby doesn't do much except eat, cry and poop
nappies
(diapers) but really there is soooo much going on inside their tiny bodies.
The amount of brain growth and connections made in the first 2 years of life
is unparalled with any other stage.

I may be an OT but I am also an inherently lazy sod!!!I knew the importance
of early stimulation but could not bring myself to do everything that I knew
needed to be done. So I cheated and built "Alex's World" :-))

Essentially it was a playpen with one side taken off. I painted it in really
bright primary colours and then hung teddy chains in between the rungs and
also across the top. From the teddy chains I attached all different sorts of
toys but really aimed for toys that moved and made a sound. So windmills,
ribbons, music boxes, toys with flashing lights etc etc. I even had a very
noisy bike horn!!!!

On the floor of the playpen I alternated between a variety of mats. I had
one mat that was filled with water and wobbled, another that if he rolled it
made sounds, another made of egg crate foam etc etc. I put one of those
pillows that plays a tape of womb sounds under his pillow I just changed the
tape to nursery rhymes or stories that I taped for him. I also added lots of
different textures like a satin pillow and sheet some days, other days it
was a fluffy blanket - you get the drift.

The whole point was that in making it I felt like "I" was doing something to
help him but I fulfilled my creative urge :-) and then when I had to put him
down to answer the phone, cook dinner or just simply have a break he had a
world of stimulation that didn't really need me for him to interact.

It didn't take the place of one on one contact and therapy with mum but it
sure helped me survive the stimulation guilts!!!!! And it provided the
"other" pair of hands that a single mum just doesn't have.

I dont know if it really helped Alex, but I like to think it did.
Essentially for the first few years of Alex's life if he wasn't sleeping or
eating he was getting lots of stimulation - just not always directly from
me!!!! For a loooong time he just looked at everything - but even that was
good. Then after a while (months) he started trying to reach for things, it
was great to watch and see. He always loved the rainbows that the hologram
foil created. Even now the world must stop if he sees a rainbow!!!!!

Today driving home from his hearing appointment he suddenly let out this
almighty screech - I didn't know what was happening and did the emergency
stop thing except when I said whats up he said "look mummy a rainbow" Yep an
emergency stop on the highway to look at a rainbow coming through the window
:-))     >>>>>>>>

Love comforteth like sunshine after rain.
-William Shakespeare

Keep Looking for Rainbows!!!
Karen, Mum to Alex (6, T-18 mosaic)
Sydney, Australia
http://members.optushome.com.au/karens
http://www.trisomyonline.org


                  Building ___ooOOoo__ Rainbows
                       www.trisomyonline.org
                  Families Helping Families On-line

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