Thu 6-May-10

Simon is continuing to progress.  The highlight of this week was that Simon and I were “okayed” to go walking – inside or outside – with no assistance other than me holding onto the back of his safety belt (no walker, no cane).  He does pretty well, although sometimes he forgets that he can’t afford to move quite as quickly as he would have, before the accident - one time he instinctively reached to turn on a lamp and nearly fell over!

Today, Simon's occupational therapist had him bake some brownies (it was probably the first time in his life he’d ever made something from a commercial mix!!).  It was a good exercise in reading directions, planning, being on his feet, moving around to find things, etc.

I always thought "speech therapy" was about talking, but we're learning that it's also about improving memory, flexibility of thinking, reaction time, processing information, solving problems, even some math!!!  Some of the questions and puzzles that Simon has to do are pretty challenging:  looking at a picture, putting it aside, and then answering questions about the details of the picture; rapid-fire number problems on the computer; filling in missing letters in a list of partial words; etc.

As a "homework" assignment,  Simon and I watched 2 videos on traumatic brain injuries.  A comment in one video that impressed me was from a lawyer who had had a TBI, but recovered apparently well.  He said he’d written a book since his injury, but even so, when he tries to cross a busy intersection as a pedestrian, he finds it overwhelmingly confusing!  It just illustrates how someone with great intelligence can still have trouble with everyday tasks after a TBI.

Thanks to everyone who has emailed regarding visiting - it is helping us keep to a manageable schedule!

Ann