Wednesday, May 5, 2010

W sitting and Toe Walking

Will he ever stop doing these things?

I didn't realize that W sitting was really a problem until his OT told us to discourage it on our very first visit. I recently did some online research and it really explained how Brady's constant W sitting was caused by balance problems, and also made his problems worse. I've been scrapbooking pictures from 2008 lately, the year he turned 3, and in every single picture that he was sitting in, he was W sitting. When we first started trying to get him to stop, he really had a hard time sitting any other way. It's funny that a position that I figured was just a preference was actually hurting his development of balance and he was doing it because he wasn't stable enough to sit any other way. But now, over a year after starting to work with him on it, it's still his default sitting position, although he'll go easily to another position when reminded. Will he ever get out of this habit?

Our other issue that hasn't gotten much better is the toe walking. It's almost like he can't think if he's not on his toes. The harder he's trying to get out what he's trying to say, the more he wanders around on his toes. When he should be standing still, he's actually up on his toes kind of teetering around. It's mostly when he's barefoot, so hopefully he doesn't do it too much at school. I'm worried that kids are going to start making fun of him because he's getting a bit big for it.

I just can't help wondering how much longer I'm going to have to constantly be saying things like, "We don't sit like that," "legs", "fix your legs", "watch how you're sitting," and "heels down."

1 comment:

  1. My son still sits in the W position at times, and we have been correcting it for years. At least now it is not his default position and all we have to do is remind him to "fix his legs."

    As for the toe walking, we had the same difficulty. My OT suggested doing activities where he had to use his heels. One that we do is have him sit on a scooter board and he has to scoot himself around the room with his feet. The only way to do that well is to use your heels. It gives him the input to his heels that he needs and according to his OT, it helps train him to not walk on his toes.

    He hasn't really had a problem with toe walking for a while, so I am assuming just the regular OT has helped him a lot.

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