There are a couple of things here that are really special. Of course there is the fact that she is moving herself so purposefully through space - something that is totally new for her, but perhaps even more is the ability to hear a sound and recognize which direction she needs to move to reach it.
Think about this: if you had no sense of space because you couldn't see, and if you couldn't walk or move through space, so you had no way to test your sense of what direction sounds were coming from... how would you know where a sound was coming from? In fact, we learn this by hearing a sound and then looking for where it came from - we learn it from sight, and then over time figure out how to judge where sounds come from when we can't see them.
SO this is huge for Noa - you can see that she searches the ground a bit with her hand, not knowing the precise place where the stars are, but she has a great general sense. How did she get this? Is this a sign of the light box therapy working? A sign that our efforts to get her to walk toward things (with our help) is paying off? Perhaps both. Who knows - but it's very exciting and really opens up the world to her in a whole new way and gives her a new sense of control.
You may also notice that she picks up a couple of toys a long the way - she loves she little coin toys, but she hears me clicking her star toys together and her hearing is so keen that she knows which toys I'm clicking together - so she dismisses the coins. She knows that she is going after. In fact the sign she makes after tossing the yellow coin is for "more stars."
Another new thing is singing - okay it sounds like a twisted Gregorian Chant - but it just started in a big way and that's totally new too. Maybe I can get some of that... a lot of new stuff these days. Hard to keep up!!!!
2 comments:
Dear Jeni and Ben, The videos show so much progress and it is a joy to watch them.
I was very impressed with Noa's movement in the tub and how brave she is exploring that in the larger room to find the stars. I suppose the visual information Noa gets doesn't allow for depth perception? So, as she is learning to judge direction of sounds, is she also learning to judge distances?
oh, another thing: how is the chanting/singing thing going? I'm exploring this in my own work. The rich vibrations that can come from the throat and core are at once soothing, but also stimulate brain activity for endorphins, and can also give a mental picture of the body. I think it's amazing that Noa has found it, and will be curious if she keeps it up.
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