Emily's OT evaluation

I just spoke to Dan and thought I do a quick update on Emily's occupational therapy evaluation today. She had her physical therapy and speech therapy evaluations on Monday.

Occupational therapy works on her fine motor skills (holding crayons, stacking blocks, working with scissors, etc.) where physical therapy works on her gross motor skills (walking, running, jumping, balance, pedaling a bike, etc.). She did really well. Dan said that she was amazing and followed directions perfectly!

As I have said in the past, getting Emily to do a simple task, like putting on her clothes in the morning, is like pulling teeth. We find ourselves asking her 10 times to do something and she still doesn't do it. Eventually, we get mad, frustrated and end up just doing it ourselves. We sort of made it a New Year's resolution to not get mad and ultimately yelling, because that was just adding fuel to the fire. It encouraged the power struggle between Emily and us.
Since we have been patient and encouraging towards her, she's been a different child. She's been following directions and even doing things the first time we ask!

Emily is such a sweet little girl. She is always concerned about Louie and what he should or shouldn't be doing, but not in a tattle tail manner. Dan and I are so proud of the progress that she's made at school! She has the most wonderful teachers. I can tell because when I ask what she did at school each day, she always will say, "I played with my friend (insert Lori-her main teacher, Lois - her OT teacher, Anne - her speech teacher, and Carol - her PT teacher). I love (name)."

I am so happy that everything has fallen into place with Emily and that we got her the help that she needed when we did. Her teachers at school are amazing!
We are so proud of Emily!