The Story of Desi: Becoming In-Tuned®
By Julia Grover-Barrey OTR/L
Founder of In-Tuned®
I have never met Desi. I know of Desi through her maternal grandmother. She and I were in the same Feldenkrais Training program many moons ago in Santa Fe, NM. I say this so the reader understands I did no physical work with Desi. Desi’s amazing progress came about, because her family were resourceful, took the initiative to try alternative methods and did the work despite not having any definitive test results nor formal diagnosis. The family continues to provide Desi with every opportunity to learn, explore and move.
Desi’s family believed she wasn’t developing normally when Desi was 12 months old. She had reflux as an infant, requiring special formula, but it wasn’t until she started one sided crab like crawling and gagging on solid foods that they began to be concerned.
On all accounts Desi was appeared physically typical, was a smiling and happy baby always willing to socialize, but bath times and nail cutting were met with serious meltdowns and by the time Desi was 24 to 30 months old any language she had disappeared. Desi started pointing at objects and whining to communicate. The family was confused, “what happened to goo goo gaa gaa?”.
When Desi was 3 years old, she walked unsteadily and could not jump with both feet leaving the ground. She still preferred her one-sided crab crawl, especially up and down stairs, her hand grip was very weak, and she had difficulty using two hands at the midline of her body. Everything was done one-sided. She would gain skills and then lose them. She could not say “mm” so mama and dada were both dada. She was unable to say more than single words and she sounded like she had a foreign accent. According to her grandmother, once Desi started In-Tuned® Sound Project her speech “improved dramatically and quickly.”
At 3 ½ years old Desi started In-Tuned® Moves (Parent Edition) and it was reported she quickly caught up with age appropriate motor skills, to the level of her peers. She was doing so well with her skills Desi was able to enter a traditional preschool program, as opposed to a developmental preschool.
Desi started ballet class and soccer when she was 4 years old. Now 5 years old and in kindergarten (KG) her grandmother says Desi’s KG assessment “went off without a hitch”. The teacher said, “Desi is ready for school.” Desi loves school, although the power flush toilets can be hard on her ears, she is still a picky eater and she attends speech therapy to improve her fluency. The family has hope that Desi will continue to expand into the person she is meant to be, free of labels and free of external factors putting restrictions on her based on what they think she can’t do.
Here are some of the other things Desi’s family did to encourage her developmental progress:
Engaged her in multi-media art projects daily for 15-20 minutes, using paints, Play-Doh, sensory sand and colored pencils.
Imaginary play, especially in the bathtub with fishing rods and boats
Listening to music and making music as much as possible.
Tactile input, such as drumming to a beat on different body parts and use of sensory boxes with different textures in them (beans, noodles)
Use of a bone conduction microphone (Sounsory) to provide a feedback loop so Desi could hear herself talk.
Have a Desi-Inspired Day,
Julia
