Lara walks

Most people do not know that Lara can walk like this. She prefers to use her walker everywhere because then she can go FAST! But here is a comparison.

February 2009



December 2009

In that last video, Gretchen, her physical therapist, didn't want Lara to stop because she was being timed to see how fast she could go on a certain distance...we will use that information to help us analyze Lara's progress later.

Gretchen continues to be amazed at Lara's progress, usually because it doesn't take Lara too long to figure out a thing. She is riding a bike beautifully now, and has been for a few months, although we had to keep her feet velcroed to the petals. We have recently begun not velcroing, and it's not a smooth ride yet, but she can do it. We are currently working on walking backward, an excellent exercise for mobility and function, as well as balancing on one foot, to improve overall balance.
We also encourage Lara to take bigger steps when walking. I put down 4 strips of painter's tape about a foot apart on my kitchen floor and encourage Lara to walk over the strips without touching them. The nice thing about that is that I can simply tell Lara to go "do your lines," and I can supervise while doing other work around the kitchen or holding the baby. It's been very difficult to really focus on Lara's exercises when I have so many other things going on. But she still continues to do really well.