Thanks! and a question

[OrganicAnn]

Just wanted to say thanks to this board. I've gleaned a lot of good information over the years. I've followed threads, I've used resources suggested, I've done all kinds of things.

 

Anyway my question is this - my DD appears to me to be more dexterous with her legs/feet than with her arms/hands. Has anyone experienced anything like this?

 

Background - she was born with a small skin opening on her back but no spinal involvement (ie spina bifida), normal developement, she tests just barely in the gifted range, she has lots of trouble with fine motor skills - so difficulty writing. She has some minor sensory issues like sensitive to sound which could be related to prenatal skin opening in her back. But no real sensitive to touch, textures etc.

 

I noticed even a baby that she seemed dexterous with her feet (played with those crib toys), but she was a little delayed on clapping.

 

We have a twizzler and other things to build core and upper body strength and muscle tone. She is clumsy with catch balls. She can do pogo sticks and pogo-ball bouncers. So I don't think it is balance thing, but it might be a eye hand thing. We had her to a developmental optemetrist.

 

Anyway I just wonder if anyone else had kids where they seemed more coordinated in one part of their body. (I wonder if I could teach her to write with her feet... just kidding although she does have long toes :lol: )

[Tiramisu]

Anyway my question is this - my DD appears to me to be more dexterous with her legs/feet than with her arms/hands. Has anyone experienced anything like this?

 

Background - she was born with a small skin opening on her back but no spinal involvement (ie spina bifida), normal developement, she tests just barely in the gifted range, she has lots of trouble with fine motor skills - so difficulty writing. She has some minor sensory issues like sensitive to sound which could be related to prenatal skin opening in her back. But no real sensitive to touch, textures etc.

 

I noticed even a baby that she seemed dexterous with her feet (played with those crib toys), but she was a little delayed on clapping.

 

We have a twizzler and other things to build core and upper body strength and muscle tone. She is clumsy with catch balls.

 

Where was the hole in your dd's back? Usually it's down low. My dd had no opening in her back and no other signs like a dimple. We only found out when she was nine and had surgery that her lower vertebrae were not perfectly formed. I think about 5 or 10 percent of the population have this and most of them never know it. It's called spina bifida occulta and usually there is no other "spinal involvement" in that the spine is functionally normal and the spinal cord canal is closed. In my dd's case, a growth spurt and lax ligaments led to a slippage of her vertebrae. Otherwise, besides the SPD which was rather bad, her development was very good.

 

When I talked to orthopedists about how my dd's tactile sensivity improved after surgery to stabilize her spine they seemed to agree that that could have happened below the point of her problem (lower back) but that it wouldn't be responsible for an improvement in handwriting, for example.

 

When dd was in preschool, the teachers always pointed out that dd couldn't use scissors well. I couldn't understand why this was a big deal at the time. Later, she didn't seem to have great pencil control. She has a slightly odd grip but the OT considered it an acceptable variant of normal. Her problem was that her handwriting wasn't great and her hands became tired easily. I think this may have been due in part to the effect on her nervous system of a somewhat instable spine but the doctors may disagree with me on this.

 

Mostly though, I think her hand issues had to do with her lax ligaments, which again I never knew about or realized before the surgery. I think problems with lax ligaments would be more obvious in the hands and arms than in the lower extremities because of what we are required to do with them on a regular basis. This all just makes me wonder if you're dealing with lax ligaments on top of any other weakness.

 

How are your dd's ligaments?

 

:grouphug:

[OrganicAnn]

Thanks for responding. Gosh I don't know how her ligaments are. How can you tell.

 

She does have problems with grip too.

 

Her opening with mid back. A neurosurgeon closed it up the day she was born. They did several x-rays and mri on her brain, so we know that there were no bone mal-formations.

[Tiramisu]

Okay, I don't know if I'm linking this right, but here's a thread that might be helpful. Just ignore the scary stuff and go to Asta's post where she lists some things you can do to test those ligaments. ;)

 

FWIW, I don't know how dd would have fared on these tests. I don't think she's nearly that bendy. We had a PT show us how when dd straightened her arm, they were *slightly* hyperextended. Supposedly, that was enough to show her ligaments were lax.

 

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=220584&highlight=lax+ligaments

 

I just read through that old thread and the last posts made me laugh. Dd just started with a new piano teacher and right away she was corrected for how she holds her fingers.

Edited January 30, 2011 by NJKelli

[Tiramisu]

Her opening with mid back. A neurosurgeon closed it up the day she was born. They did several x-rays and mri on her brain, so we know that there were no bone mal-formations.

 

That must have been one.hard.day. We have to really be thankful for the challenges we have, knowing what it could have been.

[OrganicAnn]

We knew there was something before she was born, so it was the best possible outcome.

 

I tried to see if she had very bendy fingers, but that doesn't seem to be the case.