Victor's Journey: Olga Ortiz and Play Therapy

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Olga Ortiz and Play Therapy

Little Victor has been blessed to have had wonderful therapists over the last two years and we have been very fortunate that they have been so willing to share their knowledge with us. Heather Vye has taught us so much about the principles of pediatric physical therapy, a fascinating and rewarding field. Beth Fain worked tirelessly with little Victor to improve his oral-motor skills, and Dacia Goldman, his speech therapist, got him started with sign language.
The video in this post shows some new work on play therapy that Olga Ortiz, a wonderful Peruvian therapist, taught us in Cusco Peru. The video has two parts. The first part shows Olga teaching Paul how to use cards and gesturing to increase communication skills. Here Paul and Victor are interacting with each other in a very structured way and Olga is simply guiding Victor through this process. The process consists of little Victor pointing to an animal on a card (or book) and Paul responding by saying the name of the animal. Victor then is guided by Olga to request the sound the animal makes from Paul by touching his mouth. As Olga pointed out, it is important that the helper sits behind the child and does not participate in the interaction. We practiced this many times and at home and with Olga and to our delight little Victor quickly started doing it in his own. The second part shows the same interaction 4 weeks later back in the US. Little Victor points and requests sounds all in his own, including a change of cards! To our delight Victor is extending this skill to pointing at the things he wants at home!! We are thrilled about this latest accomplishment and ask him to point now when he is frustrated or when we don't know what he wants.

A brief note about Olga. Olga Ortiz is a therapist trained in Cuba who started the very successful "Colegio Garabato" that little Victor attended while in Cusco Peru (see previous post). Olga and Colegio Garabato recently received a prestigious award in Latin America for the quality of the service they provide to both typical and special needs children and for their dedication to excellence. Like our other wonderful therapists, we count her among our special friends.

Our Vision

We wish to develop a large community of friends around Victor who:

Allow themselves to be filled with the joy that Victor stirs within people who get to know him for whom he really is: a happy child rejoicing in the smallest things of life, reminding everyone to live for the moment,
Accept the differences brought by people and children with special needs as an integral part of society,
Understand the challenges people and children like Victor face and are willing to be advocates for their needs, and
Want to help make a difference in other people's lives by sponsoring research into rare diseases like Pitt Hopkins syndrome.

Victor's Story

This is Victor, our precious son. Our names are Theresa and Paul. Victor was born in August of 2005. He has a deletion of Chromosome 18q 21.2 – 21.32 / Pitt-Hopkins Syndrome. We also have two wonderful older girls who are typically developing. Our family lives in North Carolina, USA.

Victor is a very happy child, who loves to meet and interact with everyone–a true extrovert. He has dysphagia, which is a swallowing disorder, and has to have his liquids thickened to a honey consistency. Victor has asthma and has been hospitalized many times due to viral respiratory infections. He also has severe food allergies to nuts, dairy, eggs, and kiwi. Victor sometimes holds his breath for a few seconds when he doesn’t seem to be feeling well or is very tired. Victor has developmental disabilities. He rolled over at 9-10 months, sat at 11 months, crawled/bunny hopped at 14 months, stood alone at almost 2 years old, took his first steps at 2, and began walking independently at about 2 1/2 years old. He wears custom orthotic inserts in his shoes to provide proper alignment and added support when walking. He has a little bit of an ataxic gait pattern, and needs help with curbs and stairs.

Victor is very curious, and investigates all things in his environment. His receptive language is much more advanced than his expressive language —he can understand much of what you say to him, but currently is not speaking yet. Pointing has helped Victor tremendously to let us know what he wants and to make choices, and he is beginning to use some signs, putting 2-3 signs together at a time. He also uses a communication app developed by his Daddy for the iPhone/iPad, called Verbal Victor, with much success! We help him learn new things through prompting, repetition, and redirection. Victor loves listening to music, looking at books, playing with tops, watching favorite videos, using the iPad, playing outside, swinging, kicking a soccer ball, going down a slide, pedaling his tricycle and many other things–he enjoys everything that life has to offer! He is a joy and an inspiration to us all!