Bounce therapy

Ellie is still working with Help Me Grow.  They come out twice a month and we work on different strategies to help get Ellie chatting.  They've given me a few helpful tips, but our last visit was the best by far.  Our speech therapist was discussing Ellie with an occupational therapist who suggested movement.  I can't remember all the technical stuff, but basically bouncing and swaying are two movements that help stimulate the brain.  The side effects are enhanced facial expressions and speech.  We started with bouncing Ellie on my lap.  We would bounce through a short song then give her a few seconds to recover and repeat for about five minutes.  Ellie exploded after that. She was initiating 2 word phrases, answering questions and following commands.  She was happy and patient and for a few minutes I forgot she had any delays.  We also put Ellie on a blanket and swung her side to side. She didn't seem quite as sure about that one, but the results were the same.  We took turns swinging Ellie and her baby doll. She told us whose turn it was, she said ready, set, go.  She told us to go up or down, when to stop and when she wanted more.  It was awesome.  We're going to keep this going for the next two weeks to see if it continues to work. I guess they have a few more tricks to try, but they are a bit more intense so we wont go there until we know this is working.