3 April 2023

The speech therapists wrote four random words in Hebrew (one being "Judi"). She asked Nathaniel to point to "Judi", which he did successfully. Then, she erased these words and wrote four more related words (one being "mother"). She asked him to point to the word that was related to "Judi". He pointed to "mother". He was able to do this exercise with other lists as well. We saw one of his therapists from Tel Hashomer at a party. He hadn't seen her since November. Still, based on his reaction, he seemed to recognize her, even though it’s been almost half a year since he saw her. He looked surprised and happy to see her. In vision therapy, his reaction time is becoming faster and more accurate, even as the therapist is making the images smaller. He is really advancing. His eyes still do not work in sync, so he must have half of the right lens of his glasses covered. If the lens wouldn't be covered, he would see double. As we don't really know the extent of the damage to his optic nerve, we don't know if double vision will ever be able to be corrected. Still, we will work on improvement. The caregiver wanted Nathaniel to eat another bite. Nathaniel shook his finger, "no" and then pointed to his mouth. It was clear that he didn't want to take another bite because he still had food in his mouth. When his father made kiddush on Friday night, every time there was an "amen" Nathaniel gave a thumbs up. He was following the words and ready for the "amen".

Nathaniel chose red for the color of his wheelchair. There were 8 choices. We divided the colors into groups and then into smaller groups. He seemed to know right away what color he wanted.

Happy Passover!