Why does Kristina Rock Back and Forth?

I have always just figured she rocked back and forth as a symptom of her "institutional autism." She also twirls small objects or her fingers in front of her face, and taps her hands on different surfaces.

I learned something new today. Kristina was actually sitting down at our chiropractic appointment today, while she waited for Annika to finish her turn. Kristina is usually constantly moving, especially when she's not in her home environment, so this was the first time Dr. Erik (from Higher Health Chiropractic) actually saw her sitting. Of course, Kristina was rocking back and forth, because that's how she usually sits.

Dr. Erik asked if she often rocks, and I told him she does. He told me that people who have problems with the bones in the top of the neck, which Kristina does, often rock back and forth as a way to manually move their cerebrospinal fluid. This produces a calming effect as the cerebrospinal fluid becomes regulated again. With treatment, as that area of her neck normalizes, she could eventually stop rocking.

We are still seeing many developmental changes in Kristina since beginning treatment 6 weeks ago. She has a much longer attention span. She no longer wants me to read her picture books, she now prefers chapter books. She is very much into "The Boxcar Children" series. She has started to follow along with her eyes, while I am reading the text aloud. If I stop reading, she points to the place where I left off. Sometimes she continues reading a few words. She wanted me to read her three chapters last night, and two chapters tonight.

Kristina is taking fewer afternoon naps now, and is less crabby when she doesn't have a nap.

She is understanding math concepts much more than ever before. This week, she solved problems such as _____+4=7 These problems were illustrated with blocks from the Math U See curriculum, but she was able to look at the blocks drawn in the book to solve the problem, and did not need to physically go get her real blocks. She could not do this a month ago. A month ago, if a problem said 1+1=_____, she would need to go get two blocks and see them together in order to know that the answer was 2. She is able to think more abstractly now.

Kristina can easily hop on one foot now. She was hopping all over on one foot and proudly announced, "I am one of the big guys now, because I can do this!"

This past month, Kristina has been unusually helpful. She has been keeping her own room clean. She noticed that the dryer needed emptying, so she found a laundry basket and proceeded to do the job all by herself. She has noticed other ways that people needed help, and helped them. She covered Connelly's cold feet with a blanket. She brought me ice packs when I hurt my back. Kristina brought Annika tissues and a thermometer when she was sick. She also has emptied Annika's part of the dishwasher without anyone asking her to do it, just because Annika was sick.

Fine motor skills continue to improve as Kristina works on learning to write her numbers. Her math book leaves spaces for answers to be written in, and Kristina used to write much bigger numbers than could fit into those spaces. However, she had no problem writing numbers which stayed in the small boxes today.

We are excited to see the progress she is making so quickly.