Hello everyone.  Friday was the first in a series of 4 evaluations at SDSU.  It all went great.  In the past week Matt has been playing his keyboard.  On a hunch we set it up this past week and Matt put his right hand on the keyboard and started playing.  He does this very purposefully and is very focused on the music.  If he hits a key that doesn’t sound right, he goes back and plays it over and corrects it.  Before Matt’s eval at SDSU they asked us to bring the keyboard so they could observe.  The setting at SDSU is in a lab setting with observation windows, mics and a camera.  Matt did all the tracking and command exercises very well.  Then we set up the keyboard and Lindsey and I stayed in the room to get Matt relaxed and started playing.  Once he started he went on for about 20 - 25 minutes straight and was really getting into it.  The therapist came in and were all excited.  They were the one’s that really saw what he was doing cognitively and were amazed at how he held his hands and was really focused on what he was doing.  They brought in other equipment and did more with him.  This all went on for about 1 1/2 hours and we could all see that Matt was getting worn out.  The instructor and 3 therapist came into the room very excited and were fussing over Matt and how well he did.  They definitely want him to come back and there comments were he’s definitely got it going on and has lots of potential. The music requires a higher level of brain function and processing. They were surprised to learn that since Matt’s accident all he’s had is the 5 months of therapy to this point and hasn’t really had any speech therapy until the recent speech therapy at Sharpe.  Once again they told us they want him back and are going to try and get some equipment for our use at home if they can get it approved.  The next 3 evaluations will be in April and this is all for participation in their summer session there on SDSU campus.  Spencer will be back today after another week off and is also excited about the past weeks developments.

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This past few weeks have been a steady move forward.  This past week it was all summed up by two therapist working with Matt.  First with speech therapy at Sharpe.  The therapist there has now worked with Matt the past couple of weeks and he said that Matt definitely understands what is going on.  This week Lance, the speech therapist had Matt adding up coins and with simple yes or no answers asked if the totaled a dollar or did this make 50 cents.  Matt got it all right.  He is just unable to express what he is thinking like you or I.  That has to be frustrating but he said it is our job to help him and bring it out.  Sharpe continues to give us exercises to keep Matt moving along that path.  Last night Lindsey was over and Lisa and I had just got Matt down off the standing frame, Matt was a little tired, he had been up for about an hour.  I was in my office, Lindsey was sitting with Matt.  Lisa and Joan were in the room with Lindsey.  They said as Matt was watching Lindsey he lunged forward from an reclined position to a fully seated position with both arms out reaching out to Lindsey and stared right at her!  Lindsey, Lisa and Joan were watching in surprise and didn’t know what to do.  Matt just sat there with both arms out, Lindsey said she asked him what?  They got him calmed down and he laid back after a while.  Today Spencer came in for a few hours and when I told him what had happened the past week Spencer went right after Matt with some cognitive tests.  He pulled up a table and got out a deck of cards.  He had Matt pull cards from his hand as he was asked.  Matt pulled out the black jack.  Then an ace. Then Spencer held out two jacks and an ace and asked Matt to pull up the red jack then what two cards that would make 21 or black jack.  Matt first pulled the jack, then went back and pulled the ace.  All this while he was sitting straight up holding his head which is still really hard for him for more than 20 minutes at a time.  This all took Matt a while to do, the whole thing went on for about 45 minutes or so and we could both see he was exhausted.  Spencer said basically the same thing, it’s all there it’s just the expression that Matt needs to work on.   Matt also had an eval with his eye doctor and she is contacting Spencer and wants to speak with Lance the speech therapist so they can all coordinate therapies especially now that Matt can do things and the cognition is one of the main focuses everyone is working on.  This next week Matt will go in for the first in a series of four evaluations at SDSU.  There program should go on through the spring and summer months so that should be exciting.  We will keep you posted.

Thanks 

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