Hi,

Allie is 17 months in a few days and just recently started clapping, but she does it a little different than most of us. She was late in banging two objects together (did this around 13-14 months) as well. At 12 months, she was not even able to hold an object in each hand at the same time. When I gave her one object, and then tried to put another in her other hand, she would immediately drop the first object and use both hands to grasp the second object. This took a lot of work, but she is great at using both hands at once now.

The weird thing with Allie's clapping is that most of the time, she doesn't clap her hands together, but instead, takes the palm of her right hand and smacks it on the top of her left hand (does this make sense?). I wonder if I should be worried about this?

However, I know that this is her showing that she's happy b/c now when she does something like put a shape in the shape sorter, she looks to us for our approval, we clap, and then she does her own version of clapping too.

Most of the time (if not all of the time) Allie's hands are crunched into fists, very tightly might I add. I have mentioned this to her former OT (we recently started with a new one) who didn't think much of it - she likened it to Michael Jordan's sticking his tongue out when he was trying to make a basket and said that Allie was probably just trying to concentrate.

Should I be worried about this at all? I always guessed that Allie didn't clap b/c her hands are always in fists. If I try to clap her hands together for her (which we do often!) she keeps them in fists 99% of the time.

Thanks!

Christyn

Hi Christyn:

I hope you read my thread which explained I was unable to come onto the website for 3 weeks :banghead: . I am terribly sorry I could not reply sooner.

If your sweet baby Allie really has her hands fisted 99% of the time, then yes, that is reason to be concerned. Bilateral increased tone of the upper extremities would hamper a 17 month-old's activities of daily living in addition to her developmental skills. If she had increased finger flexion, how would she pick up food to feed herself independently? Holding and placing objects would be extremely difficult. I would be least concerned about the clapping and more concerned about a therapist performing range of motion to all of her upper extremity joints (fingers, wrists, elbows, and shoulders). More importantly, I would plan a visit to her pediatrician to have Allie's increased tone re-evaluated.

By the way, when Michael Jordan sticks his tongue out when he is flying through the air to lay the ball into the basket, he is "motor planning" and using that tongue as a form of stabilization as he carries out the motor act his brain is telling him to perform. We all do it and do not even realize it. I do it when I'm feeding babies, not to model, but as I am getting the food to their mouth. I also do it when I am sewing. We all have our quirks!

Robynne