There are three areas that Usher Syndrome affects, hearing, vision, and the vestibular system (balance).  Rebecca receives physical therapy weekly as she has severe to profound vestibular loss.  Rebecca is doing great with physical therapy, she has made so much improvement in such a short amount of time.  Her physical therapist, Monique, is just great, and on most days Rebecca is happy to see her, until she makes her work too hard that is (ha! ha!).  Monique tried to hide her face in this picture lol………..

When Rebecca was four months old she still couldn’t hold her head up.  I was still carrying her around like an infant, fully supporting her head.  Soon after physical therapy began, Rebecca could hold her head up, then she began rolling, now she can sit up on her own and play with toys independently, and she is well on her way to crawling.  Rebecca has to work a lot harder than most babies however, it is difficult for her to keep herself balanced, and it shows as I push her in her stroller or in a shopping cart at the store.  Rebecca easily falls from side to side.  I keep pillows close by while playing in case she falls.  Her muscles will hopefully get strong enough to make up for some of this instability, however, she may never walk a balance beam at gymnastics, or we may never take her training wheels off her bike, but that’s ok.  She is going to live an amazing life and she is going to do incredible things, and we are lucky enough to be on this journey with her, cheering her on every step of the way!