Reaching Alison’s Goal: One Step at a Time
Alison Maer from Lambertville, N.J., is a two year old bundle of joy who cheerfully waves to everyone she sees. Her excitement and contagious smile always seems to brighten the day of the doctors and therapists of Children’s Specialized Hospital’s Hamilton facility, where she attends “play time,” as Alison likes to call it.
Alison’s parents, Kelly and Bill Maer, first noticed something wasn’t right when enrolling Alison into daycare at a year old. After observing the other children, Kelly noticed that Alison’s 12 month old peers were crawling while Alison was only rolling. She only seemed a few months behind the others, but her parents were curious about getting Alison evaluated.
Alison visited her pediatrician, who didn’t see this delay as a problem and dismissed her parent’s concerns. Since she was born a preemie at 32 weeks, her delays seemed typical to her doctor, who assured her parents Alison would eventually grow out of it. Kelly and Bill weren’t satisfied with the pediatrician’s response and knew they had to do whatever they needed to fight for Alison and be her advocate throughout this process. After pushing for a diagnosis and failing to get answers, they decided to switch pediatricians and get her screened at a local evaluation center.
The evaluation center performed a few tests and concluded that Alison had a delay but could not determine a diagnosis. She was then encouraged to begin physical and speech therapy once a week. Alison started therapy through this center until she discontinued in favor bringing Allison to Children’s Specialized Hospital of a more complete, comprehensive evaluation, system of doctors and aggressive therapy.
In the spring of 2013 Alison saw multiple doctors and specialists in order to determine a diagnosis, treatment and plan of action. She found her answers at Children's Specialized Hospital, where Alison began to see dramatic improvement.
After evaluating Alison’s condition, doctors at Children's Specialized Hospital in Hamilton diagnosed her with hypotonia, which is the state of reduced muscle tone and tension, resulting in lessened ability to generate force from muscle contractions. Hypotonia is the most common muscular abnormality seen in newborns with neurological disorders. This diagnosis prevents Alison from walking on her own, but doesn’t stop her from being the energetic toddler she is.
Alison’s doctors and therapists at Children's Specialized Hospital recommended the use of orthotic braces for her feet and legs and a SPIO™ vest to strengthen her core. Stabilizing Pressure Input Orthosis (SPIO™) assists Alison with stability, posture, balance, and movement control through deep pressure.
"Because of the efforts of the dedicated staff of professionals at Children's Specialized Hospital, Alison's progress in a short amount of time has been significant and quite noticeable,” said Kelly Maer. “During Alison's first physical therapy session with the orthotics and vest, she stood right up, held onto a push toy and walked across the therapy room with her therapist. It brought tears to my eyes."
Alison is showing continued improvements by attending therapy four days a week including two days of physical therapy, one day of occupational therapy and one day of speech therapy. Her sessions include activities to provide some background core strength and stability through her hips and shoulders. She is progressing to activities involving transitions on the floor, into and out of standing and squatting, and even independent stance and walking. All of Alison’s activities incorporate age appropriate play to keep it fun. Alison sees therapy as nothing more than play time.
“Alison and her family are every therapist's dream. Alison has always been such a sweetheart and receptive to anything imposed upon her,” said Sandra Nussenfeld, physical therapist at Children's Specialized Hospital, “While she lets you know when she has had enough, if you read her cues and change things up, she keeps on working.”
Alison has made tremendous progress over the past few short months. She initially demonstrated decreased control in sitting and supported standing, with pushing herself around on her stomach as her only means of movement. Now she is excited to cruise around with one hand, walking with push toys or holding someone’s hand. Alison is even beginning to take a few independent steps.
This exciting progress is motivation for Alison’s parents to keep working with her to improve every day. They continue therapy with Alison at home by walking with push toys, helping her climb up and down stairs and walking with her around the house.
“Alison responds so well to therapeutic handling. Her parents are so eager to learn and to follow through with everything asked of them that working with this family is a true collaborative effort and is the reason she has made so much progress,” said Nussenfeld, “It is a true pleasure to work with Alison and her parents and to be a part of her continued development.”
Finally, after months of working closely with her therapists, and with the help of her SPIO™ vest and orthotics, Alison has reached her goal. She is now taking multiple independent steps, which is what she has been working toward since day one. Kelly and Bill Maer are extremely excited to finally reach this milestone in their daughter’s life.