Westin Williams, 2, is getting some help with speech and fine motor skills, thanks to Riley therapists who come to his home.
By Maureen Gilmer, Riley Children’s Health senior writer, mgilmer1@iuhealth.org
The sun has just come up when Sara Massy and Emma Lesage arrive at the Williams home in Mooresville.
The two therapists from the new Riley Children’s Health Early Intervention First Steps program are here to see 2-year-old Westin Williams, son of Tim and Danielle and brother to Waverly.
Like any active toddler, he is ready to play, and the Riley therapists are ready to work as they sit down on the floor to engage Westin in therapy that looks like play.
Since January, they’ve been working with Westin on developmental issues, specifically speech and fine motor skills. He was born four weeks early with a partial chromosome deletion that could affect his development, so the family was matched with First Steps, an early intervention program (ages 0 to 3) for children with delays or disabilities.
Massy, a speech-language pathologist, and Lesage, an occupational therapist, have worked in an outpatient setting before, but both now go to patients’ homes for therapy, seeing about 20 families each week.
For Westin, they frequently do combined appointments, feeding off each other’s interactions to improve a skill – whether that’s engaging him with the names of colors, imitating his delight when he scoops beads up into a toy dump truck or encouraging him as he practices early writing strokes.
"When we started in January, he wasn’t using very many words you could understand,” Massy said. “We’ve been working with him on telling mom what he wants. We made a picture board with his favorite shows and foods to help.”
In the past several weeks, the improvement has been remarkable, she said.
“He says so many things you can understand now, he’s labeling things, tells when he wants to help, asks for help. He has a lot of confidence to use his voice. A lot of times when kids know speech is hard, they are afraid to use their voice.”
But not Westin, she said.
“He is continuing with that confidence and trying to say more things. A lot of kids like him know what they want to say, but the brain is not actively sending that message to the mouth on how to say the word. We use a lot of practice and repetition, visual cues to help him figure out how to use his lips.”
Westin shows off some of his skills as he says “uh-oh,” “mess” and “I help” as he loads and unloads the tiny truck.
He displays his improved fine motor skills by picking up beads with his fingers, pulling apart plastic firefighter hats and bending his wrist to help scoop up toys.
“He loves to help with the laundry and the dishwasher,” Danielle said about her son. “He’s loved the broom since he was little. He has his own little cleaning set.”
Watching Westin play and giggle, she is grateful for the progress he has made in such a short time.
“He’s come a long way in just a few months,” said Danielle, who said she chose Riley as a First Steps provider because the family has had a relationship with the hospital since Westin’s older sister was born.
"He’s a very quick learner, very smart,” said Lesage, as she modeled different wrist motions while playing with the toys he has on hand. “For Westin, he’s so strong that he likes to manhandle things, not really trying to use those little muscles. But if you make it a fun game, he will.”
And it translates into a functional skill, like feeding himself, she said.
Rather than bringing in a bag full of toys and tools to each home, the therapists use toys already there so parents can reinforce the same lessons between visits.
“We’re trying to coach parents on techniques,” Massy said. “At the end of every session, we give them little things to work on.”
Both therapists say connecting with families and patients is much easier in a home setting, which they believe improves progress.
“It’s fun to be able to give parents the tools to be successful in their house and really be able to see that follow-through,” Lesage said. “We’ve been able to work with some amazing families.”
To learn more about this program, email rileyearlyintervention@iuhealth.org or call 317-944-4638.
Photos by Mike Dickbernd, IU Health visual journalist, mdickbernd@iuhealth.org
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