Isabella is a beautiful five-year old child who has been coming to the Center since she was six months old. It is very rare to see her without a smile. Isabella came to the McMains Children's Developmental Center because of concerns of developmental delays. Isabella's doctors diagnosed her with schizencephaly, an extremely rare developmental birth defect characterized by abnormal clefts in the brain, and a secondary diagnosis of cerebral palsy. When she first came to the Center, Isabella had major motor delays, had problems swallowing and using her hands to grasp. Isabella receives physical, occupational, and speech and language therapies, through these systematic and intensive therapies, she is able to walk (and sometimes run!) with a gait trainer, button and unbutton shirts, sit up, articulate some words and feed herself. She started school in a regular kindergarten class this fall--amazing!

Isabella is a little prankster at the Center and has been known to sneak up behind people and yell BOO!

Will is a handsome 11-year old boy who has been coming to the Center since he was three years old. Will's exuberant and outgoing personality certainly brightens the Center's hallways. Will has Down Syndrome and he comes to the Center to receive speech and occupational therapies. With the help of his speech therapist, Will has made tremendous improvement in his articulation skills and now has excellent use of language in conversation. In 2009, Will achieved his long-term goals and graduated from occupational therapy. Goals that he achieved include tasks like calendar use, coin identification, and handwriting skills.

Will's parents are very pleased that therapy at the McMains Children's Developmental Center has been fun and engaging even after all these years of service.

When Joseph was three, his mom realized that he was having trouble with his speech. She contacted the McMains Children's Developmental Center where Joseph was evaluated. He began speech/language therapy to address concerns with language and with apraxia, a motor- based speech problem where the brain will substitute a different sound or word than what is needed. Upon first starting speech therapy, Joseph would hang back by his mom not wanting to venture back with the therapist. He would go though, and soon he was heading reluctantly back on his own, but would go literally as quiet as a mouse. Along with his individual speech therapy, he was also paired sometimes with another child. Together the boys would learn and build together on each other's strengths. Often though as children enter school and have new learning tasks to accomplish, it is not unusual for new problems to surface. In Joseph's case, he was now exhibiting some reading concerns at his school. His teacher noted that Joseph was having difficulty with reading comprehension, word recall and recognition, and writing sentences. After the teacher, speech therapist, and mom consulted, Joseph was then scheduled to receive a multidisciplinary evaluation, at McMains Children's Developmental Center which included a psychological evaluation for IQ, educational evaluation for strengths and weaknesses in reading and math, speech and language evaluation for processing information and occupational therapy evaluation for fine motor concerns. At the conclusion of this process, Joseph was able to start educational therapy to assist him with these reading concerns. Joseph is a happy energetic young man who loves playing basketball, soccer, and the piano. He is also the proud new big brother. And by the way, that quiet little mouse now makes his presence known as he goes back to therapy greeting others along the way! Joseph has now entered third grade.