From
The Paducah Sun. In the picture, Courtney Barnett, assistant from Paducah Hampton Physical Therapy (right) and occupational therapist Lindsey Stamper have Jack Dean, 14, of Brookport, Ill., sit on a balance ball to improve his balance.
Children with neurological disorders may grow up to live independent adult lives, if they play in a sensory room.
“The room motivates kids to participate in activities that slowly expand their capabilities,” said Lindsey Stamper, an occupational therapist with Hampton Physical Therapy in Paducah.
Occupational therapists help people develop the physical ability to work and live independently.
Neurological disorders are sometimes known as autism, Asperger’s Syndrome or cerebral palsy.
In each instance people’s nervous system cannot properly transfer or process information from the five senses: touch, taste, smell, see or hear. They cannot properly react to temperature, pressure or pain. In some cases, people may be unable to properly coordinate their limbs.
A stroke can also cause nerve or brain damage, Stamper said.
The sensory room — which resembles an indoor playground — and Stamper help children modify their nervous and muscular actions after an activity or experience.
For example, Addie Hopper, 7, from Paducah visits the sensory room to overcome eye-tracking problems. She had difficulty reading her teacher’s writing on a blackboard.
Therapists spin Hopper on a platform swing hanging from the ceiling. They stop her, then ask her to look at a pencil. The activity slowly strengthens the nerves and muscles controlling Hopper’s eyes.
“Addie loves spinning, she would spend the entire session spinning if we let her,” Stamper said.
Joy Dean of Brookport, Ill., said the session has helped her son Jack, 14, move toward a normal life. He had a stroke when he was a year old and has had four open-heart surgeries.
“The doctors said he (Jack) would never eat or walk by himself,” Dean said.
Stamper uses a balance ball and the sensory room’s padded floor to improve Jack’s balance. In another therapy room she teaches Jack to spread peanut butter on crackers.
Jack loves video games and popcorn, his mother said. She looks forward to seeing her son play basketball some day.
Laura Anderson, 31, of Metropolis, Ill., brings her son Nate, 6, for walking, balance and handwriting lessons. Orthopedic surgeons in St. Louis operated on Nate and placed lower leg casts on him during the summer.
“Other therapists in a 25-mile radius (of Metropolis) said Nate was physically too small for treatment,” Anderson said.
Nate giggles and laughs while playing with a giant screen TV, a Nintendo Wii video game and balance board to improve his balance.
He also pulls on ropes while sitting on the trapeze swing to improve his coordination and upper body strength.
None of the children were not aware they were in therapy, the mothers said. They were just enjoying a few fun things.
None of western Kentucky’s hospitals said it had a sensory room.
From The Paducah Sun. In the picture, Courtney Barnett, assistant from Paducah Hampton Physical Therapy (right) and occupational therapist Lindsey Stamper have Jack Dean, 14, of Brookport, Ill., sit on a balance ball to improve his balance.
