Our daughter Amy, who has cerebral palsy, got a feeding tube when she was 18 months old. We worked with traditional therapists to try to get her to eat. If she ate a tablespoon full of food, we were doing well.
When Amy was 10, I decided to check out The Movement Centre. I remember watching one client that we knew from the community. We would see her a few times during the year, always in her wheelchair. At the centre, she was sitting by herself on a ladder back chair. She was moving herself around the floor. She was laughing and interacting with the other kids and I didn’t realize that she was capable of doing any of these things because I always saw her in her chair. Everyone there looked liked they were working so hard and having such a great time.
I signed my daughter up that day for an assessment.
I’m sure The Movement Centre had Amy eating a fair bit the very first day she was there. Eating and drinking became part of her program and she went on to win an eating contest during a summer camp! She even beat out all of the boys in eating “the grossest things” during “Survivor” camp.
On July 14th, 2008, The Movement Centre helped Amy take her feeding tube out for the final time and toss it into the trash! She was surrounded by staff and friends cheering her on and then everyone “high fived” her.
I had heard of other people being able to get rid of the tube, but I never thought we would get there after having had it for 14 years!
Amy attends the Centre on Friday afternoons and all day Saturday. If she could go everyday, she would be there. She has accomplished so much more at The Movement Centre then with any other therapy or intervention. She is exhausted at the end of her Saturday session, but she loves it and is very proud of what she has achieved with the staff’s help and her peers’ encouragement.
– Charlene Hampton
