Kindering helps children with special needs — and their parents — live better lives

Read how a US neurodevelopmental center helps a child with special needs and his family by providing occupational therapy (See full article)

Hyperlink: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/education/kindering-helps-children-with-special-needs-and-their-parents-live-better-lives/

The first time Kindering called to ask how they could help her newborn son Jakub, Cydney Knapp was still processing.

“My son doesn’t have special needs,” she remembered telling the caller before hanging up. Jakub, nicknamed Kuba, had just been diagnosed with a condition so rare doctors didn’t have a name for it, only a string of numbers and letters that pointed to where one of his genes duplicated. Workers in the newborn intensive care unit, where Kuba stayed for two weeks, notified Kindering, an organization that specializes in early care for children with disabilities, about the child.

He will write his own story, the doctors told Knapp, giving her no indication of what to expect. The symptoms became clearer as Kuba grew: airway problems and difficulty feeding after birth, weak muscle tone, seizures and severe cognitive delay.

Knapp had serious doubts about how an infant could benefit from therapy. But by the time Kuba was 3 months old, a feeding specialist at the hospital persuaded Knapp to give Kindering a shot.

She now credits the organization, and in particular, the patient work of his therapists, as a big reason behind why the jubilant 8-year-old can walk.