I would like to tell you how amazingly life-changing Heads Up and hippo-therapy are. I’m the mom of a brilliant, resilient five year old named Lars. He has Cerebral Palsy. In the newborn intensive care center he was give little chance of ever being able to do anything. He has come so far! I feel like I’m the luckiest girl in the world because I get to live everyday with a miracle. It’s hard to fully express how much I think his hippo-therapy at Heads Up has helped him. We are so lucky to have Heads Up here.
We first came to Heads Up when he was two years old. At that point, he could not sit up at all without support. In fact, when we first put him on a pony, he could not hold himself up. It took two side walkers each with two hands holding him firmly to get around the arena. He also sometimes even wore a special jacket to give him the much needed trunk support. Look at him now! He’s able to hold himself up tall and sometimes gets to ride with only one side walker that barely has to touch him! At home, he can often sit without any support! Not only has the riding helped with his trunk strength, it has also increased his overall body strength. He is able to do many more things with his body.
I believe Heads Up has helped improve his communication as well. When he started riding he was just saying a few words and his language development was well behind his peers. After a few months of riding, his language exploded. He went from saying very little to literally having conversations and talking almost constantly! It was such an amazing transformation. Now he has conversationally and intellectually caught up with his peers. He is among the first in his kindergarten class to accomplish any intellectual task. In fact, after just two months of kindergarten, he is already reading short sentences!
When Lars graduated preschool this spring, they asked him what he’d like to be when he grows up. He said he’d like to be a doctor so he can help people. I was just beaming with pride. Considering how far we’ve come already, I don’t see any reason why he couldn’t be a doctor and help people some day.
Lars singing "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" during hippotherapy.
