Kylah: Learning New Skills, Building Strength, and Sharing Smiles

Every parent has dreams about their child’s future even before birth – activities they might participate in, the career they may choose, and more. These moments were no different for first-time parents, Skyler and Chelsea, as they joyfully anticipated the arrival of their daughter, Kylah, in 2021. While the journey to fulfilling those dreams looks different than planned, they believe their happy girl will be as independent as she can be when she grows up.

After complications at birth, Kylah was diagnosed with spastic cerebral palsy, sensorineural hearing loss with a history of neonatal seizures, and Hypoxic-Ischemic encephalopathy (HIE). Beginning late last year and early this year, she started receiving play-based occupational, physical, and speech therapy with an interdisciplinary team of pediatric therapists at Capper Foundation. Together, they developed and are progressively implementing an individualized plan of care that focuses on increasing her communication skills, mobility, motor skills, and strength.

Over the past seven months, Kylah has made tremendous improvement toward the goals that her therapists have set for her notably using her left arm more independently as well as in conjunction with her right arm to complete tasks and utilizing multimodal forms of communication. She is also walking with a gait trainer and can now bear more weight through her legs requiring less support from a harness to hold her up. With the continuation of therapy and reinforcement at home, Kylah is on the path to achieving greater independence.

“Kylah is such a blessing. She has made huge strides that in these earliest years of her life we never thought we would see. Her endurance to keep going and push to do things on her own is so encouraging. While it can be extremely difficult to have a child with special needs, it just makes meeting those milestones so much more gratifying,” shared Chelsea.

With your support of Capper Foundation, more children like Kylah will experience lifechanging milestones that will lead them to advancing their hopes and dreams.

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