Second intensive, complete! ✅ 

We spent the past week in Toronto, back at SMILE, and Caden did absolutely amazing. I was honestly in tears seeing how far he’s come from when we were here in January to now. He was doing exercises we don’t even practice at home (because of DMI therapy), and watching him move through them with such ease and confidence was incredible. I am so, so proud of him every single day. 

This week, we really focused on control and slowing things down. He’s been consistently standing on his own at home, but has struggled to maintain it due to low core strength. It also impacts how many steps he can take before losing his balance. But this week, the slowing down paid off. He took 15 (!!) unassisted steps! 

We also trialed a new program called VitalStim to help with his aspiration on liquids. We weren’t sure how he would tolerate it, since it involves electrodes on the throat to stimulate the swallow. The goal is to “wake up” those muscles so he can safely drink thin liquids. In true Caden fashion, he handled it like a champ…  as long as he had snacks in front of him, he was a happy camper! This is something that takes time to see results, so we’re already looking forward to continuing it in the future. 

We are so proud of him and can’t wait to see how he continues to grow now that we’re home and he can build these skills into his everyday life. 

Thank you again for giving us this opportunity. We are beyond grateful and thank God every day for blessing us with such an incredible community 🫶🏼🩵