Activities help babies develop motor skills

SEATTLE – Just about the time McKenna Smith reached the age of 6 months, her parents noticed something odd.

Their perky baby could grasp a table and stand, but she couldn’t sit. Whenever she tried to crawl, her belly would brush the floor. She used predominantly her left side.

“She was army-crawling,” recalled her mother, Sonya Smith, who began to worry about tightness in McKenna’s hips, a condition found earlier in the girl’s cousin. But the pediatrician wondered if deeper obstacles were slowing McKenna.

The Smiths brought her to the Kindering Center in Seattle, where she undergoes a weekly dose of playful therapy to develop her right side, and also receives many hugs.

“McKenna is not only seen as an individual, but as family. That’s how I knew we were at the right place,” her mother said.

In early 2014, the nonprofit expanded to a second site 12 miles away and also launched its Kids Clinic for children ages 4 to 11.

The new site is more convenient for Sonya Smith, who moved to the Seattle area when her husband, Daniel Smith, landed a business-development job with Amazon.

McKenna was born last Jan. 8, 2014, in the front seat of a car, just shy of the entrance to a Palo Alto, California, hospital.

She has light-blue eyes, four teeth, a nonstop smile and curiosity about her 4-year-old brother, Connor, who leapt onto the slide and mini-trampoline during a recent Kindering Center trip.

Physical therapist Katie Larson embraced McKenna from behind while the girl clapped toys together, requiring her to exert equal force with her right and left arms.

McKenna sat on the floor with legs extended, forcing her to pull her torso upright using stomach and hip muscles.

A red, wheeled walker was brought to her. As McKenna cruised forward, the therapist grabbed her right shoe and pressed the heel toward the floor – to lengthen her stride through a full range of motion.

After a half-hour, she finally began to whimper as afternoon nap time approached. The session ended with McKenna grabbing a purple Koosh ball from the top of her head, using her right hand. Her mother nudged the rubber toy before McKenna could cram it into her mouth.

All these games the family practices at home, which is usually where Larson visits them.

McKenna’s condition hasn’t yet been diagnosed. That might occur at her one-year checkup.

But her rehabilitation is well under way.

Early-age therapies have become more popular over the years, said Executive Director Mimi Siegel, who has led the organization since 1978.

“One of the things we and more doctors are aware of is the moment to intervene. There’s a change in philosophy. You don’t wait and see,” Siegel said.

In McKenna’s case, it seems clear she “has higher muscle tone on her right side, and her right side has a harder time moving through that tone,” Larson said. She needs therapy to loosen the extremely tight muscles on that side.

If the cause turns out to be neurological, brain science is showing how activity can develop new mind-body pathways, especially before age 3.

“All of our therapies are really through play,” Larson said. They learn best through play, no matter what the child’s problems are.”

McKenna’s brother, Connor, visits the center weekly to work with occupational therapist Brian Lattner in what Connor sees as a “play date,” his mom said. They work on puzzles and games to improve his fine motor skills and channel his high energy.

Kindering Center deals with other situations. The physical-therapy rooms frequently include swings to develop balance and core strength. A feeding-therapy program aids children who have an aversion to eating – some were previously fed through hospital tubes in the nose - by gently training them to touch sticky food, spread peanut butter and eventually swallow a small bite. There are preschool classes mixing special-needs children and those without.

The nonprofit opened in a Bellevue church basement in 1962. It now serves 600 children a month, ages 3 and below. In all, some 3,500 children up to age 11 are reached yearly by a staff of 150, through programs that include parent counseling, in-home education or tutoring, and visits to foster families.

Sonya Smith, now a full-time mom who also has been an adolescent and family counselor, said McKenna can now sit comfortably and grasp toys with both hands. She’s confident her daughter will fully develop her right side.

“That’s the beauty of catching it so young. The connections are still being formed,” McKenna’s mom said. “She’s so inspiring. She’s so strong-willed. She’s sturdy and determined.”