Like most children, there’s nothing Maddox Ray loves more than jumping in the pool on a hot summer day.
Unlike most children, he’s taking to the water because his body needs it.
Maddox Ray, 4, is one of eight children currently enrolled in South Florida Baptist Hospital’s Pediatric Aquatic Therapy program. On clear Friday mornings, he spends one half hour strengthening his core and limbs at the Walden Lake Golf and Country Club pool. The exercise, which supplements his regular routines on dry land, has worked wonders: though paralyzed from the knees down, Maddox can still bounce around a room like a ball of energy.
“I’ve seen him get a lot stronger,” his mother, Jessi Ray, said.
According to the staff, it’s like this for all six children.
Two years after South Florida Baptist Hospital physical therapist Carolina Goicoechea became certified in aquatic therapy, the hospital was able to give her what she wanted: a program of her own with which to help children.
Goicoechea began using the pool for physical therapy sessions Friday, May 13, and began with 10 children. The sessions give the children a full-body workout, improving their overall strength and flexibility, which leads to increased mobility on land.
What began as a physical exercise group evolved into one that includes elements of speech therapy.
“So many of our kids, in the water, they become more verbal,” she said. “They’re using more sign language. It opens up a whole new world that we don’t have available to us here in the clinics.”
According to occupational therapist Martha Pagnillo, the prospect of going for a swim gets the kids excited enough to either vocalize or sign the things they want: water, fish, swimming and fun in the sun.
“We have another little girl that wasn’t really speaking much,” Pagnillo said. “She was kind of grunting a lot. By the second session in the water, she was signing, ‘water,’ she was saying, ‘fish.’ Toward the end of her time in the pool, she was saying, ‘more,’ verbalizing more.”
The staff has figured out the pool can help strengthen some face muscles. Kids are invited to blow bubbles in the pool, which strengthens their lips through pursing and has a positive effect on oral motor skills.
Although some families, such as the Rays, have been using the hospital’s physical therapy services for many years — in this case, since Maddox was an infant recovering from a spinal tumor — it appears that the pool program has been just as crucial to development as anything done in the offices.
“It’s like a new environment for him, where he actually can move and doesn’t have to worry about being uncoordinated or not having his balance and falling,” Jessi Ray said.
Contact Justin Kline at jkline@plantcityobserver.com.