FS_042017

10 | April 20, 2017 | The frankfort station news
frankfortstation.com
Foundation funds therapy, support items for children with special needs
Westside selects
seven recipients for
quarterly award
Amanda Stoll, Assistant Editor
All of the pieces have finally
fallen into place for
Westside Children’s Therapy
staff who worked to create
the Westside Foundation.
They created the foundation
with the goal of raising
enough money to provide
much-needed therapy and
support items to families that
didn’t have the funding or
resources to get those things
for their children with special
needs.
Though they were able to
recently give that funding
to seven area families, their
work is not done. The foundation
will continue to raise
funds in hopes of funding
many more families’ needs
in the months and years to
come.
“It’s been a long time
coming, and it feels very rewarding,”
said Amy Erb, an
applied behavior analysis
specialist at Westside Children’s
Therapy’s Joliet clinic.
“To finally be able to feel like
we’re able to make that difference
for them is pretty great.”
Erb, who originally had the
idea to create the foundation
during one of many sleepless
nights thinking about the
families she works with, said
there were a lot of pieces that
had to fall into place before
the group was able to provide
the financial support for those
families.
While the foundation was
launched by people affiliated
with Westside Children’s
Therapy — which provides
physical therapy to children
with special needs — it took
applications from more than
just its own patients. Erb said
they had hoped to get the
word out to the community
and get applications from
many non-Westside families.
She said almost half of the
applications they received
were from people in the community
who don’t currently
attend therapy at Westside.
Because some of the requests
were for less expensive
items, Erb, who is a member
of the board of directors for
the foundation, said they were
able to reach more families
than they’d hoped.
Requests ranged from a
weighted blanket — a small
item with a big impact, she
said — and other sensory
items to more expensive requests
involving therapy or
specialized equipment.
“It was nice to be able to
reach a bigger number of
families than we anticipated
because some were just looking
for those little things,”
Erb said.
One of those requests came
from Akilah Huisar, who requested
funding for her son
Jaleel to attend feeding therapy.
Jaleel, who has autism,
has been attending therapy
at Westside for almost a year,
and has already shown immense
improvement in his
behavior and communication.
Huisar said she struggles
daily with feeding her son,
who will only eat a few, very
specific foods.
Though his therapists
don’t think he’s ready for the
requested feeding therapy
yet, the money will be put
to good use in hopes he’ll
eventually be able to receive
therapy to increase the number
of foods he will eat, as
well as the time he spends at
the table.
Instead, the foundation’s
award will be used to purchase
an augmentative and
alternative communication
(AAC) device. The AAC
device will be used to help
Jaleel communicate with the
people around him.
Huisar said she was very
happy when she found out
Westside Children’s Therapy employee Devin Cassidy
works with Jaleel Huisar, who has autism. The Huisars
were recently given an award to expand their therapy
through the Westside Foundation. Photos submitted
that Jaleel was selected
for one of the foundation’s
awards. They have insurance,
but it doesn’t pay for everything.
With the help of an AAC
device, she said she hopes
that Jaleel will be able to
better communicate some
of his basic needs — things
like when he’s sick, when
he’s hungry, when he’s cold
or when he needs to use the
bathroom.
Huisar said he’s recently
been working with a picture
exchange system (PES) with
his therapists and is even beginning
to initiate communication
on his own.
The PES is a step in his
communication journey,
as she calls it, and is one of
many systems they’ve tried
with Jaleel. The lack of communication
makes school and
home life difficult, but Huisar
said Jaleel is very interested
with technology and is hopeful
that an AAC device will
be just what he needs.
“I’m looking forward to
being able to understand him
as a parent,” she said.
Nicole Roberson, an ABA
specialist at Westside Children’s
Therapy, said she’s
seen a lot of improvement in
Jaleel since she started working
with him last year.
When he began going
there, she said he wasn’t able
to communicate basic things
and didn’t want to comply
with anything the therapists
would ask of him, like sharing
a toy.
Without a way to communicate,
she said those
exchanges often resulted in
aggression and whining and
crying.
“Now, he’s completely
turned around and is able to
hand over an item if we ask
him for it,” Roberson said.
She said she’s also seen
improvements with his verbal
communication skills and his
ability to attend to an activity
for longer periods of time.
“He went from being able
to attend to an activity for
only a few seconds to a minute
or longer depending on
the activity,” Roberson said.
“He can attend to a puzzle or
some type of sorting activity
or the shape sorter for a
lot longer now and actually
complete more things.”
Those things are all part of
Jaleel’s journey to attend the
feeding therapy that would
benefit him and his family on
a daily basis.
“Hopefully he can go
forward with some type of
feeding therapy once we increase
his compliance,” Roberson
said. “That would help
[Akilah Huisar] out because
Westside ABA Therapist Nicole Roberson works with
Daevion Hall. Roberson often sees Jaleel Huisar, as well,
as said he’s improved his communication skills since
beginning therapy.
How to help
The Westside Foundation is continuing to raise money
for the next set of awards, which will be given on June 1.
They are also gearing up for the Illinois Alumni Hockey
Tournament Friday, June 23 through Sunday, June 25
when hundreds of hockey players who have signed
up will help raise money for the foundation. Erb said
with the number of people who have signed up for the
tournament, the foundation raised their fundraising
goal to $50,000.
To learn more about the Westside Foundation, visit
www.westsidegivesback.org.
I know she goes through a
lot because he will only eat a
few things.
“Hopefully we can expand
his repertoire with food and
just general compliance, and
we would like to work on
him being able to eventually,
long-term engage with kids
and play alongside of other
kids without taking toys or
engaging in behaviors.”
Although she’s been working
in the ABA field for more
than six years, Roberson
said the last year she’s spent
working at Westside has been
a wonderful experience because
of the people she works
with and their dedication to
the children they work with.
“I love [working at Westside].
It’s amazing,” Roberson
said. “They’re really
invested in the kids, and it
really is all about the kids
and making a difference with
them and what’s best for
them. That’s my favorite part
of working here.”
She said the collaboration
between teams at Westside
contributes to the consistent
treatment that children like
Jaleel receive when they attend
multiple types of therapy.
For Roberson, that hard
work is accompanied by a
heartfelt love for her work.
“I really fell in love with
the way ABA works and how
we can change behaviors for
the better and increase more
positive behaviors, [while]
decreasing those inappropriate
behaviors,” she said. “I
just really saw the difference
that it made with a lot of kids.
“I think to be really successful
in ABA and to really
change things and make a
difference, your heart does
have to be all in.”