Crossway's founder opened the organization in 2004 to bring constraint-induced movement therapy to children who'd had strokes, adapting adult research for kids. The multidisciplinary team uses occupational, physical, speech, and feeding therapy to help families and build hope, with the goal to eventually work themselves out of a job.
I opened Crossway in October of 2004. I knew I wanted to have a school one day, and I definitely started to focus more on constraint-induced movement therapy for children with stroke, which was very hard for that transition because it was unheard of. So I had to look at adult research to see how I could modify that. for children with stroke. So in addition to occupational therapy, we have physical therapy, which uses the medium of balance and gait, postural stability, to address development and goals. And then speech therapy, which is more than just language itself, it's also pragmatics. And then feeding therapy, which is also implemented by OT and speech. Our job is to work ourselves out of a job, and preferably sooner than later. They need to feel the love, the support, and the nurture, and what they're doing is hard. From a spiritual standpoint, it is what feeds me. It's what feeds my soul. If you're a parent that you have an inkling or an instinct that something is amok, then it probably is. And so follow your instincts, follow up on it. I would not ignore your instinct. There is always hope, and, you know, I actually think that's what our mission is, is hope. I think we are the tangible hope.
