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Therapist's Mission: Kids In Balance

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By YVETTE C. HAMMETT

yhammett@tampatrib.com

Published: April 1, 2009

GIBSONTON - The near-chaos is almost constant as Jennifer Leigh works for an hour to keep her group focused on the task at hand.

One child pinches his knees over and over as Leigh tells the story of "Freddie's Farm." Another child, who has memorized the book, recites the next page before she reaches it. Youngsters run to the slide when they should be washing their hands after a painting session.

This class takes baby steps. If the youngsters pronounce a letter correctly, respond to a direction or keep focused on a game of dinosaurs, it's a huge accomplishment.

Kids in Balance, a nonprofit therapy center off Gibsonton Road, is a godsend to parents raising children with autism or learning delays. Students come from Ruskin, Valrico, Lithia and Apollo Beach for instruction.

"Jennifer is in my prayers every night," Lulu Hutchinson said on a recent day at the center. Her grandson, Logan Jahn, 6, has been attending classes there since last fall. "Jennifer's wonderful. He's not afraid of people any more, and they say at school he's a lot different."

"Before he came here, he wasn't saying any words," said Logan's big brother, 10-year-old Brayden Jahn. Logan showed his progress by describing the sound a cow makes. "MOOOO!"

Caleb Wallace is 4 but doesn't talk. He says a few words, but no complete sentences. He visits Kids in Balance weekly, on days when he isn't getting speech or occupational therapy elsewhere.

"We want him to be the best he can be," said Caleb's grandmother, Denise Wallace of Riverview. Kids in Balance will help him get there, she said.

Leigh, a speech language pathologist with a private practice, started the nonprofit center after years of hearing from parents on how insurance won't cover programs to help children overcome their learning problems. Youngsters from toddler up to 10 years old visit weekly for group sessions and to learn social skills, language, letters' sounds and expressions.

Grants and minimal weekly fees - $15 per hour per child - keep the program running. A fundraiser dinner and silent auction scheduled for Friday also will help with expenses.

Leigh and three other therapists, who all have private practices in east or south Hillsborough County, run the classes.

On this particular day, the class was Communications Club. The session started out with some fun on the slide, then transferred to another room, where the small group of boys pressed paint sponges against coffee filters to create colorful butterflies.

Back to the other room for a story and some fun playing with dinosaurs. While all this is happening, the children are learning to focus, pronounce words and follow verbal instructions.

"It's about communication, motor skills and sensory integration, which is giving them organized play that can help them with joints and muscles," Leigh explained.

Not all the center's students are considered disabled, but they all have needs that traditional classrooms can't begin to address, Leigh said.

When public school is out for the summer, Kids in Balance offers half-day summer camp sessions for $60 per week.

"We'll have all kinds of stuff going on all the time," Leigh said.

Sessions will run from 9 a.m. to noon and 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. For information, call the center at (813) 677-8450.

FOR INFORMATION

Kids In Balance Inc. is a nonprofit therapy center that provides activities, classes and structured programs developed and run by speech, occupational, and physical therapists.

WEB: www.kidsinbalance.org

The Fundraiser

WHAT: 2nd Annual Dinner & Silent Auction

WHEN: 7 p.m. Friday

WHERE: James McCabe Theater, Valrico

INFORMATION: (813) 677-8450

Reporter Yvette C. Hammett can be reached at (813) 865-1566.

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