CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) RESOURCE CENTER Read More
Add To Favorites

Carnival celebrates the end of MRI Kids summer camp

Herald & Review - 7/31/2022

Jul. 29—DECATUR — Mabel loves bubbles.

At the MRI Kids carnival on Friday to celebrate the end of summer camp, 3-year-old Mabel sat near the bubble machines with her mom, Lory Cook, for quite a long time.

Mabel has Down syndrome and autism, and can't walk as yet, but she gets where she wants to go by scooting along on her bottom, and Cook said one of the skills she's learned at the camp this summer is to eat solid food. She won't do it at home as yet, but at MRI, she's been eating crackers and snacks by mouth, which makes Cook happy. Mabel gets most of her nutrition through a feeding tube.

"A friend of a friend told me (about the program)," Cook said. "I have been thrilled with it. She gets one-to-one interaction with the staff and she's come so far. She's 3, non-verbal and non-ambulatory at this point, but she has made leaps and bounds with the program."

------

Cook's other child, Chloe, 4, also didn't eat solid food at home until she started school, but the other kids around her made her start doing so. Chloe doesn't attend MRI, but she loves to visit Mabel there.

"She's eating everything under the sun," Cook said. "(Mabel) loves mirrors and I had no idea until (MRI) exposed her to it. Anything that vibrates, she loves, due to her autism, so we got her a vibrating pillow. I didn't know anything about autism. I'm a (registered nurse) and I had no idea, and to be able to ask them, 'What do I do when this happens?' is so helpful."

MRI Kids served children with special needs in a camp that helped them work on whatever skills they needed help with, said lead teacher Taylor Patterson. Older kids worked on social skills, for example, while younger ones ages 2 to 7 spent time in Applied Behavioral Analysis.

With the older ones, they sometimes went on field trips to get practice on learning to control emotions and their responses, how to identify triggers and ask for help, she said.

During the school year, MRI Kids provides speech services, but as the new manager, said Sue Fustin, her task will be to grow the program into a full-time service.

"We're trying to figure out a way we can actually create it so it can dovetail with the same schedule as the schools, so if there are kids at Pershing (Early Learning Center), they can also come here and we can work together in the school system and the county schools," Fustin said.

Her hope is to provide year-round services for kids and parents, too, possibly including support group meetings where parents can get together to share their ideas with each other and talk to others who have kids with special needs.

"(I want to have) a program for the parents, maybe once a month, where they can come here and communicate with one another so they can get resources," she said. "For example, 'Help me with ideas for quick meals,' or 'help me with what you're doing here so I can do the same thing at home.'"

Contact Valerie Wells at (217) 421-7982. Follow her on Twitter: @modgirlreporter

___

(c)2022 the Herald & Review (Decatur, Ill.)

Visit the Herald & Review (Decatur, Ill.) at www.herald-review.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.