Child with Cerebral Palsy Takes First Step Toward Walking in Therapy

On Halloween, Kiley Griggs, a 3-year-old who has cerebral palsy, started her first day of Therasuit intensive therapy.

It was a day members of the Griggs family had been “hoping and praying for,” according to a post on Facebook.  

Lori and Jason "Jay" Griggs’ dream is for their daughter Kiley to walk. 

They entered the dream into the UPromise Dream Wall Sweepstakes

The dream The Griggs are investing the contest money in TheraSuit, a therapy for children with cerebral palsy and other neurological disorders, at Lampert’s Therapy Group in Largo.

The Griggs live in a subdivision just outside New Port Richey. Lori is a teacher at Rushe Middle School in Land O' Lakes. Jay is a firefighter for the city of Dunedin. The couple entered the contest because their insurance does not cover intensive therapy. Kiley had already been enrolled in other therapies.

Kiley is now in a 15-day regimen at Lampert's. TheraSuit teaches children with neurological disorders correct methods of movement. According to the Lampert's website, it retrains the nervous system, normalizes muscle tone, corrects gait and improves balance, strength and bone density.

As part of TheraSuit, patients perform physical therapy in an outfit equipped with elastic cords meant to provide support and mimic muscle movement. A component has the patient lying down in a “Universal Exercise Unit,” a cage-like structure, and exercising using a system of pulleys, straps and splints attached to the structure.

The exercise unit can also be used for a “Spider Cage” therapy, in which a web of bungee cords attached to the patient's suit and the cage suspends them upright.

Will Kiley be able to walk after the therapy? The Griggs have said that they only know what they've been told.

Therapy will push her progress forward, they have said. There’s a plateau that patients with cerebral palsy face, and Kiley, hasn’t reached it. Now's the time to make progress.

They want Kiley to be independent, they have said. Even the ability to sit up and grab a walker would be wonderful.

BayNews 9 took video of Kiley’s first day of session  and aired it the next day. You can also keep updated on how Kiley’s doing on the Kiley’s Progress Facebook page.

The morning of Kiley's second day of session, a post on the Facebook wall read:

The first words out of Kiley this morning as I walked into her bedroom, "I'm ready to go play with Miss. Carrie. I wanna do it again." We are so blessed that she is loving this HARD WORK! Kiley did 36 sit ups yesterday morning! I wouldn't want to get out of bed after that.