Giulietta’s First Steps

Like her brother Benji, we recognized that Giulietta had low muscle tone at birth. By three months of age, she was already behind in milestones, she had difficulty simply holding up her head.

We had learned through trial and error of many different physical therapy, that MEDEK physical therapy was the most effective approach for advancing motor skills. So we enrolled Giulietta in MEDEK at just three months old.

The exercises looked unusual to the untrained eye, like hanging her head off the side of a therapy table. The theory behind this technique is that by positioning a baby with low muscle tone partially off the edge of a firm surface, the therapist triggers the baby’s reflexive effort to lift and control their head against gravity. This strengthens neck and trunk muscles through instinctive response rather than passive movement.

That was the theoretical explanation. And it actually worked.

But at the time, implementing these exercises was incredibly difficult. Giulietta struggled, and watching her struggle was hard for us too. Yet by the end of that first session, with the exercise being repeated gently and carefully, Giulietta was able to lift her head. It felt magical. The first glimpse of progress.

We had already seen the remarkable benefits Benji experienced with MEDEK, so we embraced the program fully, despite the trepidation we felt every time we were asked to try an increasingly challenging task that seemed impossible to achieve.

In those early days, Giulietta struggled with every exercise, and we, her parents, required constant reassurance that we weren’t pushing her too hard, that this would work. But we were diligent about practicing at home, and with intense formal sessions several times a week, Giulietta began to gain skills.

We discovered she loved Barney and Elmo. She was willing to attempt just about any exercise, going along with the therapist’s increasingly acrobatic strategies, as long as Elmo was playing on the TV. Giulietta transformed from being the most challenging client to the star of the clinic, navigating whatever tricks the therapist threw her way.

Still, once Giulietta learned to stand independently just as with Benji, it was a long time before she would take independent steps.

A typical scenario when Giulietta was around two and a half to three years old looked like this: we would position her little feet in a wide-based stance in front of the TV, put on a video, and while she stood there transfixed, we would gently move her feet to encourage stepping. We believed that every step she took this way, without hand-holding, was one step closer to becoming an independent walker.

But I started to feel worried and discouraged. She still wasn’t able to take that next obvious step of lifting her leg and actually walking.

In late 2009, Ramón Cuevas, the creator of MEDEK, came to Toronto for an intensive therapy week. At great expense and difficulty, I arranged for Giulietta to be seen by him every single day. The sessions were far from our home, so I sent a nanny back and forth by cab each day for an entire week.

That intensity was exactly what Giulietta needed. She finally began to progress. Around three and a half years old, she started walking independently, with a wide gait, unsteadily, but walking nonetheless.

It didn’t matter what it looked like. She did it.