Welcome to
Reach Therapy Center for Children

His OT helped us understand the reasons behind Vivaan’s tantrums and behavior. She was clearly his advocate and made us realize the challenges he faced with sound sensitivity, touch and gatherings. She gave us a lot of ‘gyan’ on sensory processing. With her advice, we started following a sensory diet and visual schedule. The transitions from one activity to another became manageable. His OT truly got the knack to work with him. Vivaan was resilient towards the OT even though he was pushed out of his comfort zone. The OT usually used an object or theme (e.g. a bus) of Vivaan’s interest to make him participate. At home, we implemented a similar strategy and found success.

The OT eventually moved to a next setup, where she squeezed in one activity which wasn’t related to a bus or number. When the OT set the precedence, we diligently followed through with a variety of activities like puzzles, reading and blocks etc. The OT constantly advised and pushed us on giving Vivaan opportunities to crash and give heavyweight activities. Vivaan had an awesome time in soft play areas that allowed him to zipline and crash in the ball pool. When I share any of his videos, I always get a reply from his OT on how to improvise further. Feedbacks like ‘hold the sitting position during the zipline to build abdominal strength’ was something that would have never clicked with me. This was immensely helpful.

At home, we imbibed our OT learnings in Vivaan’s play with family and friends. For example, the Bedbugs game was an instant hit with Vivaan when his OT introduced it. He liked it so much that we also ordered the same game for home. During play dates, Vivaan would play this game with his friends,converse with them and wait for his turn. When Vivaan learns a skill or game with his OT, the more confident he becomes about it and is eager to apply his new skill. During OT sessions, I get to learn new strategies and come across great toys that help develop skills.

We have kept moving forward with new goals. Vivaan enjoyed writing and he had taught himself to write alphabets and numbers. As a result, his letter formations were inconsistent and ineligible in many places. Vivaan was very rigid about his handwriting and was not receptive to any corrections. He disliked the structure expected in the red-blue line school book and pencil was just hard for him to hold. In school, Vivaan started moving around in class. He tore papers and threw pencils. A child who was passionate and driven about learning to write with markers and crayons at home, had great writing difficulty at school.

Our family was confused and concerned as we never expected Vivaan to have writing challenges. I am extremely thankful to his OT for helping us understand his writing challenges and introducing the handwriting without tears program. The approach of writing using a chalk and dry-wet sponge on an edged blackboard gave a structure to Vivaan’s letter formation. The jingle that guides through the letter formation was a hit. His OT advised us on using a sensory approach with different materials to learn letter formation. At home, we practiced alphabets with Theraputty, foam, pom pom balls, lentils, sticks, stones, sands…just about any material around the house. We continue to work on Vivaan’s writing and the great news is that Vivaan doesn’t get upset at the sight of a red-and-blue line book. Yay!

Recently at school, Vivaan was facing a challenge to participate in gymnastic class. As a result, he would be on a running spree. As his shadow teacher, I had to chase him down the hall to catch him. This episode would end up on a massive tantrum with us returning back to class. It wasn’t fun! His OT explained to me that this behavior stemmed from Vivaan’s inability to understand the expectations from gym class and lack of body awareness. His OT also started working on Vivaan’s body awareness and imitation skills with simple body movements. She advised me on setting prior expectations like 3 exercises for 5 counts. For the first two weeks, we did the same activities as his OT at home and school. In the next two weeks, Vivaan was used to imitate my steps. So, I would imitate the gym instructor and Vivaan would imitate me. Now, Vivaan has started imitating his gym instructor and follows group instructions for 10 minutes. I hope by the end of term, we can sustain 30 minutes of gym class!

We are moving forward with new goals and surpassing our prior milestones. We have uncovered the secret to make things work for Vivaan. We learn strategies from our OT and utilize them in numerous ways and different settings in Vivaan’s daily schedule. The OT is always there to guide us overcome the stumbling blocks, but as parents we have learnt to walk in our child’s shoes. We have got our son back!!! I cannot express my gratitude in mere words and the value that our OT has brought in our life is truly precious. Thinking through our journey has made me realize that ‘Reach Therapy Center for Children’ is not just for children, but for families. I would call it ‘Reach your child, an educational center for parents.’

You guys rock!!!

My son has been coming to Reach Therapy Center once a week for the past 7 years for his OT sessions. Chaula has been working with him through this time. When we started, he had sensory and attention issues as also issues managing time, organizational skills and poor working memory.
Chaula has been working consistently with him and has always discussed and shared strategies with the family. She has actively sought feedback and been extremely proactive. We have noted that our son has made remarkable progress through this time with her. While the improvement has been marked and visible to us, even objective tests that have been conducted periodically show how significant this improvement is.
She has steadfastly addressed issues and found solutions. We were offered alternate solutions if required and she has been constantly motivating us. She has involved the family through interaction at the earlier sessions and frequent dialogue thereafter. Chaula did not just help our son, she has helped the family understand and address the situation. She has helped us from deconstructing a daily task of suggesting effective games to logically taking us through a problem. She has even been a listening board when we needed it! Progress has been slow but steady. Many times we may have reached a plateau or seen the recurrence of an issue but we’ve never seen Chaula disheartened.
This lady is superbly patient, positive and persistent!
I’m so proud to see how my baby has bloomed under Chaula. Other team members have also worked with my son. The team is extremely persistent and very effective. Am very grateful that we found this team. Heartfelt thanks to Chaula and the Reach team and our very best wishes with them always. They truly make a difference in our world.