No Limits Academy helps students overcome their di...: No Limits Academy, a faith based school for children with physical disabilites, helps kids prepare to meet and overcome their challenges. By Tim Short, Edited by Craig Bailey. Posted June 19, 2013.
Laura Joslin, with her sons, Matt, 16, and Cheyne, 22, helped establish No Limits Academy, a nonprofit Christian-based school for physically handicapped individuals ages 6 to 21. / Tim Shortt/FLORIDA TODAY
Ability Plus Therapy
4450 W. Eau Gallie Blvd, Suite 180, Melbourne; 321-255-6627 or abilityplustherapy.com
4450 W. Eau Gallie Blvd. Suite 180, Melbourne; 321-255-6645 or nolimitsacademy.com
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Back in her culinary days, former chef Laura Joslin never would have thought it possible that she would eventually develop the recipe for a successful pediatric rehabilitation center in Brevard County, as well as for a school serving students with physical disabilities. Ultimately, it was Joslin’s overwhelming desire to help her own children that provided the main ingredient for the creation of both facilities.
Joslin’s older son, Cheyne, was born with cerebral palsy 22 years ago. Doctors were not optimistic about his chances and predicted he would remain a paraplegic dependent upon his family.
Joslin disagreed, embarking on a search for services to help her son reach his full potential. She tried every type of therapy she could find in Florida, and when she couldn’t find anything that would help, she cast a wider net that included Europe, where she discovered Intensive Suit Therapy, popular for many decades. The program focuses on repetition of movement to train and retrain the brain through the use of the TheraSuit — a breathable, dynamic orthosis Joslin discovered in Poland.
The program is based on the suit therapy used by the Russian space program to counteract the harmful effects of weightlessness, including muscle atrophy, cardiovascular deconditioning and altered integration of sensory and motor responses. The system, which uses pulleys, straps, weights and splints, creates an anti-gravity exercise environment that helps children realign their bodies and thus better connect with their sensory system.
Cheyne so thrived with the program that in 2004 Joslin was encouraged to open Ability Plus Therapy, a unique pediatric rehabilitation center in Melbourne that exists to help youngsters with sensory and neuromuscular disorders to achieve greater independence through intensive therapy programs. While many pediatric clinics focus treatment on functional activity training, Ability Plus emphasizes the importance of strength training as a component in rehabilitation. Cheyne led the way for the clinic, Joslin says.
“Everything I learned, I learned from Cheyne,” Joslin says.
Independent living
These days, Cheyne — the boy who would never walk — lives independently at the campus at Stetson University in DeLand. He is on track to graduate in December with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and plans to continue his studies with the aim of becoming a bioethics professor.
“He gets around with a walker or crutches and is doing fabulous,” Joslin says.
Some years later, Matthew, Joslin’s adopted son, came into her life after a therapist alerted her about a 3-year-old boy with cerebral palsy languishing in the foster care system.
“At that point, he couldn’t hold his head up and hadn’t eaten any solid food,” Joslin says.
“We met him and fell in love with him.”
New school opens
Cheyne had been able to adapt to a traditional school setting, but Matthew did not. His adoptive parents enrolled him in public and private schools, established facilities and start-ups, all to no avail.
Joslin, who had started a therapy center to help Cheyne, now set her sights toward launching a school that could help kids like Matthew. Thus, with the help of Roberta Nevers, who had joined Ability Plus Therapy in 2006, Joslin opened No Limits Academy in 2008. The specialized faith-based school, next to Ability Plus Therapy, serves 24 students, including Matthew, now 16 and fluent in Spanish. The kindergarten- to 12th-grade academy is expected to expand to 34 students by next year.
By offering a flexible, individually tailored, multidisciplinary approach, No Limits helps children with cerebral palsy, autism, spinal cord injuries and other disabilities to gain independence and surmount their physical challenges.
“We’re changing the lives of these kids,” Joslin says.
Ability Plus Therapy
Ability Plus Therapy
4450 W. Eau Gallie Blvd, Suite 180, Melbourne; 321-255-6627 or abilityplustherapy.com
No Limits Academy
No Limits Academy
4450 W. Eau Gallie Blvd. Suite 180, Melbourne; 321-255-6645 or nolimitsacademy.com