Fargo, ND 58103 
Mark & Gretchen's Story
The purpose of this letter is to share our familys personal experience with Pediatric Therapy Partners.
Our son was born with what is believed to be an underlying syndrome. He has a mild heart condition, deformed hand, other physical abnormalities, low tone, chronic ear infections, sensitivity to new surroundings,
and developmental delays across the board gross motor, fine motor, mental/cognitive and social. When he was just about a year old, he
underwent genetic testing at our medical clinic and the Mayo Clinic. Neither facility was able to diagnose him with any known syndrome.
So after surgically fixing what could be corrected, we were left with a schedule of needed
therapy 2 sessions/wk of physical therapy,
2 sessions/wk of occupational therapy, 2-3 SEHSC early intervention sessions and Linda from the North Dakota School for the Deaf. We were very disappointed and frustrated to learn
that our current medical network does not offer
in-home therapy for their clients. Considering
our sons sensitivity issues to the "outside world," our work schedule and the shear number of
visits he would require per week taking him
out-of-home for therapy was not an option for us. His speech and hearing issues would also
require the Speech Therapist to know and
utilize sign language (baby signs) as well.
Only wanting the best for our son, we researched therapists extensively. Over and over again our friends, acquaintances and medical providers all seemed to recommend the therapists from Pediatric Therapy Partners. They not only offered all the therapies we needed but by luck they also specialized in pediatrics, offered their services in-home and had a Speech Therapist that taught baby signs as well! We were delighted!
Their team began working with Markie at the beginning of 2005. He is about 14 months old and could not pull himself up to a sitting position, used the pincher grasp to hold objects, held his hands over his ears to block out sound and had no verbal skills what-so-ever. A little over a year later our son is totally different little boy. He went from being significantly delayed to mildly delayed on all fronts. He can now walk, run, climb, draw, play, socialize with other children and hes learning to talk with the help of sign language. His ability to understand us and communicate with us is improving with each day and we couldnt be more thrilled.
Needless to say, we attribute a good portion of Markies success and progress to his experienced and knowledgeable therapist. He adores them! Their therapy is always heartfelt and professional. They push him when they shouldĶ and give him hugs when he asks. And they not only work with our sonĶ but almost more importantly they work with us to help our son. They train us on therapy exercises ("homework") that we can do with him until our next visit and they work with his other caregivers by coming to his IFSP planning sessions and formulating long-term goals for each area of his development.
They provide a TEAM approach to his therapy working with each other and communicating our sons progress effectively and seamlessly. If there is ever an area of concern they all know about it and work it into each others therapy sessions to combat it from different directions. I am also confident that receiving his therapy in his home environment was an important part of his swift progress and the key to combating many of his social sensitivity issues. It kept him in his "safe zone," away from a clinical setting that reminded him of awful medical visits, surgeries and painful shots and tests.
Sincerely yours,
Mark & Gretchen
