Cindy LaBar has always wanted to work with children, but she had never spent much time around children with developmental disabilities until interning at the Matheny Medical and Educational Center in 2003, after receiving her MS in physical therapy from Columbia University. Matheny is a special hospital and educational facility in Peapack for children and adults with medically complex developmental disabilities.
"I had not been around this population before," LaBar recalls, "but I quickly realized that it's the small accomplishments that are so rewarding and are so huge for our students and patients." For example, "one of my students had a really hard time holding up his head. By putting him on a therapy ball on his back, he was able to hold his head up for a brief time, and he broke into a big smile."
After her internship, LaBar, a resident of Long Valley, joined the Matheny staff and was named director of physical therapy in 2006. Ironically, her daughter Hanna was born with a rare chromosome anomaly as well as a cleft palate and heart defect. "We knew about the cleft palate and heart defect from the beginning," LaBar says, "but not about the chromosome anomaly." Seven-year-old Hanna is non-verbal and in a wheelchair, although, according to LaBar, "she can take about 20 steps alone." Her experience with Hanna has helped LaBar understand "what the families of our students and patients are faced with. It's a constant job. You constantly have to be an advocate for your child -- the right school, the right therapies. My focus here has shifted a little to really get involved with the families."
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Hanna has also had an impact on LaBar's own family. "If my five-year-old son Jack sees a kid in a wheelchair," she says, "he want to know him."