By June Cheong

Four-year-old Jake Knight can now sit up by himself - for just over three minutes.

Three weeks ago, the little tyke could barely manage five seconds.

Jake has global developmental delay, which means he is delayed in two or more important areas of development like motor skills, speech and language and the ability to reason.

His mother, Mrs Judith Knight, 36, who has two other children - Jasmine, 12, and Tommie, one - and is married to a New Zealander, said: "We realised something was wrong when he was five months old as he had a lot of feeding and sleeping problems. He wasn't achieving any of his milestones."

The first doctor she consulted found nothing amiss. Jake's physical growth seemed to be on track.

A paediatrician she took her son to for a second opinion found that Jake had congenital cataracts - clouding of the lenses of the eyes that is present at birth - and he was diagnosed with global developmental delay.

Jake underwent surgery here in August and lenses were implanted in his eyes to correct his vision.

Last May, Mrs Knight took Jake to The Institutes For The Achievement Of Human Potential in Philadelphia in the United States, a centre which aims to raise significantly the intellectual, physical and social abilities of children.

There, medical professionals assessed Jake and put together a therapy programme for Mrs Knight to use with him at home in Singapore.

While the programme helped Jake with his health, vision and intelligence, his motor skills remained undeveloped.

Mrs Knight said: "Before the programme, Jake was on anti-convulsants, medication for digestive disorders and sedatives.

"The programme helped to wean him off medication and taught our family things like how to communicate with him."

However, as Jake was still largely immobile, Mrs Knight sought other treatment programmes to help him develop his motor skills.

In March, she took him to China for stem cell injections. Later, she learnt about suit therapy and - with Jake in tow - attended a forum on it in Kuala Lumpur held by American occupational therapist Patricia Gonzalez.

Mrs Knight said: "I was so surprised when Patricia looked at Jake and said he was an easy case."

After 10 days of suit therapy with Ms Gonzalez, Jake went from flopping about on his back or belly to pushing himself up to a sitting position.

The suit Jake used, called NeuroSuit, helps patients with conditions like cerebral palsy, traumatic brain injury, Parkinson's disease and stroke.

Ms Gonzalez, who developed the NeuroSuit, said: "The bungee cords and clips on the suit pull a patient into correct alignment.

"The suit retrains his muscles by holding them in place for long periods. It sends information to the brain and teaches it to achieve and maintain a proper posture."

She first heard of the use of such suits in occupational therapy 10 years ago. A patient she had been working with for three years and who could not sit up or walk was taken to Poland by her mother for suit therapy.

When the patient returned to the US a month later, she was walking with the aid of a walker.

Excited by her patient's dramatic progress, Ms Gonzalez set out to learn all she could about suit therapy, even flying to Poland and Russia to train under physical and occupational therapists specialising in the use of such suits there.

In 2006, she developed NeuroSuit as she felt that the other suits did not target a patient's arms for treatment.

One suit costs US$2,500 (S$3,481) and lasts two to three years. The price includes occupational therapy by Ms Gonzalez and a customised home therapy programme.

The occupational therapist, who hopes to open a suit therapy centre in Asia next June, said: "Seeing Jake sit on his grandmother's lap with her only having to hold him at the waist is life-changing.

"It's the little things that are huge and that's why I do this."

Mrs Knight added: "I hope he will eventually learn to sit and then move on to crawl. My main aim is to get Jake mobile.

"If Jake can sit up and hold his head up, I can take him to a restaurant. My family hasn't been able to do simple things like going to a restaurant because we don't want to go if Jake can't come along and enjoy himself."

For inquiries on NeuroSuit therapy, contact Ms Patricia Gonzalez at neurosuitsingapore@gmail.com.

junec@sph.com.sg

This article was first published in Mind Your Body, The Straits Times.