Ms. Arcel has been instrumental in helping our son progress. Her kind and caring demeanor, combined with her technical expertise, have made her an invaluable therapist for our family. While it is tough for our 2-year-old to make it through most other therapy sessions, Ms. Arcel makes everything she works on with him feel like play, expertly getting his best out of him at the same time. Instead of tears, he actually lights up when he sees her! We are so grateful for all the positive changes we’ve seen since working with Ms. Arcel.

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When LoLo began physical therapy at 2 years old, he was born with FAS. He could not sit up and laid flat on his back. He did not walk or crawl. With lots of hard work from Ms. Arcel, he began his progress to getting much better. He began to move from different play activities and could crawl over some objects and stand for periods of time on tubes, holding onto poles. He started learning to climb on a small ladder and go down slides. He went on swings and other play activities. He also began the treadmill and learned to walk using his legs and balance for long periods of time.

Through this method of play therapy, he started excelling and began to surprise everyone with his development and tolerance of the therapy he was getting. He would not be this advanced without the help of Ms. Arcel and her specific therapy that was utilized. For this we are truly grateful and feel she was a huge part of his overall physical development. He is now a thriving 4 years old who is very active at school and home.

Thanks,

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Ms. Arcel was my son’s Physical Therapist for years when he was younger. Months matter so much at the age when everyone else’s kids are hitting every milestone. For my perfect kid, we celebrated every milestone as much as most people celebrate their babies’ first steps. What gross motor therapy does for kids at those tiny ages (he later graduated out of the ICEC program at 5 years into bigger kid PT) is not as easy to appreciate. It helps babies and toddlers learn the developmentally appropriate way to move their bodies as it takes longer to get to each milestone. It catches bad habits before they start and molds them and creates a child who will try (because it is fun).

Ms. Arcel knew just how to encourage my son to try and to push himself without overdoing it, either physically or mentally. He would have ‘been fine’ not using one side as well as the other (he was born with torticollis among other things that come along with having Down syndrome). Ms. Arcel does not accept ‘he’ll be fine.’ She molds, encourages, and then claps as loud and smiles as wide as you will when your kid does it right. But she is also extremely professional and efficient. All of that is hard to find in a PT. Trust me, we are lifers and have met more specialists and therapists than I care to count. All of them were compassionate, all of them cared. Some of them, like Ms. Arcel, also got great results. You will be lucky if Ms. Arcel shows up at your door. I know I was lucky to have ever met her.

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I have had a chance to work with Ms. Arcel for almost 8 months as the physical therapist for our son. Our son was born before 30 weeks at 1.5 lbs and has had severe motor delay in particular. At 2 years old, he had motor delay up to 12 months by the time we started with Arcel in the middle of the covid pandemic.

Honestly, I wasn’t a believer in…Video PT (Telehealth), but tried it out at the recommendation of our trusted pediatrician. The result was astonishing. Within 2 months, from exclusive cruising and inability to stand independently at age 2, our son took first few steps. We had to stop Video therapy after 2 months due to my work schedule conflict, but continued to practice with Arcel’s previous advice. Remarkably, our son took independent long walk after 3 months but not much more motor skills besides that. We re-established with Arcel 6 months later as my schedule freed up, initially with Video session followed by both in-person and Video session. By now, 6 months later, at age 3, our son can transfer stand to sit seamlessly, step over obstacles easily, squat more comfortably, climb stairs steadily, and able to climb ladder and use slide.

We owe it to Arcel, for her high expertise, compassionate care and support to parents, astute observation and adaptive training based on our son’s unique ways of learning, love and dedication to help children with special needs like our son. Arcel is also very gentle, encouraging and warm which help tremendously as it was at times very frustrating to me to practice the Video session advice without therapist skills. But Arcel’s hard work, perseverance and dedication to our son have paid off. We incorporated play into the exercise which enticed our son allowing him to progress. With more motor skills, he now roams around, explores the surrounding world more, and becomes more like a toddler than a 2 years old only know cruising along the sofa edge. We are grateful to Arcel from the bottom of our heart. I highly recommend Arcel.

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Ms. Arcel worked with our special needs child, who has significant motor delays. When Arcel started working with him at over 1 year of age, he was just crawling at the time. Through the height of the pandemic, Arcel found creative ways to work our child in clinic, over telehealth, or even in parks to keep him engaged. She always brought a positive attitude and spirit, even during times our child was less than motivated. We are thrilled at the progress he has made, now running, jumping, riding a tricycle, etc. We highly recommend Arcel!

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Ms. Arcel is truly terrific. She worked with our ~2.5-year-old child for about three months, and during that time she displayed tremendous skill at coaching a somewhat reluctant “mover” to be active and push self-boundaries. She clearly has tons of experience as a physical therapist for children, and yet she treats our child with as much dedication and attention to detail as one might expect from a therapist who works with only a small number of kids. One anecdote to illustrate the point: while administering a stepping/climbing-based game that required our child to make a series of somewhat-challenging movements, our child expressed some reluctance and interest in quitting. Arcel quickly re-directed against that idea by suggesting that, as the activity went on, our child’s mother be the one to hold our child’s hand, rather than Arcel. That suggestion was successful in getting our child back on board with finishing the game. But, having salvaged the activity in a way that could have offered Arcel a brief rest from physical exertion, she chose not to take any rest; instead, she followed closely along, down on both knees on the floor, “spotting” our daughter and watching her technique.

I found myself quite impressed with just how active and engaged Arcel remained during one of the only moments when she could quite understandably have taken a short break. Given her overall level of dedication, however, that one moment should have come as no surprise to me.

We were very fortunate to have Arcel as our child’s physical therapist. Thanks to her for everything she has done for us.

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