When Arden Grim was 3 months old, her mother noticed her right hand was always curled into a fist and was less active than her left. The pediatrician told her mother it was nothing to worry about, but she still decided to get another medical opinion.
That’s how Grim was eventually diagnosed at 5 months old with hemiplegic cerebral palsy, a condition that impacts movement and posture due to damage to a developing brain.
Due to a stroke Grim had before birth, the right side of her body — including her arm and leg — is weaker than the left side.
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While the diagnosis of cerebral palsy finally gave Grim’s parents the answers they were looking for, it also came with a shocking prognosis from the neurologist: Grim was never going to be able to walk or talk due to her disability.
But that isn’t what happened. While Grim was delayed in learning some things, like learning how to walk, she defied the odds dictated by the neurologist.
“They didn’t want to accept it — both my parents. So I was pretty much right away seeing physical therapists, occupational therapists around the age of 1,” Grim said. “All of it was stemming from — we don’t want this to be Arden’s reality.”
Now Grim, a rising senior at Smith College in Northampton, Mass. majoring in neuroscience, is working with some of the very people who helped her as a child.
Through neuroSURF, a program where undergraduates interested in neuroscience research work full-time in one of the institute’s labs, Grim was matched with the Neuromotor Research Clinic, her top choice.
The clinic is part of the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at Virginia Tech but was previously located at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where Grim and her parents traveled to.
“A lot of what I want to do professionally is give back to kids who have similar experiences to what I experienced as a young child. And so, recognizing how beneficial it was for me, I want to continue to contribute to that. And through research, I was able to at least a little bit,” she said.
The clinic
From the ages of 2 to 7, Grim and her parents traveled from Minnesota to Birmingham, Ala., to work on constraint-induced movement therapy through the Neuromotor Research Clinic.
The therapy involved putting her dominant arm in a cast to encourage intensive therapy on her weaker side.
“They were very kind and supportive. And I think that’s a lot of what I remember is just that aspect of it,” Grim said.
She also learned how to use both sides of her body without the cast by tying her own shoes, zipping up jackets and brushing her hair, and other play-based therapies. She did the therapy for six hours a day, five days a week, for four weeks — coming back four times.
Between her research at the clinic and her studies at Smith College, she hopes to one day become a pediatric neurologist.
‘Amazing full circle moment’
It was “mind-blowing” to see Grim go from being a patient to an undergraduate researcher, said Mary Rebekah Trucks, the associate director of clinical education, training and implementation at the clinic.
Grim is the first patient they’ve seen come back as an undergraduate researcher in the clinic, Trucks said.
Trucks worked with Grim at around the age of 7 — and during her research fellowship.
“When she came walking back, walking into the clinic on that first day … she still had some of the same facial expressions that I would see her looking at me during treatment,” Trucks said.
Grim was a diligent and hardworking patient, Trucks said. She particularly remembers how the two worked on strengthening her wrist on her weaker side and isolating her fingers in order to be able to play the piano — a goal of Grim’s.
Working with Grim over the summer, Trucks said Grim brought a personal experience that was helpful for parents and patients to see what was possible in the future. It was also helpful for Trucks to see what therapies helped Grim in the long term.
“She brings in the lived experience piece that basically therapists don’t have. And there’s so much value in that,” Trucks said.
The two even put together a series of videos of Grim doing certain tasks, like zipping her coat, in order to show patients how she learned it and is able to do it now.
“I think it’s an amazing full circle moment,” Trucks said.
An ‘unanticipated’ research finding
After years of going to doctors and therapists, Grim has been particularly interested in how the brain functions.
While at the clinic, Grim worked on an independent research project, looking at whether there was a difference in goal achievement between participants who received a moderate dosage of therapy compared to high dosage therapy.
She found that while there was no significant difference in goal achievement between the two groups, there were differences in goal achievement between male and female participants — an “unanticipated finding,” Grim said. She declined to elaborate on the finding at this stage of research.
Grim presented her findings at two symposia at the end of the program and is continuing to work on the research into the fall as a collaborator. More research needs to be done to obtain a final result, she said.
The preliminary research finding is only one piece of why she is excited to continue her work there — ultimately, she’s grateful she can finally give back to the place that helped her.
“I’ve said this many times, but I wouldn’t be who I am today without it, without having that treatment, because it was just so beneficial to the overall functioning of my right side,” she said.
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