Alternative therapy
New York is full of places that are special-needs-friendly by chance. City parents share their kids’ faves.
- One day it occurred to Debbie Stevenson that her son Taylor, 12, who doesn’t get much physical activity, might benefit from working out with a personal trainer. So she asked the folks at David Barton Gym, where she’s been a member for years, if they take kids. “I explained that he has fragile X syndrome, and they told me that they have some really great, patient instructors,” says the Upper East Sider. Taylor enjoys the exercises, particularly getting stretched. “I’ve never paid for a trainer for myself because it seems so expensive,” says his mom, “but it’s practically half the price of his traditional therapy!”
- Vanessa Brennan of Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, takes Flynn, her four-year-old who has a diagnosis of PDD-NOS, to Virgin Records in Union Square. “It’s noisy in there, but we go straight to the sample stations,” she says. “He loves the earphones. We each put them on, then face each other and dance.”
- Our reporter, Jana Banin, and her son, Benjamin, make visits to Barnes & Noble: “Because all of the stores look somewhat alike, he doesn’t get the anxiety he generally experiences in new places.”