Media Contact:
Barbara Fornasiero, EAFocus Communications; barbara@eafocus.com; 248-260-8466
Melanie Esland, LifeLab Kids; Melanie.Esland@lifelabkids.org; 248-635-5102

Ferndale, Mich.—April 26, 2023—Ferndale-based nonprofit center LifeLab Kids, which offers therapy, recreation, skill development, and creative outlets for individuals with disabilities from 18 months to young adult, is pleased to welcome Christine T. Morelli MA, MEd, BCBA, LBA, as Clinical Director of Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) and Rubina Sama as Clinical Director of Occupational Therapy (OT). In these newly created roles, which reflect an expansion of LifeLab Kids’ multi-disciplinary approach, Sama and Morelli will oversee their respective teams at both the Ferndale and Clinton Township locations and play pivotal roles in implementing LifeLab Kids’ emerging pre-vocational program for job-readiness.

Christine Morelli brings a wealth of clinical and leadership experience to LifeLab Kids, having provided quality behavioral services to individuals on the autism spectrum based on current practices in Applied Behavior Analysis. As new Clinical Director of ABA, Morelli will manage and collaborate with LifeLab Kids therapists and caregivers to ensure that the delivery of the organization’s unique service offerings and programs meet each child’s development needs with quality care. She most recently worked as a regional director at Gateway Pediatric Therapy, and also served in assistant clinical director and supervising BCBA roles there.

In 2018, Morelli received a Master of Education from Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, with a concentration in Curriculum and Instruction in Applied Behavior Analysis. She also holds a Master of Arts in Community Counseling from Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, and completed her undergraduate degree at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan, with a B.S. in Psychology and a minor in Social Work. Morelli is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst and Licensed Behavior Analyst.

Rubina Sama has held a variety of occupational therapist roles at pediatric centers and hospitals throughout Southeast Michigan and Ontario and most recently worked as Lead OT at Oxford Recovery Center in Troy. As LifeLab Kids’ new Clinical Director of OT, Sama will be responsible for overseeing the delivery of the organization’s specialized therapy services that address the physical and mental well-being of youth with ADD/ADHD, anxiety, autism, developmental delays, Down syndrome, feeding challenges, mood disorders and other learning disabilities, in addition to addressing further clinic needs.

Sama earned both her Master of Occupational Therapy and Bachelor of Health Science from Wayne State University, Detroit, and also completed a Bachelor of Arts, General Honors in Psychology, at the University of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario. She holds certifications from the National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy (NBCOT) and the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapy (CAOT), is licensed by the College of Occupational Therapists of Ontario (COTO), and is a certified provider of Learning Without Tears® educational solutions, the Beckman Oral Motor Protocol, and Kay Toomey SOS Approach to Feeding. Sama is a former president of the Pi Theta Epsilon honor society for occupational therapists.

“LifeLab Kids’ unique service offerings and programs are growing rapidly and there was a need to bring our collaborative clinical efforts to the next level,” LifeLab Kids CEO and Founder Jai Reddy said. “We are fortunate to have such dedicated and qualified professionals as Christine Morelli and Rubina Sama join us in our mission.”

About LifeLab Kids

Founded in Ferndale, Michigan in 2019, with a second location in Clinton Township, LifeLab Kids is an immersive therapeutic, recreation, and learning center that provides unique, comprehensive and individualized programming to help differently-abled youth and their families be healthy and active – and to belong. Empowering these individuals to see past their limitations and lead full lives, the 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization brings a multidisciplinary team together under one roof to collectively work with students to discover their strengths and engage in their passions. Learn more at www.lifelabkids.org.

Media Contact:
Barbara Fornasiero, EAFocus Communications; barbara@eafocus.com; 248-260-8466
Melanie Esland, LifeLab Kids; Melanie.Esland@lifelabkids.org; 248-635-5102

Ferndale, Mich. — February X, 2023 — LifeLab Kids, a Ferndale-based nonprofit center offering therapy, recreation, skill development, and creative outlets for children with disabilities from 18 months to young adult, offers one of the few comprehensive feeding therapy programs in the region. According to Kelsey Orlando, M.S., CCC-SLP, a speech and language pathologist who leads the program, successful feeding therapy goes far beyond food, given eating’s essential role in growth and development.

“We work closely with patients and their families to determine the source of the child’s difficulties and develop specific therapies to make eating more accessible and enjoyable. It’s not just about specific foods, though, it’s about comprehensive oral and nutritional care,” Orlando said. “Our therapists engage with children to work through their sensory feeding deficits and encourage them to learn about their bodies and food to develop a healthy diet while expanding their food choices.”

Orlando explains that feeding therapy actually comprises two stages: transferring food from the plate to the mouth and then the physical and muscle aspects related to eating and getting food from the mouth to the stomach. LifeLab Kids deals with a variety of children’s eating challenges, from a hyper-sensitive gag reflex, difficulty chewing or swallowing, or drinking from a bottle, cup or straw for children who need to be tube-fed or help transitioning to oral feeding. Unlike most of their therapies, which begin for children aged 18 months or older, LifeLab Kids also treats infants in its feeding therapy program.

The feeding team consists of speech-language pathologists and occupational therapists taking an integrative approach by tailoring client-centered treatment. The therapists use behavioral and child-directed methods driven by the Sequential-Oral Sensory (SOS), Talk Tools, and Beckman Oral Motor approaches to address the whole child in feeding therapy.

Demand for feeding therapy at LifeLab Kids is high, and extends to children without developmental disabilities who are experiencing feeding challenges. The goals of the program are to:

• Improve a child’s ability to chew and swallow a variety of foods and textures safely.
• To promote self-feeding and increase oral intake while reducing tube feedings, gagging while swallowing, and disruptive behaviors during meal time.
• Increase weight gain.
• Help children become active in strengthening their whole bodies through food.
• To promote self-confidence in a fun and active way.
• Promote independence.
• Encourage healthy eating

Benefits to the child, in addition to the above, include decreased frustration and an improved ability to communicate. Orlando provides the story of a toddler, “M” who was only eating pureed food, resulting in weight below a healthy level and a failure to thrive diagnosis. Following an evaluation at LifeLAb Kids, it was discovered that M had low tone in his jaw and tongue, making chewing and swallowing difficult.

“M worked very hard in feeding therapy, and with his therapist’s intervention, learned the skills to strengthen the tone in his mouth through play, with games using solid, healthy food and encouragement to explore new foods as well,” Orlando said. “After 18 months, M started to gain the skills to chew solid food. With the teamwork of his family and therapists, he increased his daily caloric intake and ultimately gained weight. M is now at a healthy weight for his age and is on a hard solid and mechanical soft diet filled with so many yummy foods! It’s exciting to watch him find food fun.”

In order to expand its feeding therapy services to meet demand, LifeLab Kids, which is based in a former Ferndale church, is raising funds to transform and enlarge its current, traditionally- designed kitchen into a space that is better able to meet the accessibility needs of the children LifeLab Kids serves and allow them to build healthy nutrition habits.

“We have all the therapy tools for success. With a reconfigured kitchen, we’ll have a
group kitchen environment designed specifically for children with developmental disabilities and accessible for those with mobility difficulties,” Orlando said. “Plus, the kitchen will be functional to teach life skills, equipped with audio and visuals to aid with therapy and education and allow us to host community seminars or train other professionals seeking feeding certifications.”

About LifeLab Kids

Founded in Ferndale, Michigan in 2019, with a second location in Clinton Township, LifeLab Kids is an immersive therapeutic, recreation, and learning center that provides unique, comprehensive and individualized programming to help differently-abled youth and their families be healthy and active – and to belong. Empowering these individuals to see past their limitations and lead full lives, the 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization brings a multidisciplinary team together under one roof to collectively work with students to discover their strengths and engage in their passions. Learn more at www.lifelabkids.org.

Brooke Allen from WWJ 950 interviewed LifeLab Kids Executive Director and Founder Jai Reddy as this week’s “Difference Maker.” We are grateful for the good work and kindness Jai brings to LifeLab Kids every day and grateful to WWJ 950 for shining a light on our soon-to-be-open Therapeutic Playpark. To hear Jai, CLICK HERE