Cook Children’s Neuroscience Research Center, led by Christos Papadelis, PhD, is the recipient of a $50,000 research grant funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) through the National Pediatric Rehabilitation Resource Center, also known as CPROGRESS, for a study mapping the brain’s response to robotic-assisted rehabilitation in children with unilateral cerebral palsy.

“We are one of very few centers in the United States mapping changes in the brain as a result of robotic rehabilitation,” Dr. Papadelis said. “It’s not the rehabilitation by itself or the robotic system by itself, but it's the fact that we try to map the brain’s plasticity or what type of plasticity takes place in the brains of these kids in response to the rehabilitation.”    

Cerebral palsy is one of the most common childhood disorders in the United States. About one in every 345 children in the country have some form of the neurological disorder, which affects movement and muscle coordination. The condition can impact the lower or upper extremities, all four limbs or one side of the body. In any case, physical rehabilitation is crucial to maximizing movement and muscle control.

For children with unilateral cerebral palsy, meaning one side of the body is affected, conventional rehabilitation utilizes constraint-induced movement therapy in which the dominant, unaffected limb is immobilized in order to force the paralytic limb to do all of the work. While effective, children aren’t always cooperative with wearing constraint devices and performing this type of repetitive, or what they might call boring, therapy. 

But kids do like video games. As digital natives, they have never known a smart device they couldn’t navigate. For this reason, robotic therapy is emerging as an important rehabilitation tool for children. The digital nature of the bot captures their attention and speaks a language they understand. 

While researchers know robot-assisted rehabilitation has its benefits, there is a lot they still do not know about the application of this type of therapy in the pediatric population.

“There's not much research on how robotics help children with cerebral palsy,” Dr. Papadelis said. “We don’t yet have a gold standard on how much treatment, how many days and how intense it should be in order to have successful outcomes. We want the brain to reorganize based on the rehabilitation, but can this kind of mapping be maladaptive and go in a direction we don’t want it to go?”

Thanks to the NIH grant, Cook Children’s Neuroscience Research Center is studying the use of robot-assisted rehabilitation for children with unilateral cerebral palsy in order to address these uncertainties and establish best practices. 

The robot used is akin to a video gaming system. Using the fingers and hand of the impacted limb, patients manipulate a type of sensor-based robotic joystick while playing a video game generated by the robot’s computer system. The system measures functions such as range of motion, spasticity and strength in order to tailor the interactive video games to the patient and increase engagement. It also uses vibrations to stimulate the patient’s motor sensories.  

“There's a hypothesis that the more information we provide to the somatosensory system in the brain, the better the motor responses,” Dr. Papadelis explained.

While interacting with the robot, patients also undergo an electroencephalography (EEG) study where dozens of electrodes are placed on the scalp to measure the electrical activity of the brain. 

“Using this tool, we are able to map changes in the brain as a result of this rehabilitation. It tells us if the parameters of the treatment are sufficient, or if we need more intense treatment, less intense treatment and whether this type of treatment is beneficial for one child or for all kids,” Dr. Papadelis said. “Kids with cerebral palsy all have different underlying etiologies. For example, some kids have cerebral palsy as a result of stroke. Some as a result of infection or hemorrhage. Because cerebral palsy is an umbrella term, we're trying to understand if this treatment is beneficial and for which group of patients. And, if it's beneficial for this group of patients, how much we should provide them in terms of treatment length.”

Sadra Shahdadian, PhD, a postdoctoral research fellow under Dr. Papadelis’ supervision, serves as co-principal investigator for the study. Drs. Papadelis and Shahdadian hope that at the completion of this one-year grant cycle the research team will have collected enough preliminary data to support their hypothesis and better define the use of robot-assisted rehabilitation in children with cerebral palsy. They also hope their work leads to a larger NIH grant or philanthropic support for a more in-depth and long-term study of pediatric robotic therapy. 

Jordan Walker Ross’ childhood was filled with regular visits to Cook Children’s Medical Center – Fort Worth.

If that name sounds familiar, there's a good reason. You’ve likely watched him make theatrical magic as he morphs himself into characters spanning multiple genres, from the disciple known as Little James in the faith-based drama “The Chosen,” to Mikel, the resilient cowboy in the TV Western “1883.”

Jordan comes by his acting chops naturally. He is the grandson of Emmy-award-winning actor Barry Corbin, best known for his role as rough-around-the-edges town developer Maurice Minnifield in “Northern Exposure.” You’ve also seen Corbin in “Urban Cowboy,” “War Games,” “Yellowstone” and “Lonesome Dove,” to name a few of his many stage, television and film hits.

“He’s following along in my footsteps. Lord, help him,” Corbin said. “I always tell people if you find something else that you’d be happy at, go do that, because it’s a lot easier. But he chose to go the hard way and I’m proud of him.”

Jordan’s journey from his home in Texas to Hollywood success hasn’t been easy. He had big hurdles to climb long before his first acting audition.

Born seven weeks early on February 8,1990, Jordan estimates he spent at least four weeks out of every year as an inpatient at Cook Children’s for treatment of severe asthma, likely the result of his underdeveloped lungs from prematurity. Jordan also has cerebral palsy and severe scoliosis.

His first admission to Cook Children’s came when he was 3 for a serious bout of meningitis, which his younger sister also contracted.

“They were just babies and in two separate hospital rooms,” said Shannon Ross, Jordan’s mother. “So I would put on all of the gear and go into Jordan’s room and check on him and play with him for a little while. Then, I would go into another room where I would get sanitized and put on a new gown and go see my daughter.”

The Ross siblings recovered from their shared illness, but that hospital stay marked the beginning of a relationship that would carry Jordan into adulthood.

“It was just part of the routine,” Jordan said. “I would have an asthma attack and my nebulizer or inhalers wouldn’t help so it was like, okay, cool, we’re going to Cook Children’s. It was like a second home to me.”

Magical Connection

It was at Cook Children’s that Jordan says he first experienced a similar magic to what he now creates on screen. The type of magic where everyone understands the special role they play in a common goal.

What is that common goal? Connection.

In Hollywood, it’s about connecting with the audience through storytelling. At Cook Children’s, it’s about connecting with children and their families through kindness, generosity, respect, collaboration, safety and imagination.

“The environment at Cook Children’s is just magical,” Jordan said. “That’s a perfect word for it because even from the outside with the blue peaks and the bushes trimmed in different animal shapes, they’ve done such a good job making it feel like such a fun, happy and magical place, even though you are there for sometimes scary things.”

For Shannon, the most memorable magic happened when Jordan was able to venture outside of his hospital room and explore spaces throughout the medical center while riding in a little red wagon. 

“The kids loved riding around in the wagons,” she said. “You put their IV on the IV pole on the back and you could just go all over the place. You go down to the lobby and they’d have people coming in to sing or do magic tricks. And then there’s the store. It was like going to Toys R Us. It was just the neatest thing in the world.”

Everything for the Child

Jordan’s visits to Cook Children’s were often a family affair that included his mother and grandfather.

Like many of the characters he’s played, Corbin was a stalwart presence at his grandson’s side. He’d often sit outside Jordan’s hospital room and read the newspaper. Far enough to stay out of the way but close enough to keep watch over Jordan and his mom. Their constant presence, Jordan says, was a source of comfort and security.

So when Jordan had a severe asthma attack and found himself inside the emergency room of a Los Angeles hospital two days after his 18th birthday while working in California, Corbin and Shannon rushed from their homes in Texas to his side. Despite Jordan having asked the staff to call his mom and breathlessly repeating her number to them just before being intubated due to an extremely low blood oxygenation level, the staff initially declined to give Shannon information about her son’s condition, citing his status as a legal adult. After working through the red tape, Shannon and Corbin were eventually reunited with Jordan. They found him lying on a stretcher in the hallway of the emergency department days after his admission. He was alone and connected to a ventilator.

It was a stark contrast from the safe, family centered, everything-for-the-child approach to care that Jordan and his family say they were accustomed to at Cook Children’s, and it took them all by surprise.

“Cook Children’s is an anomaly,” Shannon said. “It’s not like other hospitals because it was able to make a really negative and scary experience a positive one. You almost forget you’re in the hospital and that is huge for a parent, kid or grandparent. I never realized that until years later when Jordan aged out of Cook Children’s and went to an adult hospital and that changed everything.”

Shannon had Jordan transferred to another LA-area hospital as soon as possible. She also reached out to his long-time Cook Children’s pulmonologist who cleared the way for Jordan to be flown back to Texas and admitted to Cook Children’s when he was stable enough to make the trip.

“Coming back from LA, when I saw the blue peaks at Cook Children’s, it was just the biggest relief,” Jordan said.

Dynamic Duo

Now, for the first time, Jordan and Corbin are sharing the screen as co-stars, recounting their Cook Children’s story. Although far from the lights of Hollywood, it was a job they were both more than willing to do having experienced Cook Children’s care and kindness first-hand.

“The doctors and nurses at Cook Children’s have a personal relationship with each patient. It’s their mission to treat your child like it is their child,” Corbin said. “Jordan is a naturally empathetic person. You don’t learn that. It’s something you have or you don’t have. He had it to start with, but I think his experiences at Cook Children’s enhanced that and made it stronger. A lot of that empathy has to do with his treatment at Cook Children’s.”

That connection Jordan felt as a child under Cook Children’s signature blue peaks continues now that he has three children of his own. When they are sick, he and his wife turn to Cook Children’s for their kids’ health care needs. Jordan says their periodic visits are a full circle moment for him. The nostalgia he feels reminds him that, just like he was all those years ago, his children are in good hands.

“I remember our first trip there with my kids was like going back to my childhood home,” Jordan said. “A huge chunk of my formative years was spent there. Getting to go back and see it all again from the perspective of a father was really special, and it was nice to see it hadn’t changed. The care and environment are still the same.”