Eden Grosh can carry things in her left hand while opening a door with her right hand.

She can pull the cellophane from her cheese-and-cracker packs, and put on her own socks.

A few weeks ago, these were merely dreams and goals for the active, blond-haired 7-year-old. Now they're part of her skill set.

Eden, who was born with a vascular problem that causes weakness on her right side, just became the first child to complete a specialized therapy program at Schreiber Pediatric Rehab Center of Lancaster County.

During the three-week program, called constraint-induced movement therapy, Eden's dominant left hand and arm were put in a cast so she would be forced to use her weaker arm for most tasks.

Schreiber Pediatric is one of only four facilities in the country that offer CIMT, said Kristen Schreiber, Eden's therapist at the center.

Eden, daughter of Theresa and Thomas Grosh of Mount Joy, "has a vascular malformation on her brain stem, which is basically like a clump of blood vessels that just formed into this knot," Theresa Grosh said. The knot interferes with some of the nerves that come through the brain stem, "and some of those nerves are the ones that control the right side of her body."     

Eden, like some stroke victims and people with traumatic brain injury or cerebral palsy, has developed "learned nonuse" of one hand, Schreiber said. Eden has function on the weaker side, Schreiber explained, but, since it's harder to use that extremity, she automatically uses the dominant one.

"The idea behind the whole thing," Schreiber noted, "for kids and adults that have learned nonuse on one side, we can create new motor pathways in the brain" by forcing them to use the weaker hand. Scans done on CIMT patients have demonstrated those brain changes, she said.

"We don't expect Eden to do one-handed activities with the right hand," Schreiber said. "Our goal was to get her right hand more coordinated to do two-handed activities, like catching a ball, pulling her pants up, pulling her socks up, holding a book to read it, opening her lunchbox and opening snack containers."

Eden was the perfect candidate for the therapy program, Schreiber said, "because she had some function on that right side, and she had a really great support system at home. Her whole family was into this," including her sisters and grandparents.

The CIMT program involves intensive work both at the center and at home, Schreiber said. Though Eden's cast was removable, she kept it on almost all the time, even at night, until the third week of therapy.

Schreiber said she and Eden worked on one- and two-handed activities, including cooking lunch, playing board games and video games, making snow globes and baking cookies.

"It's very motivating for her," Grosh said. "I've found it so amazing that … the therapists have been able to keep her so entertained these last three weeks. I mean, all of the therapy is fun. It's playing. She doesn't realize it's work."

"I have a child [client], very much like Eden that I've been working with for five years," said Schreiber, who is head of the rehab center's occupational therapy department. "And I would say it took him three years to get as much improvement as Eden has shown in three weeks."

With grant money donated to Schreiber Pediatric by a family that uses the center's services, Kristen Schreiber was sent to study CIMT at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where the therapy was developed.

"It's a tough program to put in place, and it's a tough program for families to do. … And it depends a lot on reimbursement from third-party payers," Schreiber said. She said some insurance plans that cover "intensive, upper-extremity therapy" cover at least some of the costs of CIMT.

Schreiber said she will call Eden's family weekly, and eventually monthly, to check on her progress and give advice on how to get her to continue using her right hand at home.

"We expect her to keep about 75 percent of her two-handed-activity effectiveness" after six months, Schreiber said. "As long as she continues to practice things with her right hand every day … that will keep those motor pathways open.

Schreiber said she is training other therapists at the local rehab center to offer CIMT.

On the last day of her therapy, a little over two weeks ago, Eden demonstrated a "sock donner," a piece of plastic that helps her slide a sock onto her foot by pulling two small ropes, one with each hand.

She happily put her belly in the slinglike seat of what she calls the "Superman swing," and, hand over hand, "climbed" horizontally toward Schreiber using a small rope ladder.

"Just remind Righty to hold on tight," Schreiber told Eden.

"She could not hold on at all with that right hand at the beginning" of therapy, Schreiber noted.

Eden said that among the best things therapy has taught her to do with both hands are opening her pudding, turning doorknobs and making "gooey gunk" — a delightfully slimy mix of Borax, glue, water and food coloring.

Eden also said she is looking forward to playing with her friends during second grade at Donegal Primary School, and to needing a lot less help from them when she opens her lunchbox or her snack containers this year.

For more information about Schreiber Pediatric Rehab Center, visit schreiberpediatric.org.