LYMAN — Ian Trottier’s weekly swimming therapy session was a little different Monday, considering the limousine ride to the pool and the cameras and balloons when he arrived.

He seemed to take the Make A Wish Foundation hubbub in stride, however, getting down to business in the pool shortly after posing for a few photos and opening some gifts.

Eight-year-old Ian, who lives in Dayton with his parents, Lori and Carl, does not communicate verbally and is unable to walk. He was born with Leigh’s disease, a rare neurometabolic disorder that affects the central nervous system, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

The wish granted Monday is good for a full year of the swimming therapy with his instructor, Nancy Pleiter-Sadowy of Arundel-based Choose to Swim. Ian has been working with Pleiter-Sadowy since January of last year at the private H2O Workout indoor pool facility in Lyman.

His mother, Lori Trottier, said she sees the skills built in the swimming lessons carrying over to Ian’s other therapies ”“ that’s why she chose it as his gift from the Make A Wish Foundation.

“This is a different experience in movement and therefore it’s beneficial to his well-being. His movement is much stronger,” she said. “We hope that maybe he will walk someday.”

Ian also sees a physical therapist twice a week and does hippotherapy at Carlisle Academy Integrative Equine Therapy and Sports Center in Lyman. In the pool, Ian has been practicing pushing off the wall with his feet when he is told to do so. At the riding stables, he had been instructed to push his feet off a wall to operate a swing, but wasn’t able to do it before.

“He can do it now,” said Trottier.

Pleiter-Sadowy said she is “humbled” by being chosen to grant the wish.

“I had to read it three times,” she said, recalling when she got the news. “I couldn’t read between the tears. What a privilege to be able to grant a wish to a child.”

She applauded the parent’s choice, considering they could have opted for a family trip or a multitude of other things that might have benefited them as well.

“Make a Wish can make anything happen, they could’ve asked for anything,” she said, “but their focus was on their child.”

Pleiter-Sadowy has a master’s degree in education and a certification in therapeutic recreation and adapted aquatics. She said she began teaching swimming lessons 20 years ago and gradually began to get more and more referrals for special needs children. Those experiences led her to make all of her lessons therapeutic, with a focus on core body exercises that allow skills to build. She travels to teach swimming lessons and uses the private pool at H2O Workout in Lyman as one of her bases.

In the pool for his session Monday, Ian grunted when Pleiter-Sadowy would show him different exercises, but mostly complied with the tasks at hand.

“He’s protesting because she’s making him work,” said Trottier.

The exercises include walking with weights on his feet, pushing off the pool wall and using flotation devices, all of which build strength. It’s only been recently that Ian has started to get out of the pool on his own at the end ”“ a sign that Pleiter-Sadowy has taken to heart.

“That’s when I feel that I’m starting to make a difference,” she said, “when they take the initiative.”

Eileen Chretien, Make A Wish volunteer director, told Pleiter-Sadowy that the foundation usually focuses on bringing some personal strength into the life of a child who is struggling, but her swimming therapy takes it a step further by also giving physical strength.

“We’re all about giving strength and joy to children and that’s what you embody,” said Chretien.

At home, Ian uses a SpringBoard Lite device that has built in words for him to choose on a screen from as a way to communicate with others. Horseback riding is a choice on the device, she said, and Ian sometimes asks for that activity during the winter when he hasn’t been to hippotherapy in a while. Swimming isn’t an option in the board’s vocabulary, his mother said, but she’d like to see it added ”“ and maybe get a better idea of how Ian feels about the pool.

— Kristen Schulze Muszynski can be contacted at 282-1535 Ext. 322 or kristenm@journaltribune.com.