By Anne Polta, West Central Tribune

WILLMAR &8212; Trent Nelson fingers a series of small colored blocks, one at a time, as he sounds his way through a six-letter word: &8220;S-T-R-E-A-M.&8221;

That&8217;s good, nods Sue Meyer, his speech and language pathologist.

&8220;Touch and say for me again: Stream,&8221; she says.

Even a few months ago, this would have been a struggle for Trent, 16. A highway crash almost three years ago near his hometown of Alden left him with a traumatic brain injury, followed by a stroke.

The past three years have been a long, slow process of regaining everything he lost: the ability to walk, to talk, to read, to comprehend.

With the help of intensive therapy from Meyer and her staff at the Reading Therapy Center in Willmar, he is making progress.

&8220;He now can do this,&8221; Meyer said, gesturing toward the blocks. &8220;Before, he couldn&8217;t even do the laying out of the sounds.&8221;

Trent describes how he&8217;s doing with a single word: &8220;Good.&8221;

Helping people read and understand is a daily mission at the Reading Therapy Center. Meyer and her staff &8212; licensed social worker Christy Groen and learning disabilities instructor Chontelle Hansen &8212; work with clients as young as 5 and as old as 28.

Their goal: to help people with reading disabilities literally reprogram the cognitive functions within their brain.

New ways of imaging the brain are revealing not only how the brain works but where it can misfire &8212; with reading disabilities, for instance, that stem from a brain-based inability to correctly perceive words or sounds.

On this new frontier, experts also are discovering how the brain can be retaught after an injury or a stroke.

It has opened new doors into what can be accomplished with rehabilitation, Meyer said.

&8220;Before, we really couldn&8217;t look into the brain and see what was happening,&8221; she said. &8220;The brain, even after three years, with the right treatment can be changed. There really isn&8217;t a limit.&8221;

Meyer used to be a school speech and language pathologist before opening a private practice, the Reading Therapy Center. She also worked at one time with people who&8217;d suffered a stroke or traumatic brain injury.

Working with Trent, though, was the first time she has tried multi-sensory cognitive therapies aimed at reprogramming the brain after an injury.

The crash on Feb. 16, 2004, left Trent hospitalized in Rochester for more than four months. On top of sustaining a head injury, he had a stroke just a few days later, said his mother, Lori Nelson. That was followed by swelling of the brain, which necessitated removing part of his skull.

The stroke is what inflicted the longest-lasting damage, Lori Nelson said. It affected the portion of Trent&8217;s brain where communication is centered.

Last year, Nelson, who is a special education teacher, met Meyer at a teacher training workshop in Fairmont. Although Trent had already undergone a lengthy rehabilitation program and was continuing to receive therapy, Lori and Gary Nelson thought there was a chance their son could make even more progress with Meyer&8217;s help.

&8220;She thought she could really help. She was willing to give it a try,&8221; Lori Nelson said.

This past June, Trent spent four weeks with Meyer and her staff at the Reading Therapy Center.

&8220;He made such tremendous progress, we wanted him to continue,&8221; Meyer said.

So, from mid-September until the beginning of November, Trent returned to Willmar for intensive therapy.

The Reading Therapy Center is one of only a couple of places in Minnesota that offer such intense cognitive therapy. It&8217;s not uncommon for Meyer to get referrals from all over the state, including the Twin Cities.

&8220;We do have people travel from far away,&8221; she said. &8220;It is a commitment on the child and the parents&8217; part to do this.&8221;

For nearly two months, Trent underwent therapy four hours a day, four days a week. He worked on building up his ability to read, to spell, to comprehend.

&8220;By two o&8217;clock he&8217;d be exhausted but never has he balked and not done what we&8217;ve asked him to. He&8217;s very determined,&8221; Meyer said.

Many people worked together to ensure Trent was able to receive intensive therapy, she said. For instance, a couple of pilots volunteered to fly the youth to Willmar and back each weekend, a move that cut the travel time by more than half.

The Alden-Conger school system agreed to pay Trent&8217;s tuition. Meyer and her husband, Cecil, also had Trent stay in their home for the four days each week that he was in town.

&8220;We do get attached,&8221; said Meyer. &8220;It&8217;s almost like he&8217;s a member of our family now. He&8217;s easy to have around. It&8217;s hard to see him go.&8221;

Back home in Alden, Trent is still receiving therapy, his mother said. He&8217;s also working to overcome the right-sided weakness that was the result of his stroke.

&8220;He&8217;s doing well,&8221; Lori Nelson said. &8220;Actually we&8217;re pretty happy with how well he came back. I&8217;m real hopeful that he&8217;s going to keep on going.&8221;

The family is considering bringing Trent back to the Reading Therapy Center next summer for

additional sessions, she said.

Before intensive therapy, Trent could read at a first-grade level, Meyer said. Two months later, he&8217;s now able to read third- and fourth-grade books.

&8220;He can&8217;t go fast, but he now understands and can read,&8221; she said. &8220;We know now with Trent that it can work. He is opening the door to knowledge of what we can do.

&8220;I&8217;m excited for him because I can see the changes he&8217;s made in writing and his speech. He&8217;s not done. He could still make great gains.&8221;