This therapy comes disguised as play – pure, exhilarating, exhausting, mind-bending playtime performed to a backdrop of cheers and support from parents as well as volunteer residents, medical students and rock climbing experts. Approximately 20 kids, from ages 3 to 15, in wheelchairs and walkers, wearing leg braces and prostheses, using crutches, some hemiplegic (paralysis on one side of the body), and some diplegic (paralysis on both sides) are enrolled in an adapted therapeutic rock climbing program. Called Peak Potential, Inc., the course was designed by JenFu Cheng, MD, a third year UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School resident in physical medicine and rehabilitation. In spite of neurological, muscular and skeletal disorders, these children have been climbing artificially "rocky", 25-foot-high walls in an indoor facility and succeeding beyond their dreams since last February. Says Cheng, "It blows my mind to see how hard some try on the wall and how excited they are when they reach the top or just push past one of the holds."

If rock-climbing for disabled kids sounds like an impossible or silly undertaking, Cheng, who has been a "passionate climber for more than a decade," points out that ordinary exercise can be tedious for children. "Our first goal is to provide something enjoyable and to help the kids build self-esteem, trust, cooperation and confidence. Too often, the emphasis is placed on their perceived limitations." Keenly interested in pediatric rehabilitation, he knows that most standard therapies don’t garner squeals of "Mommy, Mommy, I did it" – especially from young children for whom exercise is an everyday, lifelong commitment. Putting pleasure and immediate gratification into any program turns out to be key because real physical benefits fall short when kids aren’t emotionally and mentally enthused.

Strapped into full-body harnesses and connected to safety ropes, which are attached to the ceiling and also held tightly by certified instructors, the kids spend one to two hours after school and evenings, scaling the artificial heights at the New Jersey Rock Gym in Fairfield, where space is being donated. The walls are actually movable and can be adjusted to different heights and angles. Handholds and footholds come in thousands of shapes and sizes and are easily customized to each child’s capabilities. The route up can also be redesigned often, making the climbs infinitely varied. Safety is of primary importance and Cheng has been able to enlist the aid of three to four adults per child climber without even much arm-twisting here on campus. "I even have a few converts who volunteered for the kids’ sake but now come for the rock climbing as well. They are buying their own equipment and taking new skills outside." Speaking of outside, Cheng’s dream is to bring his newly converted band of adventurers to one of the phenomenally beautiful places his own rock climbing has taken him. "Disabled children shouldn’t be deprived of the opportunity to experience nature," says this resident who calls rock climbing "the driving force in my life, next to medicine."