{"id":1035447,"date":"2026-08-31T19:17:26","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T19:17:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1035447\/"},"modified":"2026-08-31T19:17:26","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T19:17:26","slug":"for-oaklin-lane-ceo-chris-callander-helping-kids-is-personal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1035447\/","title":{"rendered":"For Oaklin Lane CEO Chris Callander, helping kids is personal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of Oaklin Lane.<\/p>\n

Bright lights, padded floors, a black trampoline and a square foam pit fill the occupational therapy (OT) gym at pediatric therapy clinic Oaklin Lane<\/a>. The gym comes to life as a young girl cautiously walks across the padded floor and climbs onto a bolted swing while her therapist talks with her.<\/p>\n

One-on-one care is at the core of Oaklin Lane and CEO Chris Callander\u2019s mission to provide personalized, accessible therapy to children across North Dallas.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I struggled with some conflicts or some ailments as a kid because I was different and I was set aside,\u201d Callander said. \u201cI also wanted to build a company that allowed therapists, assistants and techs to have jobs that they were proud of and that could last for their career.\u201d<\/p>\n

Born in Louisiana, Callander\u2019s early childhood was shaped by a lack of resources he needed as the child of a Nicaraguan immigrant. His experience growing up without access to those resources would later influence his desire to help other children with special needs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI came from working parents, and I went to the Louisiana public school system and we didn\u2019t have therapists, we didn\u2019t have extra resources,\u201d he said. \u201cSo if you struggled, you struggled.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the time, Callander spoke only Spanish after living in Managua, Nicaragua, from the ages of 4 to 8. When his family moved back to Louisiana, the language barrier became the beginning of his distrust in academic institutions.<\/p>\n

\u201c[My parents] just assumed that when I came back here, I would just learn English,\u201d he said. \u201cI was literally put in all English classes, but I was just put in a corner to work on different worksheets.\u201d<\/p>\n

He remembers thinking, \u201cWhat\u2019s wrong with me? Why am I at this separate table?\u201d as he watched 30 other students seated together in his classroom.<\/p>\n

\u201cI probably harnessed some negative feelings about school and teachers. [Since] school didn\u2019t really provide much for me, I didn\u2019t think I had to give much back,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

As he grew up, his language barrier lasted for several years, making it difficult to make friends and socially integrate. But when Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, Callander and his family evacuated and were sent to Virginia.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey sent people all over the place, and we got sent to Virginia,\u201d he said. \u201cThey had therapists ask us if we were okay and at the time I didn\u2019t appreciate it, but now looking back, I\u2019m so grateful for that help and support and it kind of stuck in the back of my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite his early childhood experiences, Callander would put his trust in school one more time when he enrolled at Northern Virginia Community College in 2017. From 2017 to 2019, Callander completed the requirements to transfer to Georgetown University before eventually attending Harvard Business School, where he graduated with his MBA in 2025.<\/p>\n

After years of resentment toward education and the instructors who were supposed to teach him how to navigate his feelings, he decided to create a solution to help children in North Dallas who might be experiencing some of the same insecurities he faced.<\/p>\n

In 2025, Callander purchased Excel Pediatric Therapy, a therapy clinic in Rockwall, with the intention of opening as many clinics as possible. In May 2026, Callander opened Oaklin Lane\u2019s first flagship location in Lake Highlands.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe looked all around the Dallas area, and we just saw this really pleasant location smack in the middle of Dallas,\u201d he said. \u201cIt just feels right and it feels like home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Located at 8610 Greenville Ave., Oaklin Lane\u2019s 6,000-square-foot clinic is home to speech rooms, handwashing stations, a feeding room, a fine motor room, a parent conference room, a gym and more.<\/p>\n

Chelsey Anderson, director of clinical operations, explained what the intake process looks like.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do birth until adulthood,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cWe have babies that are just three days old, and then we have kiddos that are six months and 17 years old.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anderson explained that the clinic typically lets older patients decide if they want to receive help. If a 17-year-old comes in with their mom and it is apparent that the teenager does not want to be there, the clinic will have a conversation with the parents to look for alternative options.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The sensory room at Oaklin Lane. Photo courtesy of Oaklin Lane.<\/p>\n

Oaklin Lane offers four services: occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech therapy, and feeding and swallowing therapy. All therapy rooms come equipped with adaptive equipment used for children with different disabilities.<\/p>\n

Most patients attend therapy twice a week, with occupational and physical therapy sessions lasting 45 minutes and speech therapy sessions lasting 30 minutes.<\/p>\n

The clinic reevaluates patients every six months to determine whether they have met their goals and are ready to graduate from therapy. If additional support is needed, therapists create a new plan of care with updated goals based on the child\u2019s progress. For children with developmental delays or underlying diagnoses such as autism, treatment may continue beyond six months.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn our feeding room we like to keep tools like our cheese grater that has a sticky thing that goes on the bottom and holds it in place,\u201d she said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t move when you\u2019re grating it and also protects the hand.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Anderson, the adaptive tool is necessary for children who do not have fine motor control. For some patients, a lack of fine motor skills is a lifelong reality, and the adaptive tools can help remind them that they can still be independent.<\/p>\n

In addition to the various therapy rooms and exercises the clinic offers, Oaklin Lane has a nonclinical side called Academy Lane.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Academy Lane] offers a sort of extension of the services that we have here,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cSo maybe a kiddo has already graduated from here because they\u2019ve met all their goals but the parents want to continue working on certain skills. That\u2019s where the parents can partner with Academy Lane.\u201d<\/p>\n

Academy Lane offers weekly, biweekly or monthly sessions to work on targeted skills. For example, Academy Lane provides classes focused on communication, handwriting and learning how to ride a bike, among other things.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen parents come to us, a lot of times they\u2019re pretty desperate and they\u2019re pretty defeated, and what we want to be for them is not just the answer or the solution, but we want to be the resource,\u201d Anderson said.<\/p>\n

That desire to be a resource for families is rooted in Callander\u2019s own childhood experiences. For him, Oaklin Lane represents more than a pediatric therapy clinic. It is an opportunity to give children the resources and support he said he lacked growing up.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThose insecurities build, and those self-limiting beliefs build, and it really affects kids all the way through their childhood and into their adulthood,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd a lot of the kids that we work with at Oaklin Lane are kids that have developmental delays and I do feel like it\u2019s come full circle and I\u2019m doing everything I can to help that younger version of myself.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo courtesy of Oaklin Lane. Bright lights, padded floors, a black trampoline and a square foam pit fill…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1035448,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5135],"tags":[414322,5229,414323,414324,1596,414325,325239,60159,160399,81093,13386,414326,65806,270397,414327,96509,414328,13416,358,1190,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-1035447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-academy-lane","tag-america","tag-chelsey-anderson","tag-chris-callander","tag-dallas","tag-excel-pediatric-therapy","tag-georgetown-university","tag-greenville-avenue","tag-harvard-business-school","tag-hurricane-katrina","tag-lake-highlands","tag-managua","tag-nicaragua","tag-northern-virginia-community-college","tag-oaklin-lane","tag-occupational-therapy","tag-pediatric-therapy","tag-rockwall","tag-texas","tag-therapy","tag-tx","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117191735926378845","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1035447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1035447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1035447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1035448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1035447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1035447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1035447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}