Five years ago, then eleven-year-old Laurel Fontaine suffered from an ischemic stroke that caused her devastating damage, leaving about 80 percent of the left side of her brain—her language-dominant hemisphere—completely destroyed. Following the stroke, doctors told Laurel and her family it was unlikely that she would recover motor function. She would also likely never walk, talk, or do any other typical motor activities of children her age.
Allison Macika (2013) studied this question.