SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) – An 11-year-old Westfield girl who suffered severe brain damage after allegedly being beaten into a coma by her adoptive mother and stepfather is receiving daily physical, occupational and speech therapy, state officials said Friday.

Haleigh has been in state custody since she was hospitalized in September and was admitted to the Franciscan Hospital for Children in Boston late last month.

According to a Department of Social Services statement issued Friday by the hospital, Haleigh’s doctors say the girl is “medically stable.”

About a week after taking custody of Haleigh, DSS sought permission to remove her from life support when her doctors said she was in a persistent vegetative state.

The move sparked a legal battle between DSS and Haleigh’s stepfather, Jason Strickland, who was charged with assaulting the girl and could face a murder charge if she dies.

Haleigh’s adoptive mother, Holli Strickland, was also charged with assault. She was found dead alongside her grandmother in a murder-suicide shortly after being arrested.

The state’s Supreme Judicial Court essentially cleared the way for Haleigh’s life support to be removed by ruling in January that Strickland has no say in the girl’s medical care. But a day after the ruling, DSS officials said Haleigh was showing signs of improvement.

Since then, her ventilator has been removed and DSS officials have said Haleigh can follow sounds with her eyes.

A lawyer for Allison Avrett, Haleigh’s birth mother who is seeking a say in her daughter’s medical care, said this week that the girl was responding to yes or no signals when asked about her name and gender.

The lawyer, Wendy Murphy, was not specific about how Haleigh answered the questions, and DSS officials would not comment about her responsiveness or what it might mean.

Deborah Ricardi, an occupational therapist at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center said therapists often begin working with severely brain injured children at very early stages. She said speech therapists will often work with patients who have been recently taken off a ventilator to help them swallow on their own.

After Haleigh’s ventilator was removed, she was unable to swallow, officials said at the time.

“A speech therapist makes sure a patient can swallow and have a good gag reflex,” Ricardi said. “It’s not always about communication right away.”

Ricardi said occupational and physical therapists focus on a patient’s motor skills and their ability to respond to sensation. Sometimes a patient will still be on a ventilator when they receive therapy, she said.

“We’ll see head injury patients as soon as they’re medically stable,” Ricardi said. “People sometimes think we don’t get involved until a patient is sitting up and feeding themselves, but we help get them to that point.”