Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Art


What een prachtige kunst heeft deze fotograaf gemaakt van een paar foto's. Deze foto word gebruikt voor een poster die op straat word gehangen in San Francisco met als doel het community gardening in de stad te promoten.

Friday, February 20, 2009

E-stim


The most exciting development I am seeing in e-stim is the new EMG activated e-stim. Karen Pape MD from Canada is teaching a course in New York about this technique. I first head about the unit last year from a teacher who used it to assess the effectiveness of kinesio tape. Here is the link to the course info:

21st Century Neuroplastic Interventions in Pediatric Rehabilitation

Integrating EMG-Triggered-Stimulation and Biofeedback into an evidence-based pediatric rehabilitation practice model Karen Pape, MD and Pia Stampe, PT, DPT
May 16 & 17 2008
To learn more click here

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Therasuit


You probably know about the therasuit developed in the United States and based on the Adeli Suit. This was a byproduct from the Soviet space program. They developed this suit for adults to provide deep pressure and resistance to movement for the cosmonauts while afloat in space to keep their muscles from getting weaker and to stimulate the bones. Well this suit is now available in clinics and for at home to strengthen children with CP. It gives them stability and allows some of them to move through space (walk) with external support. I would say it is an extraskeletal support system comparable in function to Theratogs. The advantage of the theratogs is that you can wear it all day under your clothes. Some clinics do use both together. The therasuit in therapy and at home and the theratogs the rest of the time. Check it out and learn more at the association for intense therapy.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Nada chair



How do you stretch out those hamstrings in a child with CP? Or should I say why do the hamstrings fire so much? Question one is relatively easy. I like using a NADA chair at home with knee immobilizers. It is a fast and cheap way to get the child to do his or her daily hamstring stretches. The reason those hamstrings fire so much with children with CP has to do with the distribution of weight. Look at where the weight line goes. Does it go from shoulders to hips and then to feet (upright standing) or does it go too far forward? Mostly to far forward so we have these clients on their toes and this activates the hamstrings. Try it at home. Stand on the inside of your feet and feel the weight shift forward. This would turn on your hamstrings.

Friday, January 30, 2009

Share and Care


I am a Pediatric PT in San Francisco who is looking for new ideas in Pediatric Therapy. I work with children with CP. I would like to create a blog with all the best ideas of therapy in one site. A site to recharge if you do not know what to do or a blog that just shows you the problems we all try to solve when working with CP. Now for starters CP stands for Cerebral Palsy. It really is a grab bag of different problems all related by the fact that they are caused by brain injury that occured before or during child birth.

What is the Definition of Cerebral Palsy? Cerebral palsy is a term used to describe a group of chronic conditions affecting body movements and muscle coordination. It is caused by damage to one or more specific areas of the brain, usually occurring during fetal development, or during infancy. It can also occur before, during or shortly following birth.

"Cerebral" refers to the brain and "Palsy" to a disorder of movement or posture. If someone has cerebral palsy it means that because of an injury to their brain (cerebral) they are not able to use some of the muscles in their body in the normal way (palsy). Children with cerebral palsy may not be able to walk, talk, eat or play in the same ways as most other children.

Cerebral palsy is neither progressive nor communicable. It is also not "curable" in the accepted sense, although education, therapy and applied technology can help persons with cerebral palsy lead productive lives. It is important to know that cerebral palsy is not a disease or illness. It isn't contagious and it doesn't get worse. Children who have cerebral palsy will have it all their lives.

Cerebral palsy is characterized by an inability to fully control motor function, particularly muscle control and coordination. Depending on which areas of the brain have been damaged, one or more of the following may occur:
  • muscle tightness or spasm
  • involuntary movement
  • disturbance in gait and mobility
  • abnormal sensation and perception
  • impairment of sight, hearing or speech
  • seizures
So this defenition gives us a start to work from. So let's leave you with a link I think you should know. One of the teachers I continue to study with is Beverly Cusick. She has a product on the market that is called theratogs. Read and watch online to see how this can work wonders for some clients.