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.