Last week I wrote about Constraint Induced Movement Therapy or CIMT. This photo from the Children’s Hemiplegia and Stroke Association (www.chasa.org) is the best example that I have seen. The […]
3 Steps To Hand Use: Alignment, Awareness and Activation
Babies first explore their hands with their mouth, gradually using them to explore and reach by 3-6 months. Yet even at the stage of independent sitting, a baby can still […]
Good Enough Is Not Good Enough Any More – Function Follows Form In Cerebral Palsy
In the bad old days, a child with cerebral palsy who attained any level of independent function was considered “Good Enough”. Fortunately, times have changed and the standards must be […]
Do You Want Your Child to Walk or to Walk Well?
Neuroplasticity is the good news. Maladaptive habits are the bad. No matter how old your child is, every parent is at the crossroads and the choices you make will affect […]
Take Advantage of the Periods of Peak Neuroplasticity
Children’s brains grow at a higher rate throughout the first 18 to 24 years of life than they do as adults. Within this extended time period, there are two periods […]
Back to Basics – Alignment Comes First
The basic rule “Alignment Comes First”, applies to hands as much as it does to the legs, yet in my experience, very few children with brachial plexus injury (BPI) and/or […]
Core Support Options
As I have discussed last week, every pediatric therapy intervention that I am aware of aims, in part, to strengthen the core. And the exercises used should strengthen the core. […]
Minimize Maladaptive Motor Habits
Whatever you do, your body will learn to do better. If you are walking badly, your body will learn how to do badly better. Over a long period of time […]
Movement Starts With The Core
The overwhelming majority of small babies with damaged brains have perfectly normal posture during sleep. When they are awake and attentive, looking at you, but not moving, they are similarly […]
Billi Cusick’s Thoughts on Managing Children with Diplegic Cerebral Palsy
The following is a guest blog from Billi Cusick, PT, MS, COF, President of Progressive GaitWays, LLC and Developer of the TheraTogs System. Billi wrote this informative letter for her […]