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 regular newsletter, The Pacesetter. She has kindly given me permission to reproduce it for the readership of this site. I post it with my full endorsement. Supporting the core (trunk [...]

Catch them doing it right – A Parent’s Perspective

My 7 year old daughter, who has athetoid cerebral palsy, has a lot of extra movements. It used to be that if she was sitting in a chair, she would hop around so much that her chair would be moving across the room. It is not safe and it is counterproductive if she wants to do anything while sitting. We [...]

The Boy Who Could Run Better Than He Could Walk

All baby brains have the potential to recover to some extent and some may be cured completely. (Baby Brains Can Recover – Pediatric Neuroplasticity) What about the child who does not recover completely? Common wisdom is that once the diagnosis of cerebral palsy is determined, the child will have it for life. It is incurable. Very few people think there [...]

The Concise Book of Muscles by Chris Jarmey and The Anatomy Coloring Book by Wynn Kapit & Lawrence M. Elson

The Concise Book of Muscles by Chris Jarmey – Chichester: Lotus Publishing and Berkley: North Atlantic Books, 2003  The Anatomy Coloring Book by Wynn Kapit & Lawrence M. Elson – San Francisco: Benjamin-Cummings Publishing, 2002  I wrote about the need for greater patient knowledge in the post Anatomy 101 – Why You Should Know Your Body. The concept of the empowered [...]

Moving Freely

“If you can dream it, you can do it.”   – Walt Disney, 1901-1966 The last two posts from the mother of a child and an adult, both with a movement disorder, stated that water exercise with a floatation device gave them freedom of movement. For the child, this meant that she could move independently, without adult help and support. [...]

Independence for My Daughter

From time to time, I will ask people who have direct experience with these programs to send in their own blog post. Here is the first. – Karen Pape