Puberty can be a second chance or a complete disaster – the outcome depends on the choices you make during this important period. Unfortunately, to take advantage of this period […]
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 […]
Muscle Imbalance Hurts Growing Bodies
Baby brains and nerves have an exuberant amount of neuroplasticity in the first 3 to 4 years of life, but in many cases, doing our current therapy interventions in an […]
Water Exercise for Children with Cerebral Palsy
A little girl with moderate to severe athetoid CP first found freedom of movement using a Wet Vest to jog in the water. This is what her mother said about […]
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 […]
Brachial Plexus Injury
Children with a C5-6 brachial plexus birth injury initially have difficulty raising their hand over their head. This young girl has the typical “lift your arm” posture. It is an early learned habit. Doing jumping jacks, she can easily elevate her shoulder. New skills demonstrate recovery masked by habit.
Crawling: Normal, But Not Necessary
Most babies begin to crawl between the ages of 6 to 10 months. If a child has an early neurologic problem such as cerebral palsy or brachial plexus injury, both […]
The Invisible Gorilla
The Invisible Gorilla: How Our Intuitions Deceive Us by Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons – New York: Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, 2009 Where is the invisible […]
Deep Water Jogging for Gait Training
Children with an early neurological problem learn their first movements with a damaged nervous system. Baby brains do recover, but it takes time. It is difficult to study the process […]
The Checklist Manifesto – How To Get Things Right by Atul Gawande – New York: Picador, 2011
How could a book about checklists be all that interesting? Trust me on this one. You will be riveted. I read this book, the first time, straight through without stopping. […]