Making Sense, Part F

We’re lead to believe that once your child’s been stuffed into one of these orthotic get-ups, she's just minutes away from moving like an Olympic gymnast. As for what additional help she may need to reach such heights, well -- good luck looking to the manufacturers' web sites for answers. I've found most of 'em to be "mostly cloudy" on the subject. As if that part of the equation were no big thing.

THAT PART of the equation is where the child-in-her-device meets up with the physical therapist (PT) and actually GOES TO WORK on trying to improve balance, stability and /or limb motion; where the PT and orthosis apply light-to-moderate CORRECTION as the child is encouraged to move the way she was designed to move. And CAN move. Even though she may have learned, through non-use, not to.

How are things supposed to go? How is the therapy supposed to help /work?

In theory:

Sensory information that is associated with (let's call it) a "corrected movement", and that originates in the muscles, tendons, ligaments, etc., gets routed to the central nervous system (CNS) which then takes sort of a neurological snapshot of that corrected movement. After enough of the same snapshots, the CNS starts to send corrected instructions back to those body parts. The corrected movement becomes learned. 

It's ultimately about trying to imprint patterns. Patterns a child can call upon at will to function effectively in the world.

*  *  *  *  * 

Without going into detail (for example, about how weak and tight muscles are aided and supported by proximal muscles):

I can see how these orthoses...these devices that compress and gently guide muscle groups...could very well help to facilitate correct movement. The rationale for their existence and use as neuromotor retraining devices now makes sense to me. I see no reason not to continue looking into them for my daughter.

Before I buy, though, I want to know more. More about how to increase the likelihood she'll benefit. More about how to proceed with caution. I want to keep from becoming too optimistic. These are just fabrics, after all.

I'm reminded of a line from TheraTogs’ site: “Each child or adult with CNS dysfunction presents hundreds of variables that comprise a unique constellation of sensory, motor, skeletal, joint, and muscular factors.” These have to – somehow, someway – be taken into account.

More to come on that.

You Say Educational. I Say Therapeutic.

You probably shouldn’t beat yourself up too much if you’ve erroneously lumped (1) Conductive Education and (2) MOVE [ Mobility Opportunities Via Education ] together with (3) the so-called “suit” method. Why? Because, although (1) and (2) are education methods and (3) is an intensive therapy method, there are still some significant common grounds*. 

Each of the three methods, for example:

• is founded on faith in the power of our amazing brains to CHANGE as a direct result of experience
• emphasizes REPEATING MOVEMENTS, in general, and providing MANY OPPORTUNITIES TO PRACTICE FUNCTIONAL SKILLS like kneeling, sitting and standing, in particular
• has its own characteristic way of keeping the body in CORRECT ALIGNMENT during activities
• strives to DECREASE UNWANTED REFLEXES
• has an INTENSIVE component, i.e., incorporates some element meant to heighten or amplify the student’s or patient’s experience for purposes of driving motor skill acquisition 

*based on stuff I’ve informally gathered.