Overall comfort in prone (lying on tummy) position is fundamental in quality of life of any child affected by Cerebral Palsy.  Many kids do not like to lie on their tummy for various possible reasons:

1.  their respiration is challenged when their weight lands on the chest and the chest is too weak for that activity

2.  They are unable to move their head freely and therefore their heads are stuck in certain position

3.  Their arms are stuck under their trunk when they are in prone position.  They do not have the ability to free their arms for weight bearing. 

4.  They are so stiff that the entire trunk is rested only on a few points.  Even distribution of the body weight is essential to the comfort of prone position

5.  Their legs defile gravity and therefore remain stiff in the air. 

Improved comfort when this girl lies on her tummy has made such a huge upgrade in her quality of life.  We have seen how she is a lot more comfortable in supine (lying on her back) and now we observe the same when she lies on her tummy. 

Here in Jan 2018, she looks a lot happier and relaxed when she lies on her tummy.  Other important observantions can also be made:

1.  15 months ago, her head was stuck in "face down" one position and she was unable to change her head position.  Now her head begins to have the new found freedom to move to the side.  

2.  Her arms were stuck under her trunk and were not able to free herself just 15 months ago.  With the reduction in overall spasticity and the release of her arms, she is beginning to bear weight with her forearm and palm.  

3.  She was so stiff 15 months ago that her entire trunk was supported only by her weak chest while her pelvis and legs were in the air without any contact with the bench.  Now she is a lot more relaxed and her pelvis and legs finally come in contact with the bench.  The weight of the entire trunk is now more evenly distributed between the upper trunk, the pelvis and the legs.  That really helps with the improved overall comfort of the position.  

Do not miss this opportunity of helping to reduce your child's spasticity and improve his / her mobility. 

For more information about the upcoming PowerCare workshop, click the following link:

PowerCare Workshop

ABR Open House in Jakarta

Date: (Contact us for more details)

The open house includes a talk about the causes behind posture and movement disorders and how ABR exercises are able to improve your child's postures and movement. Admission for the talk is by registration. 

If you would like to have your child assessed, you can also schedule with us for an appointment.  There will be sets of assessment tests done for various positions and movements. Pictures will be taken of the assessment tests for documentation and analysis. The Singapore team will give you an analysis of the assessment tests, which will evaluate your child's physical structure deficiencies that are responsible for your child's postures and movement disorder. 

Date and time: (Contact us for more details) - assessment tests and pictures taking (60 mins) and Analysis of assessment test results (60 mins).  Some may take longer while others may take shorter time)

The assessment fee is normally SGD 200 but for this open house, we will do assessment for a very special price of SGD 100.  The assessment fee paid can be used to offset part of the price of any training program.  

Available appointments are limited.  Please register early.

More details will be provided to those interested!  Interested parties may register by clicking the button below.  

We now move onto the progress of another girl from Penang Foundation Class, which teaches standard exercise to the parents so that they can do the exercise on their child affected by Cerebral Palsy.

Unlike the family of A from Malaysia, this girl's parents managed much less hours.  Within the span of 15 months (from Nov 2016 to Jan 2018), they only managed 24 hours of tapping, 24 hours of torso wrap and 6 hours of hands and feet.  Obviously the working hours are big constraints because both parents work full time and have no helpers.  However, despite the relatively poor hours, F shows impressive results from the exercise.  

We want to celebrate with the parents for what they have done.  On the other hand, we encourage them to press on for greater results in the near future.  They are encouraged to look for opportunity for more hours as follows:

1. weekends and holidays
2. 10 to 15 mins as small chunk of opportunity -  ABR results are from the cumulation of hours.  Hence opportunity chunks of 10 to 15 mins can quickly accumulate to sizable bulk of hours.  
3. Start exploring doing the power wrap for one area or more, depending on the child's tolerance, during the night time.  It takes 5 to 15 mins to wrap (depending on the area) and if the child sleeps with the wrap, it would have easily gained another 8 to 10 hours of mechanical stimulation within the uniform tension of the power wrap.  

She has gained an impressive amount of weight and size.  Her weight gain of 3.2kg over the 1.5 year is great.  We will see later the increase of her size in the before and after pictures.  

First we want to look at the impressive reduction of her global spasticity and stiffness of the entire body.   In that sense, because the spasticity is so global, it rightfully belongs to dystonia reduction.  

Children affected by Cerebral Palsy are typically very depleted in his size and depth of trunk.  They often look skinny and flat when it is viewed from the side.  That is due to the weak lung and its surrounding weak myofascia tissues.  

But when the chest and its surrounding myfoascia tissues has another deeper level of weakness, the ribs will begin to rotate inwards individually and as a whole all the ribs will rotate upwards thereby creating additional artificial depth to the thorax.  This is what we call the 'fake thoracic depth' effect.  

As the underlying chest and myofascia strengthens, the ribs begin its reverse journey and start turning downwards and backwards towards the back.  The results is the reduced fake thoracic depth and flatter appearance of the chest.  

Lets take a closer look at the side view of his thorax in Nov 2016.

These were the observation of his thoracic condition in Nov 2016.  With the impressive volumetric improvement and the strengthening of his chest, there are a number of great transformations seen here.  

Children affected by Cerebral Palsy are typically very depleted in his size and depth of trunk.  They often look skinny and flat when it is viewed from the side.  That is due to the weak lung and its surrounding weak myofascia tissues.  

But when the chest and its surrounding myfoascia tissues has another deeper level of weakness, the ribs will begin to rotate inwards individually and as a whole all the ribs will rotate upwards thereby creating additional artificial depth to the thorax.  This is what we call the 'fake thoracic depth' effect.  

As the underlying chest and myofascia strengthens, the ribs begin its reverse journey and start turning downwards and backwards towards the back.  The results is the reduced fake thoracic depth and flatter appearance of the chest.  

When her chest is stronger, that is where we also observe her improved respiration and the improved abdomen and improved pelvis.  Above all, the improvement seen in other areas such as reduced global spasticity, improved sitting and improved overall comfort level

Do not miss this opportunity of helping to reduce your child's spasticity and improve his / her mobility. 

For more information about the upcoming PowerCare workshop, click the following link:

PowerCare Workshop

Increase in size is a common challenge among the children affected by Cerebral Palsy.  Many children have difficulty putting on weight for years.  One should not be surprised that a typical child or teenager affected by Cerebral Palsy are skinny and are under weight because of their poor metabolism.  Rate of metabolism 

15 months of ABR exercise gives a big volume and size boost to this child, who has been severely under size and has been having difficulty to grow in size and in weight.  She puts on an impressive additional 3.2kg within 6 months ie between Dec 2017 and Jun 2018.  That has opened a window of opportunity for the overall reduction of spasticity and dystonia.

There is significant reduction of rigid muscular layer at her back with the clear lateral expansion of her back and her pelvis.  

With the improved pelvis, the sitting platform has expanded correspondingly.  She therefore has a much more stable platform for her sitting position.  

Three main factors contribute to her improved sitting performance:

1.  Reduced head arching backwards

2.  Stronger trunk and abdomen

3.  Expanded sitting platform

15 months ago, her mom was completely unsure and concerned about putting her in sitting position.  Her sitting then required 2 persons holding her head and her trunk simultaneously.  It was generally a scary event to try to put her into sitting position.  

It is quite a different story now.  With the improved of the 3 big factors, she is a lot more comfortable when she is placed in sitting position.  That at the same time translates into improved sitting performance for her.

Do not miss this opportunity of helping to reduce your child's spasticity and improve his / her mobility. 

For more information about the upcoming PowerCare workshop, click the following link:

PowerCare Workshop