The Truth about Walking Part 4 – Key Dilemmas

Today's post is probably one of the most important ones that you'll ever get from me.  

I invite you to challenge one of our most natural and the most intuitively ingrained beliefs -- "achieving better walking requires practicing ... the walking"... 

It seems so self-evident that even without the instruction from a physical therapist, the parents of children with cerebral palsy happily expose their kids to do the "walking"  and celebrate the contacts that a child has with the ground with cheers. It seems so safe and rewarding...

I invite you to imagine that you wanted to "teach" your child to fly by throwing him or her out of the window with the enthusiastic advice: "Flap your hands, darling, and you'll soar!" -- Sounds ridiculous, right?

Well, putting a quadriplegic child with cerebral palsy through "walking" is equally ridiculous and in the long run -- more damaging.  Why? -- because there is no obvious harm that one would see right away.  On the opposite -- it feels "right":  "Wow, we are making progress; we should do more of this.."

Walking is a crowning achievement of the human locomotion -- the pinnacle that requires dozens and dozens of elements to be in place in order for the contact with the ground made via the moving feet to be beneficial virtuous cycle.  Otherwise -- you are enthusiastically distorting your child's body being enticed by loud cheers and "expert" advice of physical therapists.

This video presents counter intuitive approach to walking.  It exposes the many hidden dilemmas that even the most intuitive therapist and parents are not aware of.  I hope this video raise your awareness of these dilemmas and the possible pitfalls of ‘functional training’ and ‘walking training’.  Effectiveness of “Teaching the brain” or “re-connecting the neural pathways”  remain questionable.