When this boy first came to see us in Nov 2017, his demonstration of his high motor intelligence in walking was very clear.  He constantly used his arms and his legs to help with his balance and coordination because his balance and coordination were not good.  

Our first goal is to improve his fundamentals for walking.  The primary target was his hands and feet.  Since they were not as active as they should be, they were poorly represented in the entire central nervous system (CNS), affecting his coordination.  Hands and feet have the greatest number of mechano-receptors and were therefore the most obvious target for ABR work.  Because of their poor connection and poor ability to respond to the CNS, they stay pretty much dormant and inactive.  

Because this boy is also hyper active, it is challenging for his mom to work on him.  Her daily average was about 20 mins of work, which was not done in single session but was done in several sessions of whatever length of time she was able to do.  In other words, her work was done on opportunity basis - whenever opportunity presents itself.  However, his hands and feet had wrap exercises on before bedtime so that he can sleep with them through the night.  4 months of work on his hands and feet has reactivated them for mobility. 

Besides the improved body map, work on arms and feet also establish an ascending line of development from the limbs towards the trunk, with development of limbs as leader.  As a result, the improved hands and feet improves the core structure including the head, the shoulder, the trunk and the pelvis.  

The change has been impressive.  The summary of the overall progress can be seen in the following video:

Improvement in the shoulder girdle, pelvis girdle and spine are key elements behind improved walking.  The change in their fundamentals are listed as below:

1.  Improved balance coordination - as a result, there is a reduction in reliance on his arms for balancing.  His arms and hands are more naturally placed in relaxed position  

2.  Improved lower abdomen pubic triangle (width of anterior pelvis) - the legs are rotated inwards,  Note how the face of his knee changes from facing outwards to now facing forwards.

3.   Achieved his ability to scoop his bum and move his entire body sideway -  This means stronger arms, stronger abdomen, and pelvis.

4.  Improved flexibility of the spine translates to improved ease of bending forward:

5.  Toes are no longer curved and pressed while walking.  He also walks more on the lateral side (outer side of foot) instead of the medial side (inner side of foot) of the foot.  4 months ago, his entire medial shows lines of compression.  His shin begins to show signs of strain as a result of        'windlass effect' and the traveling path of ground reaction moving from the calf to the shin.  All these show improved 'windlass effect'.  

If you are interested in knowing more about what causes the postures and movement disorder, and what ABR can do for your child, we will be holding an open house in Perth and Sydney soon! You can find out about the soonest Open House here:

 

Should you have any other questions, please write to Sarah at 该邮件地址已受到反垃圾邮件插件保护。要显示它需要在浏览器中启用 JavaScript。 or 该邮件地址已受到反垃圾邮件插件保护。要显示它需要在浏览器中启用 JavaScript。, you can also whatsapp call Sarah at +6591889017 (whatsapp call is free.  Just download the app to your mobile phone). 

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.  

Date: 7 March 2019, Thursday

Venue: Travelodge, Hay Street, Perth

Reduce your child's spasticity, improve your child's mobility!

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. 

Date of talk:  7 March 2019, Thursday

Time of talk:  3pm to 5pm

Admission is free and is by registration

If you would like to have your child assessed, you can also schedule with us for an appointment and make a donation of AUD50 to BioRehab Foundation which is the charity that makes Perth satelliite training possible. 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: 8 March 2019, Friday -  Please allow 60 mins of assessment tests and 60 mins of analysis (depending on the child.  Some may take longer while others may take shorter time)

Price of Appointment is SGD 50 (which is donated to Bio-Rehab, the charity that helps to make Perth training program possible) 

Available appointments are limited.  Please register early.

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

Walking child with cerebral palsy typically has the same problem of being excessive exhausted because of the great efforts needed to walk.  All of the children with cerebral palsy show little or no ability to counter balance.  As a result, they have to use their brain more extensively to control the muscles needed for balance, and have to either raise their arms or move their legs in an attempt to help with their balance.  

It is a known fact that children with Cerebral Palsy uses 30% more energy for their daily activities.  That is because of the need to excessively use their brain and muscles for postures and movement.  

If the child constantly uses more energy to move or do daily activities, their energy which is otherwise needed for their growth and developement is wasted for daily activities such as walking and sitting or performing any manual activities.  

The end result is exhaustion from simple daily activities and comprise of his growth and development.  

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.