Regardless whether your child has spastic arms and hands, or if your child has arm and hands that are too weak for any manual competence; all of them share the common characteristics of deep underlying myofascial weakness and the same problem of arm and hand immobility. 

 

The truth is that under every spasticity is extreme weakness.  The spastic reaction of the arms and the hands are the child’s natural way of creating additional tension to handle the underlying weakness of their myofascial structure.

 

Naturally, the child’s body deals with weakness of the neck, shoulder girdle, arms and hands by doing the following:

  • Raise and bend his/her arms. Sometimes the arms are pulled backwards so that the child creates another level of tension to help with shoulder girdle and neck stability
  • Twist the hands to create the hand-to-hand connection via the pectoral muscles group on the front tension band, enabling stability in the shoulder girdle. 
  • Large movement of tight, extended arms
  • Strong arching backwards
  • Opens mouth to create band of tension from the face to the back of the head

 

All of these work together to artificially improve the strength and stability of the head, shoulder girdle and, to some extent, the trunk.  However, when such is done continuously and consistently over and over again, spasticity begins to set in. 

Meanwhile, the weak tissues continue to shrink in size and loses strength because they are shielded from mechanical stimulation.  Soon enough, they go to sleep or ‘hibernate’, and completely exclude themselves from the body map. 

Stretching, braces, botox injection, baclofen and tendon release are common attempts to reduce the spasticity.  However, without addressing the underlying weakness, the child will naturally seek to engage the arms and hands to help with the stability of the shoulder girdle and, together with the mouth opening, help with the head stability.  Spasticity will then begin to set in again.

 

The PowerCare workout delivers the necessary mechanical stimulation to first “awaken” the sleeping fascia and gradually reinstate their position in the body map.  Further consistent work provides the necessary strengthening of the weak fascia and release of spasticity.  

 

PowerCare Workshop collects the essence of ABR exercise and group them together as individual workshops with various focus.  The first PowerCare Workshop focuses on "reduce spasticity, reduce mobility".  It consists of the following elements:

1.  Lecture - learning the reasons behind poor head control, discomforts in various neutral positions such as lying on your back, on your tummy and on your side position, poor arm mobility, poor sitting, inability to crawl or walk.  And what we can do in our daily lives to keep spasticity to minimum so that we can gain greatest potential of head control, postures, sitting and movement.  Duration of lecture is 2 hours

2.  Assessment of your child serves 2 purposes:  

     a.  To document the results of various physical assessment tests for future comparison

     b.  To explain to you the deficiency of your child's structure and various assessment test results.

     Duration of assessment including assessment tests and pictures taking (about 60 mins) and explanation (about 60 mins)

3.  Workshop - learning the techniques and exercise that are designed to reduce spasticity and improve mobility of your child.  Duration of workshop is 4 hours

 

For the next workshop near your home, please click the following button for more information

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