Neurodevelopmental Techniques for Cerebral Palsy

According to American Family Physician, cerebral palsy is an ailment that afflicts about 15 million people throughout the world. It encompasses a broad range of neurological disorders that make the condition difficult to define. Potential disorders caused by cerebral palsy include a range of symptoms from mental retardation to epilepsy, which may exist simultaneously in a patient or which may develop over time.

Treatments

• There is no method or medication that can work to undo the damage done to cells in those with cerebral palsy. According to the Neuro-Developmental Treatment Association (NDTA), the best treatment is one that combines a panoply of methods that address, to the extent possible, the deficiencies to such an extent that the patient is able to carry on his life functions with the least effort and most efficiency. This is the approach the most popular neurodevelopmental technique of treating this ailment, known as Neuro-Developmental Technique (NDT) seeks to fulfill.

BoBath Method

• Also called the Bobath Method of treating cerebral palsy, the method developed by the Neuro-Developmental Treatment Association holistically combines Occupational Therapy (OT); Physical Therapy and Speech-Language Pathology. The aim of this combined and comprehensive treatment is to help the patient address aspects such as controlling movements with the aim of facilitating independence. The treatment seeks to look at neurological or motor movements from a fuller perspective, rather than as a weakness of only the muscle that doesn't function properly. In other words, the therapy takes into consideration not just the physiological aspects such as difficulty with muscular movements, but looks at the problem as part of the patient's whole self. All emotional, social, psychological, mental, physical and functional aspects are considered as part of the treatment.

Approach

• Physical therapists, psychologists, orthopedists, neurologists; occupational therapists, educators and social workers coordinate treatment in consultation with each other. This means that all related persons, including the patient's parents, caregivers, other family members and friends are also part of the healing process. The key to this form of neuro-developmenal treatment is early diagnosis, as once a child begins to develop, it can be difficult to change the way they look at the developmental process. Ideally, the treatment should be started as early as the age of two-three months.