In this article we will comment 10 Activities for children with cerebral palsy Which can be useful for improving capacities and quality of life.
Cerebral palsy is a group of movement disorders and posture that cause a marked limitation of activity.
This disease originates from a non-progressive aggression on a developing brain, that is to say, due to some damage produced during the fetal period or the first years of life.
The etiology of cerebral palsy can be attributed to different factors. In general, these can be divided into three main groups: prenatal factors, perinatal factors and postnatal factors.
Concerning prenatal factors, there are alterations in coagulation, autoimmune diseases or intrauterine infection of the mother, changes in the placenta such as thrombosis or vascular changes, and fetal factors such as polyhydramnios.
The most common perinatal factors are prematurity, low birth weight, maternal fever during childbirth, sustained hypoglycemia and intracranial hemorrhage.
Finally, the cerebral palsy developed when the child is already born is usually due to infections, Cranioencephalic trauma , Convulsive status, poisoning, or cardio-respiratory arrest.
Keep in mind that not all cerebral palsies are the same, since there are different types.
Thus, we can find tetraplegias (involvement of the upper and lower limbs), disparages (major involvement of the upper limbs), hemiparesis (involvement of both limbs on one side of the body) and monoparesis (involvement of a single limb).
However, regardless of the type of cerebral palsy And the etiological factors of the disorder, this disease undoubtedly causes a great disability for the child.
For this reason, the realization of activities from the earliest stages of life are fundamental to stimulate the child's deficits and encourage both physical and mental development.
Activities for children with cerebral palsy
1- Learning to control the head
The first activity that must be performed to stimulate the development of a child with cerebral palsy lies in the control of the head.
For a child to get up, turn, sit, crawl or make any movement, first of all must develop some control over his head.
This task is difficult for all newborns, since the size and weight of their head, compared to the rest of the body and its strength, is very high.
However, for children with paralysis this activity is even more complex, so parents should work and train this action with the baby.
So before you teach the child to move, turn or sit, you have to strengthen control over your head.
To do this, the child should be encouraged to lift his head when lying on his stomach. This action can be done by drawing attention to it with bright objects or colors.
If you find that your child has difficulty lifting his head because of the weakness of his body regions, it is often helpful to put a folded blanket under his chest and shoulders.
In case the child can not get up, take it and place it on your chest so that it is practically seated. With this posture it will be easier for you to lift your head.
Once on your back, you should grab the child by the shoulders and lift it gently until the head hangs slightly back. This action should be performed with caution and should be avoided if the head hangs too much.
Finally, another action that allows to develop this activity is to put the nipple (or the bottle) next to the lips instead of keeping it in the mouth so that the child must approach the food by itself.
2- Learn to turn and turn
Only when the child already has a good control of his head, you can begin to practice the activity of turning and turning.
To do this action we can start as in the previous activity, drawing the child's attention when lying down.
Once your attention is drawn with a toy, you should swing it to one side so that the child turns his head.
If after several tries the child does not perform the action, it can be helped by lifting one leg.
Once the child has mastered this movement, he can be taught to turn to the side while lying on his back.
In this case, you must accommodate the child on his back and offer him a toy on one side, encouraging him to turn to pick it up.
3- Practice the coordination between eyes and hands
One of the characteristics of children with cerebral palsy is that, very often, they do not have the grip relay during the first months of life.
So, if you put your finger close to him, you probably will not catch him with your hand until more advanced stages.
This fact may interfere with the development of the child, so it is important to practice this activity.
To do this, first of all, it is necessary to observe if the baby always has the closed hand. If so, you should rub it gently with your hand from the little finger to the wrist.
This fact will make you open your hand, and most likely grab your finger.
In case the child does not close his hand, it is useful to take an object in the hand, close it to hold it and slowly release his hand to maintain the gripping action.
4- Stimulating body control
When babies control their heads, they begin to sit and move.
However, to sit well, the child needs to control his body, use his hands and balance.
The occurrence of these abilities are often delayed in children with cerebral palsy, so practice them and help develop them.
To do this, it is effective to sit the child and, when he falls, teach him to stop by extending his arms.
A useful activity to practice this action is to lay the child face down on a trunk, hold the hip and slowly surround it to the sides.
While you do, you should encourage the child to stop when he is balanced with the help of his hand. This same action can also be done by laying the child on your belly.
When the child can stand while lying down, the same is done by sitting and swinging it sideways, and up and back.
Once you have some control, you can do the same by sitting the child on your legs and moving them slightly so that the child tries to counteract the destabilization produced by the movement.
5- Start the drag and crawl
It is important that crawling and crawling begin when the child has some control over his or her body.
In this way, it is convenient to follow the order of activities we have discussed so far.
To do this, it is useful to start by laying your child face down on the floor and draw your attention to an object that is practically within reach.
If, when the child tries to approach the object, he can not bend his leg, he should be helped by lifting his hip.
If it is difficult for the baby to start crawling on the floor, you can practice the same action on your leg.
So sit on the floor and put the baby face down on your leg. Draw attention with an object placed at your feet for the child to crawl to it.
When your child has mastered this activity, encourage him to do it as often as he can.
Climbing a mountain of crawling straw is another activity especially beneficial because it allows to strengthen the kid's limbs.
6- Learn to walk
To start the child on the go, the baby must have previously learned to crawl and control his body.
Once these two actions have been mastered, the child must be caught under the armpits, encouraged to take a straight posture and lightly support his feet on the ground.
This action will allow the child to use the gait reflex and strengthen his legs.
When the child is holding on to the ground, place yourself in front of him, hold him by the hips and spread his feet so that he has a wide support.
Afterwards, you should tilt the child from side to side gently so that he learns to move his weight from one leg to another.
When the child can almost walk alone but is afraid, it is useful to tie a cloth around his chest.
You must stand behind him holding the cloth without force and watching the child at all times in case he falls.
7- Improve balance
In addition, various activities can be practiced to allow the child to improve his or her balance.
This ability will be useful both to improve your walking ability and to avoid dangerous postures when you sit or when you fall.
When the child is lying down, you should encourage him to change his weight from one arm to the other.
To do this, you can draw your attention to an object and get the child to pick it up.
When trying to catch it, the child will balance his weight to an arm, so he should be encouraged to catch it each time with a different hand.
To improve your seated balance, it is useful to place the child on a rocking table. The instability of the surface will force the child to practice his balance skills.
When the child crawls, you should encourage him to shift his weight from one arm to another and from one leg to another. Also, you can be taught to crawl forward and backward.
These activities will develop your balance and at the same time serve to strengthen your muscles.
When walking, it may be helpful to ask the child to stand and swing on the knees (as long as Spasticity ), And learn to stand still, clinging to some object.
8- Control of muscle tension
Children with cerebral palsy are much more likely to contract contractures, so it is advisable to carry out activities that can prevent them.
In this case, it is important that when performing the exercises does not increase spasticity, but the muscles can relax.
To relax the spastic muscles it is often advisable to place warm rags on the spastic muscles of the child.
Subsequently, the child can be helped to twist from side to side, stretching his muscles and reducing spasticity.
9- Incorporation of the game
The best way for children to learn is to play, so it is important to present any activity as a game.
It is therefore advisable to carry out the activities for a specific period (not very long) and incorporate new and attractive elements for the child.
It is important that the child learn to play with other children and to play alone, so he should be given the opportunity to play fun activities.
On the other hand, the game is a highly important element that can allow the work and development of their skills.
Incorporating toys to strengthen your senses of touch, such as clay, rope, pulleys, marbles, sand, and toys to increase your visual senses like mirrors, colors or puppets, is highly beneficial.
Also, balancing toys such as swings or hammocks, and toys for the ear like rattan, flutes or drums, will not only allow the child to have fun, but will also increase their development.
10- Start in skills for daily living.
Finally, the child should gradually develop a series of basic skills.
Cerebral palsy makes this series of abilities take longer to appear, so it should also be practiced to develop.
To help the child develop new skills, you first have to observe everything you can do and everything you can not do.
Often, the child will need a lot of help to talk and communicate, so he should be helped to communicate in any way he can.
Likewise, you should be encouraged to learn to eat, dress, bathe and fulfill your daily needs on your own.
In order to practice this type of activities, the child's abilities must be taken into account and encouraged to use them.
References
- Tilton AH. Approach to the rehabilitation of spasticity and neuromuscular disorders in children. Neurol Clin. 2003; 21: 853-881.
- Harum KH, Hoon AHJr, Casella JF.Factor V Leiden: a risk factor for cerebral palsy. Dev Med Child Neurol 1999; 41: 781-5.
- Delgado MR, Albright AL. Movement disorders in children: definitions, classifications, and grading systems. J Child Neurol. 2003; 18 (suppl 1): S1-S8.
- David Werner. Disabled Village Children A guide for community health workers rehabilitation workers, and families. Electronic edition: Ch. 9 Cerebral palsy.
- Varela X, Kleinsteuber K, Malaria M: A_: Cerebral Palsy In: David P., Förster J., Devilat M. Pediatric Neurology.. Editorial Mediterráneo 2012 Santiago-Chile.