Dr. Tom Novacheck, of Gillette Children's, describes the characteristics of the 4 types of unilateral, otherwise known as hemiplegic gait, and how the use of clinical instrumented gait analysis can help with treatment decision making.
Dr. Tom Novacheck, Gillette Children's, describes what to look for in each of the 4 different gait patterns seen for those with bilateral cerebral palsy and considerations for each type.
Understanding different gait patterns is important because it can determine what interventions will potentially be the most effective.
A person’s gait is dependent on the interaction between the nervous, musculoskeletal, and cardiorespiratory systems and has many influences.
Learn about Ava's journey with gait analysis and surgery at Gillette Children's.
As a mother and a pediatrician, I’ve both felt the strain of pandemic parenting directly and indirectly. I’ve made decisions about my own family and sending our kids to daycare and school, and I’ve stayed up worrying about how parents are supposed to make these difficult choices with so little support.
When you use alternate means of communication it can be really frustrating to go out in community. It is hard to know whether people are understanding you and whether they will take the time to listen. A lot of times it's hard for people to admit that they're not always comfortable with a device or a wheelchair or person who does things differently. So the more we can expose and educate people the better off we all will be. When we talk about acceptance, we're not just talking about people in society accepting people with disabilities. We're also talking about people with disabilities who are using alternate means of communication and how difficult it is for them to be out in the community.
A speech language pathologist is someone who is trained in working with kids and adults. Everything from working with articulation errors and correcting things to what I do, which is working with people with profound physical impairments and getting them augmentative communication strategies.
Upper limb therapies and interventions have been well studied in cerebral palsy. Different interventions that have good evidence are Constraint Induced Movement Therapy (CIMT) and Bimanual Therapy. CIMT has been shown to be successful in children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy (CP). CIMT uses a splint to physically constrain the uninvolved arm and encourage them to use the more involved or affected arm.