An empowering and evidence-based guide for living a full life with spastic diplegia–bilateral cerebral palsy.
As your child with CP is becoming a teenager, there are a couple of things you may want to think about.
Oropharyngeal dysphagia, or OPD, is an impairment of the oral or pharyngeal phases of the swallow. This can impair muscle movements and coordination of the mouth, such as the lips, tongue, jaw, cheeks, palate, and also muscles of the pharynx and the entry to the airway.
We all have different towns and we all have different things that we do in the course of the day. It may be that the student is a great artist or a great writer. When it comes to assistive technology we have to think about what is going to give that student the ability to do what they love without having to see roadblocks and go, "I can't do that”. There are so many tools out there, whether it's a communication app, a video app, a math tool. With assistive technology you are not making the student into what you want them to be.
Weight, height and body composition are important indicators for development. The tools used to measure these can be different for children with cerebral palsy.
Children with cerebral palsy (CP) often grow poorly and assessment of growth in this population is further complicated by two main difficulties. Firstly, children may have joint contractures, muscular weakness, scoliosis, and/or involuntary movements that make standing or lying straight difficult, if not impossible.