| Cerebral Palsy Foundation

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July 1, 2020

Many of our products today have accessibility supports in them to the extent where we don't have to purchase anything else. It's already in there. Your phone, your tablet, your smart home devices. If you're going to look for these features on your devices, you can start in your settings. There should be something in there that says accessibility. Go in there, see what's available. The manufacturers have done a really nice job of describing these features right within the settings to give you a sense of what they're going to do.

An image of a smart phone and tablet on a blue background

July 1, 2020

Tips For Your Child's Early Intervention Plan

As a parent, when it comes to different types of interventions for infants with cerebral palsy, how do you know what you have, what you don't, and what you could get?

Zach (age 4) smiling in therapy playing a game with PT

July 1, 2020

The Essential Role of Activity in Infancy

Exploration for an infant means discovering anything about that environment. If that infant needs an opportunity to be brought to them, that's okay. Let an infant explore through their senses, whether it's touch, or smell, or taste, or sight, or hearing.

July 1, 2020

Muscle Development & Early Intervention

Cerebral palsy is an injury to the brain, but what we find is that it has a lot of effects on how you use your muscles.

July 1, 2020

One Size Does NOT Fit All- Using Multiple Means For Communication

Let me tell you about multimodal communication. We, as typical communicators, all use many different strategies. We use speech, gestures, facial expressions, technology, and no-tech solutions. As communicators, we all size up the situation based upon our communication partners, the context, the environment and then we choose to use the most effective communication strategy.

Drawing of hand giving the thumbs up signal against a pink background

July 1, 2020

How do you Diagnose Cerebral Palsy?

"Cerebral palsy is primarily a motor impairment so it's really important to look at what the child’s motor function is. Are they developing on the trajectory of a child who has cerebral palsy or are they developing as we would expect a baby to develop? "

2 Month year old baby in an incubator in the NICU

July 1, 2020

Learning To Move And The Goals Of Therapy

For a child with CP learning to move, the really important things to remember are that the child should always be active.

July 1, 2020

Is Cerebral Palsy Genetic?

To give you an idea about genetic variation between each of us, there are about three million differences in our genetic code. They go to influence the color of our hair and the color of our eyes, the way we walk.

July 1, 2020

What is Neuroplasticity?

Babies develop about 80% of their brain growth over the first two years of life, and it's also when all the connections in the brain, what we call the white matter, which is the cables in the brain, grow and develop and connect to the cortex.

Outline of child's head outlining brain connections that relate to neuroplasticity

July 1, 2020

What to Expect- Your First Speech Language Appointment

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.

Mom holding daughter Briana outside of her crib

July 1, 2020

85% of What We Say is Made Up of 250-350 Words

Yellow words on a purple background that highlights core words including 'I", "like", "you", "dont"

July 1, 2020

Don't Be Boring Customizing Language

Drawing of AAC device with the word "epic" selected

July 1, 2020

Babbling and Using AAC For The First Time

Icon of child in wheelchair using AAC device to say "I can do it" with parents and siblings cheering for them

July 1, 2020

Looking To The Future- Thought to Speech

The future of science advancements is endless. In this video Dr. Ted Conway discusses the possibility of thought to speech. One of the really interesting areas of research in biomedical engineering is thought to speech. The concept of thought to speech is fairly straightforward, the execution to make this a reality is a little more complicated.

Figure of head with EEG cap on connecting to machine to deliver messages

July 1, 2020

Comparing Parent and Provider Priorities in Discussions of Early Detection and Intervention for Infants With and at Risk of Cerebral Palsy

Receiving early diagnoses or high‐risk for CP classification is a parent priority. Alignment between parents and providers exists for International Classification of Function domains of body functions/structures and activity, but less for those of environment, personal, and participation.

July 1, 2020

What Does a Diagnosis of Cerebral Palsy Mean?

My name is Nathalie Maitre, I work at Nationwide Children's Hospital. I'm a physician and a researcher

Owen sitting up smiling in crib at the hospital with neonatal baby monitor on his head

July 1, 2020

Owen’s Story Isn’t Over, It Is Just Beginning

Owen is our third baby and after a healthy pregnancy and making it to 38 weeks, I thought we would coast into life with three kids and adapt to the beautiful chaos that is life outnumbered by little ones. Somewhere in between, I ended up watching as my newborn baby was packed up into a life-flight helicopter and whisked away before I even got a chance to hold him. I would do whatever it took to get to Owen at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, I would will him from hundreds of miles away to hang on, to fight long enough for me to get there – and then we could do “whatever it took” together.

Three siblings sitting on a rug with Owen (Age 1) who has CP sitting in the middle

July 1, 2020

Appreciation, Gratitude, Thankfulness

Sarah holding Taryn and kissing her on the cheek.

July 1, 2020

Creating the Best Environment for Your Child

It has been scientifically proven that enriched environment can help children with CP gain new skills in their movement but also their thinking and communication skills.

Taryn (4 years old) kneeling down in a creek and feelings the water.

July 1, 2020

Meet Tylynn

After we got the diagnosis we met with Dr. Maitre the next day and she gave us a roadmap.

photo of 9 month old baby sitting and smiling at camera

July 1, 2020

Meet Taryn

She was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at 12 months & Constraint-induced movement therapy helped her recover the use of her left side.

Photo of 4 year old Taryn waering splints on both of her legs holding a sign at her dance recital

July 1, 2020

Meet Owen

Owen was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at 6 months. By getting an early diagnosis his life changed forever.

Owen age 1 years old smiling looking behind his shoulder in the bath playing with a toy

July 1, 2020

Optimizing Neuroplasticity

A lot of parents don't realize that their baby, all the skills that they have. So they can look at you, they can follow you. They're already starting to imitate you, and through the first few months of life, they're already starting to learn to reach and grasp toys, and to have nonverbal communication with you.

Drawing of child sitting down picking toys out of a box

July 1, 2020

What is the General Movements Assessment?

Children with cerebral palsy experience brain damage around birth or before birth. So the language of the brain in other words, the way they will move, will be different from typical movements. So by looking at their movements, we will understand that there is something that is wrong in the brain.

Four babies moving their limbs against a teal background to represent general movements assessments

July 1, 2020

Screening & Diagnosis of Cerebral Palsy

Diagnosing cerebral palsy (CP) at an early age is important for the long-term outcome of children and their families.

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