Therapies
Therapies
There are tons of therapies associated with cerebral palsy and ADHD. The ones listed below are ones that our children have participated, or going to participate in, in the near future. Tristan and Alex have both participated in speech and occupational therapy, and though Alex has a very mild form of ankle/foot cerebral palsy, it doesn't effect him enough to receieve physical therapy.
Physical Therapy
Physical therapy deals directly with the large motor movements of the body. Daily therapy for our son Tristan includes stretching, pull-to-sits, and walking. Stretching all of the muscles of the body everday is important to delay or possibly eliminate the need for surgery in the future (since the muscles are so tight, the bones can have a harder time growin properly). Pull-to-sits are a daily exercise where you have your child grab your hands (in Tristan's case reaching up with each hand at a time) and then having your child rely on their addomen and neck strength to pull them to a sitting position. Walking with Tristan can be a little difficult because of his cerebral palsy and because he likes to look up at you when he's supposed to be looking forward! When he does look forward however; he loses his center of gravity and usually lets the weight of his head flop him forward. If we try to use his hands to walk with him (we usually support him at the waist) then he tends to scrunch his legs up to his chest. Thankfully Tristan has an assisted walker called the TAOS, you can read more about that on the CP Equipment Page.
Occupational Therapy
Occupational Therapy deals with day to day activities that affect normal living situations such as, eating, drinking, picking up toys, etc.
Speech Therapy
Speech therapy focuses on the importance of both speech and basic communication. Tristan's therapist works with pictures and his eye sight (as well as physically touching) for the things he wants. His therapist will set up pictures of the things he can play with for the day, he chooses a picture (usually by touching and lately by looking), and he gets to play with that toy for a few minutes and then has to choose again. When in therapy Tristan tends to not use his words as much as he does his hands and eyes. At home however, he does everything he can to get what he wants.
Music
Nothing gets Tristan's attention more than music. He loves the guitar (I can't practice without him giving me the toddler death stare!), he also loves his keyboard, which we bought specifically for him, it allows him more options (he's not quite fretting the fret board and it takes a lot more skill than the keyboard to make different sounds). Tristan has his own jr guitar, and he does play it, but he prefers papa's guitar...of course right?
We work with Tristan on his physical, occupational, and speech therapies with the keyboard. We play a key and ask him to play that same one, he usually nails it dead on which is amazing if you get to know Tristan in our blog. By doing this we're exercising his control (because he cannot tone to reach the keys), it's inherently occupational because it is an every day (or most days) activity, and the speech well that should be pretty obvious.
Tristan's jr. guitar
Papa's Guitar
Last but surely not least, Tristan's Yamaha Keyboard