Reflection on the Cerebral Palsy group

Reflection on the Cerebral Palsy group

Today the 03^rd March 2014 was the first time I ever co-run a paediatric cerebral palsy group; hence I found it as a valuable experience to share with everyone else. We are a group of three student therapists on community based rehabilitation (CBR) module and we were tasked to run a Cerebral palsy group with children of which we have never interacted or did any assessments on most them.

This made it difficult for us to write a proper write up for the group and we were not sure what to put and what to expect. However with the current knowledge we have on Cerebral palsy and the lectures we had on Neurodevelopmental therapy (NDT) for paediatrics we were able to formulate a picture of the assessments and intervention strategies.

Running this group for the first time was very much of a positive experience because it has taught one to identify his mistakes and where to improve when handling paediatric groups. It has also assisted one to build confidence about handling the children, more especially when applying some NDT techniques which include tone influencing patterns like  positioning the child in different positions on the plinth (supine, side lying and prone) and on ones lap( to improve trunk control and positioning  the lower limbs in long sitting) .

 We were also able to apply some key points of control of the body which helped to influence movements through inhibiting patterns of abnormal activity while you are facilitating more normal movement.  We also practiced the application of key points of control from proximal to distal as per the literature e.g.  Facilitate walking through controlling the hip joint, for one of the older children who was able to walk with moderate assistance from his mother.

One of the things that made our group successful was that we were able to get to ask the mothers to demonstrate on the previous information that they learnt in the previous groups and to also ask those mothers who have the knowledge to teach others within the group. We also chose an appropriate activity i.e. making musical shakers using simple and scrap material (toilet roll, paper, paper glue, small stones and cello tape). The activity was appropriate for the children as it provided stimulation for them which incorporated different senses i.e. Auditory, visual, tactile and gustatory.