A helping hand for youngsters with cerebral palsy

Feb 6 2010 by Hannah Davies, The Journal

IN PART three of our campaign to support The Children’s Foundation’s Healthy, Happy, Safe appeal, HANNAH DAVIES visits a project which helps youngsters with cerebral palsy.

Heel and toe

HEEL and Toe is a regional charity based at The Meadows Spennymoor, providing conductive education to teach children with cerebral palsy and other motor disorders how to cope with everyday life, through meaningful one-on-one and/or group sessions.

Conductive education is a system of rehabilitation. To achieve this the brain utilises its re-organisational ability.

This is appropriate for conditions where disease or damage to the central nervous system affects the person's ability to control movement.

Conductive education benefits:

Promotes strong development of muscles and bones, thus eliminating the need for some surgery

Improves social/verbalisation skills

Improves mobility, which in turn allows the child to live more independently

Builds self-esteem because the child experiences success on a daily basis

Develops physical stamina and independence

It is a fundamental principle Heel and Toe no child is denied conductive education due to lack of money.

If you have a child who suffers from cerebral palsy or a motor disorder Heel and Toe provides sessions for children from 12 months to 16 years old.

Sessions include: group sessions, one-on-one, school-time sessions, after school sessions, holiday camps and Saturday morning sessions.

Please feel free to contact one of the team on local rates 08443 350 512, or e-mail info@heelandtoe.org.uk, or visit www.heelandtoe.org.uk

What is cerebral palsy?

CEREBRAL palsy (CP) is not a disease or an illness. It is the description of a physical impairment that affects movement. The movement problems vary from barely noticeable to extremely severe.

How does it happen?

Cerebral palsy is most commonly the result of failure of a part of the brain to develop. This is sometimes because of a blocked blood vessel, complications in labour, extreme prematurity or illness just after birth. Infections during pregnancy, or infancy and early childhood, eg meningitis or encephalitis, can also cause cp.

What are the effects?

The main effect is difficulty in movement. Many people with CP are hardly affected, others have problems walking, feeding, talking or using their hands.

Sometimes other parts of the brain are also affected, resulting in sight, hearing, perception and learning difficulties. Of those affected, between a quarter and a third of children and adolescents, and about a 10th of adults, are also affected by epilepsy.

People with CP often have difficulty controlling their movement and facial expressions. This does not necessarily mean their mental abilities are impaired. Some are of higher than average intelligence, others have moderate or severe learning difficulties.

How prevalent is cerebral palsy?

Improvements in maternity services and neonatal care have meant that fewer babies develop CP as a result of lack of oxygen (from difficulties at birth) or jaundice, but they have also meant that more babies with very low birth weights survive. These babies are more likely to have CP.

In recent years there has been a slight increase in the proportion of children who have cp; currently about one in every 400 is affected.

For more information, call Scope Response free on 0808 800 3333.