March 31, 2007
Benefits For Children With Disabilities- Electronic Booklet
The Federal government offers an online electronic booklet to download or view online to see who is eligible with an explanation of Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments.
The information can be overwhelming, if you need help understanding if you are eligible for benefits please contact Live CareCenter Specialists for support.
Article on Horseback Riding as Cerebral Palsy Therapy
Quite a nice article from St. Louis Today on using slightly injured working horses to help children with cerebral palsy. The use of horseback riding as therapy, or hippotherapy, has become widely used in physiotherapy for children with cerebral palsy.
Once a fox-hunting horse, Beau suffered a leg injury that forced him to embark on a second career — as a therapist.
The therapy comes from the gentle rocking motion the 17-year-old flea-bitten Arabian gray makes as it ambles through a paddock, a stone’s throw from the Mississippi River at Ride On St. Louis, a therapeutic riding center in Kimmswick. Nathan Collier, an 8-year-old with cerebral palsy, struggles to remain upright on Beau as he lifts a purple swimming pool noodle over his head. But he’s all smiles.
“The children don’t know they’re getting therapy,” said physical therapist Anne Cochran. “They’re just having fun.”
A small but growing number of scientific studies are showing how hippotherapy — from the Greek word “hippos,” for horse — can help children with cerebral palsy, a neurological disability that keeps them from smoothly controlling their muscles. The theory: The rocking motion of a horse creates more than 100 small shoves a minute. A child would therefore strengthen core muscles and neural connections about 3,000 times in a 30-minute therapy session.
To read entire article visit:
March 29, 2007
Money For Adaptive Equipment: Michigan Assistive Technology Loan Fund
Families with people or children with disabilities who want to buy special needs equipment are eligible for United Cerebral Palsy of Michigan’s Assistive Technology Loan Fund.
The Michigan Assistive Technology Loan Fund allows people with disabilities and seniors (or their family members) to buy assistive technology devices or services, including modification of vehicles and homes. The loan may also cover cost of training to use the purchased equipment, warranties,and service agreements.
What is considered assistive technology? Any item, piece of equipment or device that enables an individual with a disability to improve individual independence and quality of life. This can cover a wide range of items- from wheelchairs, strollers, clothing, communications aids- anything that will enhance quality of life and independence.
The loan is a low interest, fixed-rate loan available to Michigan residents.
If you would like to apply for a loan to purchase any item or piece of equipment that will help you, your child or family member contact Michigan Assistive Technology Loan Fund at 1.800.828.2714.
March 26, 2007
Potty Training Kids with Cerebral Palsy- Toilet Training Special Needs Children
This is a can be a big challenge for most families living with cerebral palsy. Patience is everything. Their little bodies don’t work like yours and going to the bathroom in a toilet may be something that will take awhile to master. Understanding that it may be something they have no control over may help. Mega colon is common in kids with cerebral palsy, the abdominal muscles are affected by tone issues just like the other muscles. Some medications may even be a part if the problem, some seizure medications can cause uncontrollable diarrhea. Please talk to your doctor if you think this may be a problem your child is suffering from.
One thing you can do is make sure they have plenty of physical support when you first start trying to potty train. You can get a good quality chair with lots of support at mainstream baby stores like this potty chair from Baby Bjorn almost anywhere for under 20.00.
Also try support under the legs, use a stool to support dangling legs as they get older.
If older children are often having accidents, keep record of when they are happening and see if there is a pattern. Are they happening after nap? Just before dinner? If you see a pattern then try having the child sit on potty around that time and see what happens. This can help you and your child become more in tune with their bodies.
Many children with cerebral palsy also with have sensory issues (Sensory Processing Disorder) and may not feel the urge to go to the bathroom, or even know what to do. You can help with this by doing exercise like having your child blow up a balloon on the potty and have the feeling of what it’s like to push as well as relax muscles.
If stool is hard or constipation a constant issue, many families talk with their doctors about using laxatives. Do not give your child laxatives without first discussing it with your doctor, it may react with medications or have long term effects.
Please keep trying and be consistent in your patience and support of your child. If you are feeling overwhelmed or need to talk, you can always contact our Live CareCenter Specialists for support.
March 20, 2007
Having an Elective Cesarean Section
Did you have an elective c-section? Where you aware of the risks?
There are inherent risks in having any surgery, and a c-section is an invasive surgery that should be done only when medically necessary. A cesarean delivery on maternal request, or CDMR, is defined as a c-section on a mother’s request of a full-term, single-child pregnancy without a medical reason for doing so. If you chose to have an elective c-section, did your doctor warn you of all the risks?
Cesarean (C-section) births raises the risk of complication in subsequent pregnancies. You are at greater risk for placental complications.
Elective cesarean should also be avoided before 39 weeks or if the baby’s lung maturity cannot be confirmed. Many times ultra sounds can be WRONG and you may accidently have a baby that is not full term . Prematurity is the #1 reason why babies have cerebral palsy.
Contact us if you feel you had an unnecessary cesarean section or call us at 1-800-4MyChild.
Text-to-Speech Tool for Face to Face Conversation
This is a very neat tool, Lightwriter from Spectronics. You may have seen in on the the MTV show, True Life featuring Jeremy, who is living with autism.
The communication device allows people and children with speech impairments, autism, laryngectomies, cerebral palsy and head injuries to interact and communicate with others face-to-face.
The Lightwriter is portable and fairly lightweight. After you turn it on, type your message into keyboard and it will appear on the display, OR can be spoken out loud with DECtalk speech synthesis.
United Cerebral Palsy of Michigan: Essay Contest
Essay contest raises disability awareness. The essay contest is for 6th, 7th, and 8th graders. Submit your essays telling United Cerebral Palsy what it’s like to either have or know someone who has a disability.
Essays are due April 27, 2007.
Winning essays will be printed in the United Cerebral Palsy newsletter Pathways. Winners will receive a stuffed “Ability Bear” and a gift certificate for a pizza, and their schools will receive the books Ceana has CP and The Gun Lake Adventure Series mysteries.
Essays should be 500 words or less and contain the student’s name, age, school and address. The deadline is April 27, 2007.
Mail or fax essays to:
UCP Michigan
3401 E. Saginaw, Suite 216
Lansing MI 48912
Fax: 517-203-1203
March 17, 2007
PERC: New Procedure For Treating Cerebral Palsy
PERC or Percutaneous Muscle Lengthening procedure. The surgery involves making small incisions along the tendons of the leg muscle, with hope that spasticity will be loosened and walking will be easier for children with cerebral palsy.
The procedudure takes about 1 hour to perform and does have very promising results.
In depth look at the surgery: http://www.pediatric-orthopedics.com/Treatments/Perc_Lengthening/perc_lengthening.html
March 16, 2007
Early Signs and First Symptoms of Cerebral Palsy
There are different types of cerebral palsy and each type has different signs or symptoms.
Early symptoms are at times overlooked or missed at birth but parents or caregivers may be able to detect first signs of cerebral palsy at around 3 months of age. Babies with cerebral palsy are often slow or do not reach developmental milestones like crawling, smiling, walking, rolling over or sitting. This is sometimes referred to as a developmental delay.
Some babies may appear to have abnormal muscle tone. When the baby seems limp or flaccid or a bit floppy, it is called hypotonia. If the baby seems stiff or rigid it may be because of hypertonia. Sometimes a baby with cerebral palsy can start off with hypotonia and later develop hypertonia. Babies with cerebral palsy may also favor one side of their body or another.
Other early sign of cerebral palsy a parent might notice is if baby is not responding to noise or being able to follow objects with their eyes (after 3 months). Lack of facial expression is another clue there may be a problem.
Not lifting his head by 6 months of age or be able to roll over is also a possible first symptom of cerebral palsy in a baby.
Constant drooling, to the point baby gets a rash around his mouth (from acid in saliva) may be a symptom.
Speak to your doctor if at any point you are concerned. The doctor should perform a series of tests and ask you a series of questions about your child’s development.
If your child was premature or may have suffered from a birth injury, and you think your baby may have some of the above symptoms, please contact one of our live CareCenter Specialists or call us at 1-800-4MyChild. We can help.
March 15, 2007
Walt Disney World and Special Needs- Special Access Pass and Wheelchair Sticker
Surprisingly, Walt Disney does not fully address problems that special needs kids have while visiting their theme parks. The policy seems to change depending on who you talk to and what manager is on duty. Here are some of there policies as well as some little known info.
They do offer a “Special Access Pass.” The pass works the same as a Fast Pass, where you can go through a much shorter, quicker line with next to no wait. The problem is, most rides don’t have a Fast Pass option, especially those for younger children.
Special Access Passes are NOT available for use during peak seasons. Although, you may be able to challenge and get one.
In some cases special needs kids have been sent through regular lines and made to wait 1- 2 hours to use the rides, and to make matters worse, strollers are not allowed in the lines. This may be impossible for some children with cerebral palsy to bear.
A little known fact, if you go to guest services, you can receive a special sticker to put on your stroller that says “wheelchair” and it will be allowed in the regular line. Why this information is so hard to find I just don’t know. I was recently at Walt Disney World and was astonished at the lack of information.
Do you have any tips or advice for families traveling to Walt Disney World with a special needs child, or a child with cerebral palsy? Please share with us by posting in the comments section!
