More and more attention is being paid to brain problems and cures, for soldiers, athletes and car crash victims. The focus is awesome, and now innovative techniques are becoming available that may help people recover. One new method is known as NDT (Neurodevelopmental Therapy). This can be used in a variety of therapeutic disciplines, including physical therapy for kids.
At its core, Neurodevelopmental Therapy is a way to look at issues on a very personal level. Therapists for kids with disabilities use hands-on treatments and advanced machines to train patients on functional tasks. For instance, imagine a girl who can't hold a fork might decide she wants to learn. The physical therapist might guide the patient through lifting the hand, finding the object and noticing what that's like and then picking up its weight. It's all step by step, and hands-on from the time the session begins until the task is accomplished.
A particularly important part of this Neurodevelopmental Therapy method is patient goal-setting. For children with special needs, Mom and Dad may set the goals. For grown-ups dealing with problems such as TBI and stroke, the goal might be learning to reach to the side without support. Elite physical therapists who have used these methods say that a patient's ideas about their treatment makes a huge difference in their healing processes.
Beyond feeling like it's working, Neurodevelopmental Therapy truly gets real, powerful results. Patients might need fewer assistive devices and less adaptive equipment and find it easier to get to proper positioning. Improvement is possible in eating, speech, movement and much more.
For kids with disabilities, pediatric physical therapists can use Neurodevelopmental Therapy to help them be less dependent. This can include learning to support oneself, climb stairs, or even crawl or stand. The best pediatric physical therapists believe that some improvement is within reach of almost any patient, even if they have lifelong conditions such as cerebral palsy.
The body of research on Neurodevelopmental Therapy isn't very extensive, but the topic isn't controversial. Many of the studies have been done on small groups of patients, so aren't widely applicable. But the ideas are pretty commonsense and a growing number of pediatric physical therapists and other specialists have adopted its techniques.
If you need help with mobility, function or even speech and language, consider finding a autism symptoms in children San Diego CA expert in your area.