Третья часть из цикла статей, где рассказывают, почему необходимо восстановить нормальный тонус фасций, прежде, чем начинать помышлять о двигательном развитии ab
In previous communications, we covered the concepts of Robustness vs Brittleness, enhancing the importance of building compressional strength in the body, with the objective of holding the head and controlling the trunk. We then tackled the concept of Vitality and Vigor vs Vulnerability and Fragility, underlining the importance of improving the metabolism and energy of your child, ensuring not to override him/her through uncontrolled and unplanned stimulation.
Another over-simplification that parents have the tendency to make is to oversee the uniqueness of each piece of the big puzzle they are trying to piece together. This leads us to the concept of Multi-dimensional repertoire of gestures vs robotic mono-dimensional movements.
When asked about their expectations, parents will simply say: ‘I would like my child
able to grab objects’ or ‘I would like to see my child able to crawl’, etc. However, any movement necessitates preliminary mechanical characteristics that must
present.
Let’s do a few simple tests with your child:
Lay him/her down on a table. Put your hand under their head and lift it so that their chin touches their thorax. Observe what happens. The shoulders leave the ground: in other words, lifting the head coincides with lifting part of the thorax itself.
Now, if in the same position, grab one arm and cross it over to the other side of the thorax, the head and in many cases, the rest of the torso will
involved in the movement
well.
What does this mean? It means that your child does not have proper segmentation (division) between the head and the thorax!
Now, still laying down on the back, grab one leg
the ankle level and lift it 90 degrees. What happens? The other leg and even the pelvis leave the ground. This means, in turn, that your child is missing proper segmentation between the legs, the pelvis and the lumber spine.
In other words, your child is moving
one block. Training him/her to move without first creating proper segmentation between the head and the shoulder girdle; between the arms and legs and the torso is,
the very least, very limited and leads to what is called, ‘robotic mono-dimensional movements’.
Why is it so? Because, when connective tissues have proper tone, they are responsible for force transmission and they allow every muscle to contract in an organized manner and every movement to occur selectively. In children with CP, these tissues are weak. This is the reason why it is so essential to restore their tone before contemplating any motor development.
In healthy individuals, yourself for example, you will observe that your head is segmented from your torso (which allows you to turn the head selectively), your thoracic cavity is segmented from your abdominal cavity (which allows you to turn to the side without moving the pelvis), your legs move independently from each other and from your pelvis (which allows you to walk with balance).
You benefit of what is called multi-dimensional repertoire of gestures. Strengthening the connective tissues (fascia) in children with Cerebral Palsy is fortunately possible through easy to learn techniques called ‘trans-fascial visco-elastic stimulation’. With time, the child benefits from movements which are more selective, fluid and controlled. Training then makes more sense
the child with CP is not imprisoned in a mono-block structure anymore.
