Event Details

  • Date:

For therapists and medical doctors with a special interest in developing their understanding and ability to treat children with Dyskinetic (Athetosis) Cerebral Palsy.

Duration:  5-Day Course

Course Dates:  5-9 May 2014

Venue:  Paarl School, Brakenfell, Cape Town, South Africa

Course Leader:   Jean-Pierre Maes MSCP  Senior Bobath-NDT Tutor

Course Participant’s Criteria:

Participants must be Paediatric Bobath Trained Therapists (Physiotherapists, Occupational Therapists, Speech Therapists) or medical Doctors and who have successfully completed an 8-Week Basic Bobath Foundation Course (minimum of 240 hours).

These Bobath Therapists should ideally have two years experience in treating children with Cerebral Palsy after the completion of their Bobath Foundation Course.

 

The Local Course Organiser is:   Shane Hodges, Physiotherapist

 

E:  shanehodges55@yahoo.com

Course Aims & Objectives

Aims:

To focus specifically on the varied complex presentations and therapeutic needs of children with Dyskinetic (Athetosis) Cerebral Palsy at an advanced level.

To advance participants’ clinical reasoning and handling skills to achieve a dynamic approach to the treatment and management of children of different ages and sub-classifications of dyskinetic cerebral palsy.

 Objectives:

  • Develop advanced observation skills to recognise patterns of coordination specifically seen in children with dyskinetic cerebral palsy.
  • Recognise commonalities in the way children with dyskinetic cerebral palsy organise their postures and movements to interact with their environment.
  • Identify characteristics that are specific to the different sub-classifications of pure athetosis, choreo-athetosis and dystonic athetosis.
  • Identify and understand how a child may change his coping strategies over time and for the therapist to be able to stay focussed on the main problems, even if the symptoms might present differently (for example moving very little as a baby and then moving excessively when older).
  • Develop a working hypothesis to help anticipate the way tone ‘fluctuates’ and the way ‘involuntary movements’ might change in response to changes made to the base of support, the way the child is being handled and guided and the type of task the child is engaging in.
  • Predict possible consequences of the child’s attempts to stabilise proximal part(s) of the body on fine motor skills, and conversely, how the use of hands affects the child’s overall stability.
  • Understand how the child’s own motivation and anticipation might limit his participation.
  • Prioritise the treatment needs of the client at each age, taking into account their coordination difficulties and to also maximise opportunities for communication skills and cognitive development.

Understand that for children with dyskinetic cerebral palsy it is essential to establish long-term treatment priorities and plan to ensure their maximum potential is realised.