MAES Therapy 4-Week Course:

“Movement Analysis & Education Strategies Course for the treatment of
children with Cerebral Palsy and similar neuro-developmental conditions “

A specialist course designed for Paediatric Therapists and medical Doctors to specialise or to further specialise in the treatment of children with Cerebral Palsy and similar neuro-developmental conditions and who want to gain expert skills.

A new and different dimension to the treatment and management of children with Cerebral Palsy.

• Develop creative thinking
• Learn to treat dynamically
• Gain new ways to inform and guide parents
• Acquire new observation and analytical skills
• Develop an extensive repertoire of new treatment strategies

Length of Course:

4-Weeks ( 20 Days) Post-graduate course, split into two parts of two weeks each:

•             Part 1: Weeks 1 & 2

Then usually one month later:

•             Part 2: Weeks 3 & 4

•             Each week is 5-Days, Monday to Friday

Course Aims:

This course aims to:

• Provide a ‘Framework’ for an effective assessment and better understanding of the challenges and needs of children with Cerebral Palsy (CP) and similar neurodevelopmental conditions

• Gain expertise in analysis of coordination and effective and structured clinical reasoning skills.

• Analyse Tasks in term of fine and gross motor, sensory, perceptual, biomechanical and cognitive components.

• Relate the quality of execution of given tasks to the specific skills that the child has been able to develop and use to accomplish these tasks.

• Predict motor behaviour (prognosis) based upon an in-depth analysis of typical presentations associated to spastic hypertonia, dyskinetic CP, ataxia, hypotonia and CP associated with preterm birth.

• Understand the short and long-term consequences for the child to engage in complex activities, when the skills available are missing and consequently for therapists to establish priorities and short and long-term treatment plans to change the child’s natural course of development.

• Develop Therapists’ high-level problem-solving abilities to then provide each child with specific sensory-motor experiences to make best use of their own potential for improvement.

• Prioritise and identify which specific skills a child is missing and that need to be promoted and at the same time discouraging thecompensatory strategies this child is over-relying upon and which prevents the development of more advanced skills.

• Expand creative thinking and develop an extensive repertoire of treatment strategies which can then be applied more confidently in a range of situations to enable the child to learn new ways that he would have difficulty or not be able to develop on his own.
• Effectively inform and guide parents during treatment sessions, including the use of toys for play and advise them how to best interact with their child during activities of daily living in a home environment.

Course Participant’s Criteria:

Participants must be experienced Paediatric Therapists (Physiotherapists, Occupational Therapists, Speech Therapists) or medical Doctors (paediatricians, neurologists), with two years experience in treating children with Cerebral Palsy and/or similar neurological conditions.

The course will appeal to therapists who are about to take their first postgraduate course in the field of Cerebral Palsy, as well as very experienced therapists who have already taken several specialist courses (e.g. Conductive Education, Vojta, NDT-Bobath, Sensory Integration, Halliwick, etc.).

Course format:

Unique of its kind, this course has a strong emphasis on clinical skills, with an unusually high level of supervised practical sessions (almost 50% of time) specially designed to allow participants to link theory into practice and become expert in handling and managing their clients with neuro-developmental conditions.

Presented at post-graduate level, this certified course includes lectures, treatment demonstrations, workshops, case presentations and analysis and supervised daily practical sessions with patients during weeks 2, 3 and 4.

There are Course Assignments (Written & Video) between Parts 1 and 2.

Development of clinical skills:

Throughout the 4 weeks, Therapists will have:

• 30 x  Practical Sessions
• Experience with a variety of children with different presentations of Cerebral Palsy. Therapists work in pairs (sometimes groups of 3) with 1 child at a time.
• 30 x Treatment Workshops ( Therapists’ live Case Presentations )

There will be a total of between 20 – 25 different children with Cerebral Palsy to treat during the 4 weeks, allowing a high level of supervised practical sessions, allowing participants to link theory into practice and become expert in handling.

Course Certification and Participant attendance:

The requirement to attend this course is to attend full time, as the course builds up from week to week during the course, where the knowledge gained in one session leads to the next.

All Course participants are aware that they must attend all the 20 days in full.

Course Certification will be given following full attendance for the duration of the whole 4-weeks and successful completion of the course and the assignments.

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