There is a wonderful new therapy
in the UK coming across the pond from the USA for children with DS and is called
Treadmill intervention. Lani has physiotherapy at Hospital which is where we
heard about it and by all accounts children who use this therapy will walk up
to a year earlier than other children with DS. The average age of a child with
DS is likely to walk at around 23months, compared to a child without DS walking
at 12 / 13 months. Currently only one other family based at our Hospital are
taking on this new challenge to help their child to walk and we are hoping to
be the second family to try and improve our daughters life.
The
treadmill intervention offers repeated opportunities to improve balance, build
strength in the lower extremities, and stimulate the neuronal connections that
are involved in the generation of independent walking. Developmentally, it has
been suggested that sufficient strength and balance are 2 critical requisites
for the onset of independent walking. One of the positives is the overall
effect that enhanced onset of independent locomotion will have in the global
development of children with DS. Previous research has demonstrated that the
onset of locomotion has positive effects on cognitive and socio-emotional
development in infants with disabilities such as DS.
We
as parents will have to take the lead on the training as time on the treadmill needs to
happen 5 days per week, building up from one minute to eventually 8 minutes per
day once Lani has mastered the forward movement and therefore, will, in the
future demonstrated the ability
to walk independently.
Blog diary
11th October 2012
Morning
Up off and out early again to pick up a photo we have had
done of Lani a few weeks ago(one of the free ones from Boots), then head down
to Lanis hospital for an appointment with her physio. We arrived early !!!! and
so went to the restaurant and had a drink. I got Lani a carton of orange juice
and tried her with a straw which sort of worked but quite a lot was blown out
lol. When we went in for our appointment Lanis physio was so pleased with her,
our mission over the last month has been supported kneeling which Lani has well
achieved and indeed moved on to pull to stand. So after showing off our physio
started to get her to play on the benches whilst standing and then started work
on helping Lani to learn to walk along it while holding on. It was a brilliant
session and I always come out of physio enthused to help Lani to move on to new
and exciting things. Lots to work on but what a great progress and when you see
results like we do with Lani its so inspiring.
Afternoon
Spent the afternoon round my friends house chatting and
letting the kids just play – fantastic.
Evening
Lani has worked hard today so we will JC (just chill)
tonight, have cuddles and watch some TV before bed time.
Q – I have seen Downs Syndrome children of 8/9/10 yrs old in
push chairs...why?
A – Well its all to
do with hypertonia (low muscle tone). Not all children will need the extra help
but some will find walking a long way difficult as the muscles will get tired
very quickly. As today we had physio and walking is such a huge part of what we
are working towards I have added this film of Lani learning to use the
treadmill. This was her first ssessin where we attempted it, now Lani will happily walk for a
few steps when I hold onto her hands, she is doing so well, I am so so proud of
her achievement.
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