Cerebral Palsy and the fisted hand

A fisted hand. Could it be "mapped" in the brain just like a fist would appear...a ball without fingers?

Our brain has an image or a neurological "map" that represents the different parts of our body. They've named this "map" a Homunculus and is actually quite a comical looking character. It doesn't really look like what we would expect. It has all the body parts but the proportions don't match what we see as ourselves. For example a Homunculus has huge hands in comparison to the size of the torso because of the complexity of the motor functions they do.  

What would a neurological "map" look like when a child has Cerebral Palsy? More specifically what would the hands look like when they are constantly tight and fisted? Would the hands be much smaller in the brains image because of the restrictions from spasticity? Is it possible the brain has "mapped" the hand as one unit, just as a fist would appear? Would the child’s brain even recognize the fact that there are five fingers available that can work independently of each other if it was mapped as a fist?

When my daughter was very young, even as young as 4 or 5 months old, we noticed when she’d reach toward an object her hand wouldn’t open. It stayed in a tiny fisted ball. We started to stretch her hands open daily to try and help her use her hands more effectively, but it didn’t seem to make much difference. She would still reach with a fist to touch objects, or if she did open her hand slightly, all the fingers would work as one unit like they were attached to each other all the way down to the tips. 

It never crossed my mind that her brain might not recognize that her fingers were separate from each other or that they even existed at all! If her brain didn't have them "mapped"  then it also couldn't send any messages to them either.

It wasn’t until I was in my ABM NeuroMovement training that I understood what a real possibility it was that her brain didn't know her fingers existed.  She never had the experience of moving them individually and freely, no exploration of them at all, so how could they be "mapped" that way? Her hand had always been in a tight fist for the first few years of her life. I just assumed since I can clearly see she has fingers she must know that too, but she didn't. This was a mind blowing realization for me.

Through my ABM NeuroMovemovent training I learned how to bring awareness to her hand and help her differentiate between each finger, "mapping" more and more over time to help her hand become more of the full image of what we can see. She has Spastic Quadriplegia Cerebral Palsy, Polymicrogyria (over 90% of her brain is malformed), and a devastating seizure disorder that causes regression... BUT even with those huge obstacles she can now point using only her index finger, hold her markers to colour and paint. She can even pick up small objects with a pincer grasp. Over time with ABM NeuroMovement lessons, I believe we've changed what the image of her hand looks like in her brain. It's no longer that little fisted ball...her "map" of her hand now has fingers!

  While my main focus writing this has been on the hand specifically and the concept of needing to map fingers into a brains fisted image, it’s very important to note that movement and organization in the hand also stems from the rest of the body. We can’t just focus on the hand. In ABM lessons we understand to improve fine motor or further "mapping" of the hand... we must also include the organization of how the arm,  shoulders, chest and the rest of the body all work together. It all plays a roll in how we organize our movements in the hand. Each body part isn’t a separate floating piece and shouldn’t be treated as such. We must look to organize our movement as a whole being and by approaching it this way we can upgrade our whole system to work more effectively together.

I’m so happy for my daughter that she has some independence to do the things that she loves. I'll continue to give her ABM NeuroMovement lessons to feed her brain with rich new information to help her to continue to grow and "map" more of her body. I also love helping the families I work with to experience this too.

To learn more about how ABM NeuroMovement lessons can help your child or to book lessons please contact Renée, ABM NeuroMovement Practitioner at renee@moveintegrate.com or 403-483-9769

www.moveintegrate.com

Missed Milestones?

Parents can feel a lot of pressure for their child to meet milestones by a specific age and when they don’t, panic can set in.

If a parent or therapist skips too far ahead by putting a child in a position they are not developmentally ready to do, they miss many important learning opportunities for movement. Those missed opportunities are what will actually lead them to the desired milestones in a natural effortless way. 

Challenging a child by going too far ahead of their current development can also be very stressful for them. This is teaching the child that the desired goal for them is unenjoyable or too difficult. It can cause a negative emotion toward the goal and end up causing them to avoid the desired movement/milestone altogether.

An example of this is propping a child up into a tripod sitting position (this is where the child needs to lean on their arms to keep their balance) and expecting them to try and hold the position. If they don’t know how to safely get in and out of the sitting position on their own , their experience will be they have to hold it without moving in fear of losing their balance and falling. This type of approach can also teach the child to tense up and contract muscles to hold themselves up, rather than a more desired approach of using a coordinated skeletal system to hold ourselves up.

At Move Integrate, I understand those are all important milestones that we as parents want our children to reach. 

We can still keep those goals in mind, but approach it in a more achievable way. I start their ABM NeuroMovement® lessons slightly ahead of where your child is currently at in THEIR development. This gives a much more desirable outcome with quicker results than trying to start by their AGE or by what people think they SHOULD be doing by now. With this approach, we are setting your child up for an enjoyable, successful and positive experience. 

When your child is happy and a movement feels easy and effortless, it is more likely they will look to recreate it on their own. Together we keep building on little by little and that can quickly add up to a lot, achieving the milestones that once seemed so far away.

Contact Renée at Move Integrate to get started!

www.moveintegrate.com

403-483-9769

Down to one arm

As kids we are constantly exploring movements. I remember squealing with delight “Look what I can do mom!” as I tried standing on my head. At what point does the exploration stop and why?

I pass a hop scotch and long jump twice a week when I go to my sons Lacrosse practice and I’ve been tempted to try it as fond memories flood my brain from my childhood, but my more “mature” side takes over and I just walk past to go sit on the bleachers for the next hour and a half.

I was thrown into a predicament and out of my habitual automatic ways this month when I took on a foster puppy. My cat Bob, who portrays himself as a slow moving laid back cat is apparently not so fond of puppies. He suddenly took off like a bullet, in full on attack mode running toward my foster puppy when he saw him. Thankfully I was able to stop the attack (don’t worry the puppy was completely unharmed) but unfortunately, Bob bit my hand in the commotion and the bite ended up being quite the infection. I had to have my hand bandaged up with an IV in my arm for four days. My good hand!

 

This forced me out of my habitual automatic way of doing my daily activities and forced me to slow down and once again explore my movement, almost like I was doing things for the first time. At first it was hard and a bit frustrating but I decided to take it on as a challenge and have fun with my movement. Have you ever brushed your teeth with your opposite hand? Or tried washing your hair with one hand? I actually held my shower scrubby between my knees to wash my right arm. Now that’s getting creative!

Our brains love this! It’s a new challenge and wakes our brain up! We take ourselves out of an automatic state and our learning switch is once again turned on. Our movement becomes slow and full of attention as we try to figure out new things. This is how new neural connections are formed... yes even at our age. This is neuroplasticity, also known as brain plasticity, neuroelasticity, or neural plasticity, and it is the ability of the brain to change continuously throughout our life. This is what we do in ABM NeuroMovement®️.

Do you want to keep your brain young and full of life? Get back to exploring movement and play like you did as a child! When was the last time you crawled on the floor like a lizard or tried rocking on your back holding your feet until you sat up? Can you get up off the floor without using your hands? Have fun with it! We may not be brave enough to do the hopscotch in a busy public place but trying moving in new ways where you feel comfortable to be free and have fun with it.

The children I work with experience exploration of movement for the first time for many different reasons, such as a child with cerebral palsy that has limited mobility due to spasticity. A small slow movement done with attention can light up their brain like never before creating new neural pathways and opportunities for new movement. Something that may seem small such as slowing bringing their hand up towards the child’s mouth and back down, taking care to be SO gentle and slow and never forcing it can be HUGE to a child that has never experienced this. Playing with the same movement in various ways is rich with information for their brain!

Thankfully my hand is all healed up, but it was a great reminder to slow down and start exploring my own movement in new ways again like I did when I was a child or in my ABM NeuroMovement®️ training, and not just with the kids I work with!

I’d love to hear how you explore your movement or with your child!

Renée Gray

ABM NeuroMovement®️ Practitioner

www.moveintegrate.com

403-483-9769

Break it down

Take your dreams and goals into reality

A New Year often means a new beginning and a fresh start for many of us. We all get stuck in our habitual ways. I know I do!

I often find myself excited about a New Year to start all of the things that have been on my mind, but kept putting off. One of them was coming back to this Blog and keeping you all updated on fun and effective ways that you can incorporate ABM NeuroMovement® into your life everyday.

Why do we put off our dreams and goals? How do we get out of this habitual rut? 

When we have a dream it might feel overwhelming and we don't know where to even begin with this giant mountain in front of us. Focusing on the top of the mountain could be keeping us from taking the first step that is right in front of us. We need to make the goal more attainable. In ABM NeuroMovement® we can make goals attainable by breaking it down into tiny doable steps. We can still imagine and dream about what it will be like at the end goal, but by breaking into tiny steps and keeping our goals achievable we're setting ourselves up for success.

When I give ABM NeuroMovement® lessons to children, their parents come to me with goals, usually the big milestones such as rolling, sitting, crawling and walking. How can we help a child that is currently unable to roll, achieve those goals to eventually come to standing and walking? It can feel very overwhelming for parents if we are only focused on the end goal such as walking. When we break down these goals to first meet the child where they are in their development, we can start the process.  Instead of focusing on a child walking, our first goal may be for the child to roll. Can we break down that goal even further? The goal can be for the child to roll to their side, or maybe we can break it down even further. By breaking the movement down into tiny achievable goals where the child can be successful, little by little the child continues to move forward and before long something that once seemed so far out of reach is attained.

We can apply this to our life everyday. My goal for this Blog is to do monthly updates. That's 12 in a year! Whoa, what am I getting myself into?! I haven't even done an update in 2 years! Okay, before I go running and screaming away from my mountain, how can I make this goal more achievable? Instead of focusing on the fact that there are 12 Blogs I'd like to do this year, how about I focus on just this one first? My goal is already broken down into a much more achievable goal. I can do one Blog this month. I feel that's doable! I don't have to worry about all of them at once. Can I break it down into an even smaller step?  Week one my goal is to choose my topic. Week two, I can start writing down some ideas. Week three I can start putting my ideas into my Blog and week four is fine tuning and publishing. Done! The smaller the goal, the easier it is to achieve.

What have you been dreaming about? How can you make your goal more achievable? Let me know!

I'm already a step closer to my goal!
Happy New Year!

Renee Gray
ABM NeuroMovement Practitioner®
www.moveintegrate.com
Calgary, AB