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Visual Processing in Children with Neurological Disorder

Perceiving direction of self-motion is multi-sensory process that involves visual optic flow as well as vestibule sense. Vision provides extrinsic world based coordinate information and is used to plan spatial features of movements towards visual targets. Proprioception provides intrinsic information about limbs configuration and movements and predominates in transforming a spatial plan in to commands that results in muscle force and joint movements The importance of working with the visual processing in physiotherapy is that movements becomes more natural , the fear is reduced and this improves posture. In turn of course alignment of the body improves and the quality […]

Singing for Parkinsons

David G Smith an american singer and song writer, is supporting Parkinson Awareness Month with a song called Doesn’t Take Much Light. We have played the song a few time over at the Birkdale Centre and quite like it, the words themselves are very meaningful. David G Smith wrote the song based on a true story: This song is a true story about Ernest J Lutes who was a scoutmaster to my co-writer, Dean Madonia. Ernest J got to hear this song shortly before passing away from complications due to Parkinson’s Disease. For more about the story please listen to […]

Helping Toe Walkers

Helping Toe Walkers at Birkdale Pediatric and Neuro Clinic Do we simply do passive stretching to calf muscles when children walk on their toes? In our experience passive stretching does not work and there has been many papers written on the topic to support this. After many years we realised that children who are toe walkers often have difficulty in postural alignment of head and neck and trunk and pelvis. They stand with their weight forward on their toes and lose their balance if they have to look down. They also have poor co-contraction of hamstring and quadriceps muscles and […]

Down Syndrome in Children

How would my child benefit from neuro physio? Down Syndrome in Children is a genetic disorder but represent itself with low tone and often hypermobility as well as ocular motor disorder and visual acuity and speech and language processing. This means that there is delay in the following: head control in ocular motor skills in hand and eye co-coordination in motor organisation in hand function in sensory and motor integration in trunk and pelvis control in walking The physiotherapists at Birkdale Neuro Rehabilitation Centre use aircushions to achieve ocular motor skills as well as had and trunk control. On the […]