Latest News

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 […]

Functional Electrical Stimulation Therapy for Facial Palsy

Earlier this year Fernando experienced a sudden onset of paralysis of his right facial muscles. With no pre warning he discovered he had difficulty with holding water in his mouth when trying to have a drink and when he looked in the mirror he realised he was unable to smile, frown or wink his right eye. Subsequently eating and drinking became extremely difficult to manage and Fernando was forced to wear an eye patch to protect his right eye which he was unable to close or open either voluntarily or involuntarily. Fernando was diagnosed with Bells Palsy which is an […]

Treating Neuro Conditions in Children

Treating Neuro Conditions in Children does not take place in isolation, everyone in the family is involved! A child with any neurological deficit experiences sensory i.e. visual, auditory, smell and language difficulty as well as motor deficit, balance and co-ordination. Finally and most importantly, for the treatment to be successful, the child and the family need to feel emotionally safe. The child learns through fun and imaginative games and it is vital to incorporate the fun games in to daily living. Postural awareness is the key to initiating movements and normal sensations. At Birkdale Neuro Rehab Centre we use a simple […]