Madison is a four-year-old child who was born with cerebral palsy and cortical vision impairment. As a result, she has limited use of her extremities and is just starting to walk with assistance. She is predominately non-verbal, with the exception of a few words. This article describes how Island Dolphin Care (IDC), a nonprofit agency in Key…

The purpose of this study was to describe how youth with cerebral palsy experience mobility in their daily lives using a phenomenological approach. The participants were 10 youth with cerebral palsy, 17 to 20 years of age, selected using purposeful sampling with maximum variation strategies. A total of 14 interviews were completed. Transcripts…

Children who have severe speech and physical impairments often have difficulty acquiring literacy skills. One critical area of literacy instruction involves promoting word identification though the development of decoding strategies that can be implemented by students independently. This study investigated teaching four students who have cerebral…

The goal of the present study was to examine the precursors of verbal working memory in 52 children with cerebral palsy with varying degrees of speech impairments in the first grade of special education. Following Baddeley's model of working memory, children's verbal working memory was measured by means of a forced-recognition task. As precursors…

Art matters. Theater, film, paintings, writing--all forms of creative expression are an important part of people's lives. It is often through art that people reach understanding about themselves and about one another. Drama can help children find their voice. It does this because it offers an alternative form of communication. Using anything from…

Background: Can ratings of temperament be a way of identifying young children with intellectual disabilities (ID) who are at risk for being experienced as difficult? We aimed to explore parents' reports of temperament in their young children with or without ID, as well as positive and negative impact of the child on parents. Method: Mothers and…

Motor impairment in children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy leads to a predominance of use of the unaffected hand. This impedes development of bimanual skills and deprives the affected side of the stimulus needed for normal growth. Occupational therapists aim to improve use of the affected hand, traditionally using Neurodevelopmental Therapy.…

The aim of this review was to examine the literature on the effects of surgery of the spastic hand in children with cerebral palsy on functional outcome and muscle coordination. We performed a search of the relevant literature in Medline, Embase, and Biological Abstracts from 1966 to June 2006. The search resulted in eight studies on the effect of…

Intrathecal baclofen (ITB) therapy can be very effective in the treatment of intractable spasticity, but its effectiveness and safety have not yet been thoroughly studied in children with cerebral palsy (CP). The aims of this double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, dose-finding study were to select children eligible for continuous ITB…

The development of non-invasive techniques of cortical stimulation, such as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), has opened new potential avenues for the treatment of neuropsychiatric diseases. We hypothesized that an increase in the activity in the motor cortex by cortical stimulation would increase its inhibitory influence on spinal…

This study explored the experience and impact of chronic pain on the lives of adolescents and young adults with cerebral palsy (CP). Six participants with CP (four males, two females; age range 14-24y) who were known to experience chronic pain participated in individual in-depth interviews. Five participants had quadriplegia and used wheelchairs;…

This systematic review critically appraises the literature on the psychometric properties and clinical utility of evaluative activity limitation outcome measures used for children with cerebral palsy (CP). The search strategy yielded 29 articles for eight outcome measures that met the inclusion criteria for the review. The Gross Motor Function…

This article describes the early literacy journey of a multiply handicapped child placed in an inclusive classroom. Matthew was born prematurely and has Cerebral Palsy impacting his arms, legs, facial muscles, and speech. He is visually impaired, has seizures, and uses a wheelchair. Matthew came to school supported by one-to-one aides, special…

We used a life-history approach to investigate the meanings and experiences of physical activity in the life of a 25-year-old woman with severe cerebral palsy (Amy). Amy and her mother were interviewed about Amy's life and her involvement in physical activity. The conversation was audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. We interpreted Amy's story…

The aim of this study was to establish whether children with a physical disability resulting from central nervous system disorders (CNSd) show a level of arithmetic achievement lower than that of non-CNSd children and whether this is related to poor automaticity of number facts or reduced arithmetic instruction time. Twenty-two children with CNSd…