Special Needs

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...severity and include stiff muscles, involuntary movements, or...brain damage is a result of inflammation in the child's brain; this...in the child's brain; this inflammation stems from an infection during...that targets and treats the inflammation in the brain. The rabbits...treated showed much better muscle and movement control than...

...new treatments for muscular dystrophy. Scientists are working hard to learn more about the disease and test new medicines. Muscular dystrophy causes muscles to get weaker over time. This makes it hard for people to move around and do daily activities. There is no cure yet, but research is helping to improve...

...motor skills: the large movements that use major muscle groups. Walking, running, jumping, climbing, sitting,...children on: Strength and endurance: building the muscle power needed to walk, stand, climb stairs, or transition...flexible and preventing contractures (permanent muscle shortening) Balance and coordination: reducing...

...determines whether the pencil feels comfortable or irritating in their hand. When any part of this chain is weak, handwriting suffers. A child with low muscle tone might fatigue after three sentences. A child with poor visual tracking might skip lines or crowd letters together. A child with tactile sensitivity...

...asthma doesn't just need an inhaler. They need a care plan that accounts for muscle tone, positioning, and coordination challenges that affect how well they...activities they usually enjoy, or changes in sleep patterns. A child with low muscle tone may not have the classic "wheeze" sound because they don't generate...

...specific aspect of development that hypotonia affects. Hypotonia is the low muscle tone present in nearly all children with DS. PT targets gross motor skills:...toys or transition to finger foods. Starting early gives your child the muscle tone, coordination, and sensory foundation every other milestone builds...

...unmanaged. The muscles don't relax on their...What starts as muscle tightness becomes...isn't just tight muscles. It's a fixed shortening...shortening of the muscle-tendon unit that...movement even when the muscle is fully relaxed....spastic CP, the muscle is receiving continuous...and years, the muscle fibers adapt to...replace some of the muscle tissue. The tendon...

...framework your orthopedist is using. Here's what the numbers mean and when intervention moves from optional to necessary. Why Hips Displace in CP. Muscle imbalance pulls the femoral head out of position over time. In spastic cerebral palsy, tight hip flexors and adductors create constant inward and upward...

...adulthood. The cardiac muscle weakens for the...reason skeletal muscle does: the absence...that stabilizes muscle cell membranes during...intervening while the muscle is still working....Dystrophin stabilizes muscle cells during contraction....tears in cardiac muscle cells. Over years,...Over years, the muscle scars and stiffens....Steroids slow skeletal muscle decline and appear...

...child has a spinal cord injury, the exam includes autonomic dysreflexia screening. If they have cerebral palsy, the focus is on range of motion and muscle tone. The exam is tailored to what...

...with buoyancy. When a child enters a pool at chest depth, buoyancy reduces the effective weight on their joints by 75 to 90 percent. For a child whose muscle tone makes standing difficult, or whose joints are affected by a physical disability, that reduction is not just physical relief. It opens up movement...

...operation. The active life he had imagined stayed out of reach until he connected with a specialist at Northwestern University and underwent targeted muscle reinnervation (TMR) surgery, a procedure designed specifically for that kind of chronic post-amputation pain. When he finally got back on snow, the...