Rehabilitation treatment to seize the golden stage of development of children with cerebral palsy

  Modern research proves that 0 to 3 years old is the golden stage of brain development in human lifetime, which is the rapid and mature period of cerebral palsy development, and has significant plasticity and compensatory function. Some data confirm that the brain mass of a newborn is about 370g at birth, about 700g at 6 months, 3/4 of an adult at age 2, and close to an adult at age 4.  The brain’s functions develop in parallel, and the newborn’s senses of sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch are all developed. As infants grow older, motor function, language function, social adaptation, social interaction ability, cognition, memory, and thinking ability are increasing, and they show different personalities and temperaments.  However, we have to understand one thing, the development of function needs intervention stimulation. During this period, brain structure and function have strong adaptability, plasticity and reorganization function in the external environment, and plasticity is expressed as changeability and compensatory, which is the best critical period for intervention for children with cerebral palsy. At this time, the damaged brain has plasticity and the brain function can be reorganized, and the younger the age, the stronger the plasticity.  Early intervention stimulation can maximize the potential of the brain of children with cerebral palsy. Lack of environmental stimulation can cause the brain nerves to lag behind in structural and functional development, so intervention should be as early as possible and synchronized with the structural development of the brain. In other words, the key age for rehabilitation of children with cerebral palsy is during this period: generally speaking, before the age of 6, it is called early, and before the age of 3, it is better to carry out rehabilitation.  As we know, pediatric cerebral palsy is a syndrome, and rehabilitation treatment must also take a comprehensive approach. Before rehabilitating each child, a comprehensive evaluation must be conducted to develop a targeted treatment plan for each individual’s specific condition, so that the best treatment effect can be achieved.  It is confirmed that rehabilitation training is still the main and most effective way to rehabilitate cerebral palsy, mainly including the treatment of balance, coordination, grasping, speech, sitting, in situ movement, running and jumping. special education, guided education, cognitive education), orthopedic braces, etc.  It is important to emphasize that there is also a need to be careful in how to conduct rehabilitation training, and that all children should not be trained in the same way.