Should Pediatric Cerebral Palsy Rehabilitation Focus on Building Function?

In my clinical practice, parents of children with cerebral palsy often ask me: What kind of effect can be achieved after treatment? Will they be able to see the same as normal children? There is still a misunderstanding in the mind of many parents that if a child with cerebral palsy receives treatment, he or she will be completely cured just like other diseases. Therefore, I would like to emphasize that the treatment of pediatric cerebral palsy aims at improving the functions of the child, helping the child to return to the society in the future, meeting the needs of daily life, and regaining the ability to take care of himself/herself. Why? First of all, pediatric cerebral palsy is not a single disease in the traditional sense, but a syndrome of motor and postural abnormalities caused by damage to the immature central nervous system. Although the central nervous system lesions are no longer aggravated, secondary lesions in the skeletal muscular system gradually worsen with growth and development until the skeleton matures. The motor abilities of the child and the treatment required change as the patient matures. Therefore, when rehabilitating a child with cerebral palsy, priority should be given to what potential exists in all aspects of the child’s speech and communication, daily living and motor abilities, and the aim of rehabilitation is to mobilize these potentials in order to improve the patient’s abilities. So, how do we carry out rehabilitation therapy in this area? The eight basic human functions are lifting up, turning over, sitting up, crawling, standing, walking, squatting and going up and down steps, so training should be carried out sequentially in these eight areas according to the normal developmental pattern of the child. In terms of correcting the abnormal postures of children with cerebral palsy, rehabilitation training should be carried out organically by combining motor therapy and manual correction through manipulation. Motor rehabilitation training for cerebral palsy must be formulated from the perspective of the child as a whole, and limb function training should be carried out according to the developmental level of the child’s motor function, and the purpose of functional recovery should be achieved through appropriate manipulation of the hands of the rehabilitator on the body of the child. At the same time, we should also remember that the training process or in life should always mobilize the child’s active movement in the first place, an active movement is better than ten times the passive movement. Of course, this kind of rehabilitation training method cannot solve all the problems, some children may need to cooperate with botulinum toxin injection, and some children need to cooperate with surgery and orthopaedic treatment at the right time. All in all, the rehabilitation of cerebral palsy is a comprehensive and all-rounded treatment, and the rehabilitation training has an irreplaceable main position in the process of rehabilitation.