Re: Topic of the Week: Physical Therapy

January 2, 2005

I think with MDS often being diagnosed later... many kids just don't have

the opportunity to get physical therapy sometimes!!

never had PT... only speech in the early school years. Who knows how

it might have helped him. ::;shrug:::

~~ANGEL~~

Mom to:

, 11, Mosaic Down Syndrome/Hirschsprung's Disease

Lance 16, Tyler 12, 9,

Jaeda 8 and Shayne 2

January 2, 2005

We were very fortunate that Ariel was diagnosed as early as she was.

(Especially due to the fact that she doesn't have many features)Her pediatrician

thought that she had s syndrome due to the extra fat pad at the back of

her neck.

She started with speech, pt, and ot, as well as a special ed teacher at

about 3 months of age. She reached all of her PT milestones at the appropriate

ages until about 3 years.

Even though Her gait is still a bit awkward and she has some trouble with

weight baring on a single leg. We have stopped PT services because I felt that

she was taken out of the classroom enough...

So now our PT is her dance class....ahhhh so she'll never be an Olympic

runner and she more than likely wont be able to go Rock Climbing with me but

other than that she does everything else just fine. She cant ride a bike at

almost 11 but she is a great swimmer...I can ride a bike just fine but cant swim

to save my life...LOL...I do a good doggy paddle!

Im glad that she received the services....I just dont see the reason for it

now...Im sure it helped her some at the time.

Mom to Ariel (almost 11 with attitude) and the Twins (almost 6 look

out world here come the next mary-kate and )

January 2, 2005

I agree with you Angel. I am sure that if Tim had been dx when he was a baby he

would have had PT. He didn't walk until he was 17 months and that is only

because I worked with him extensively on my own! I think that children who are

dx as infants probably do have PT, but like I said, I am clueless about it since

I never experienced it myself!

Kristy

LDSAngel77@... wrote:

I think with MDS often being diagnosed later... many kids just don't have

the opportunity to get physical therapy sometimes!!

never had PT... only speech in the early school years. Who knows how

it might have helped him. ::;shrug:::

~~ANGEL~~

Mom to:

, 11, Mosaic Down Syndrome/Hirschsprung's Disease

Lance 16, Tyler 12, 9,

Jaeda 8 and Shayne 2

January 2, 2005

Thank you Charlotte, for sharing your information with us! It helped me a lot.

Kristy

Charlotte Siegmund wrote:

When Katy was born, we lived in San and there was a wonderful school

there called " Brighton School " - and she started in their program when she was

one month old and continued until she was 3. In the beginning I took her once a

week and worked one on one with a therapist. I do believe it was an OT but we

did more of the physical therapy type activities. Worked on rolling over,

sitting up, taking objects, etc. Then when Katy was about 18 months, she went

twice a week into more a preschool type setting. I remembering the OT showing

me all kinds of things to do at home which stimulated Katy and prodded her along

in her development. Katy did not walk until she was almost 3. Then she

actually stood alone and took her first steps all in the same day.

TTYL, Charlotte

Topic of the Week: Physical Therapy

Hi everyone and Happy New Year!

I hope that everyone had a good holiday! Christmas eve we had a new addition

to our family! Trevor is our new Great-Nephew. Also, we found out last week,

that my neice will be having twins! So...we have had a holiday full of

surprises!

I have been working diligently on my mosaic Down syndrome book and I have

several contributers from the professional Down syndrome and mosaic Down

syndrome communities. I am hoping to have this book published within this year!

My question is about physical therapy...Does or did your child need physical

therapy? How long were they in therapy if they are no longer using it? What sort

of things did you do at home with your child during and in between therapy

sessions? What was the reason for the therapy? (walking, crawling, etc..) Do you

feel that Physical Therapy should have a large chapter in the mosaic Down

syndrome book, or do you think it is just a small subject?

I look forward to hearing your comments!

Kristy

January 2, 2005

Kristy,

There are several different factors that effective our children's abnormal

gait.....Hypotonia,Loose Ligaments,Low Muscle Strength,etc.....

Children who have Down Syndrome have a tendency to develop a compensatory

movement pattern to help them offset the effects of the above....

PT helps to correct the abnormal gait pattern.

January 3, 2005

,

Thanks for sharing your information. I do agree that dance class can be the best

form of PT especially for older children! And, it is a heck of a lot more fun!

Same with Karate. Tim was in Karate for a few years when he was younger and I

think it helped him with his gross motor skills. One thing I am interested in is

gait. I have heard a lot about that in the past year and honestly had no word to

describe Tim's walk and/or run until I heard the word " gait " . Are there

exercises or anything to help a child or young man in his case, with gait? Tim

has never been able to really run and he still seems to walk quite clumsily.

Kristy

jaaaj@... wrote:

We were very fortunate that Ariel was diagnosed as early as she was.

(Especially due to the fact that she doesn't have many features)Her pediatrician

thought that she had s syndrome due to the extra fat pad at the back of

her neck.

She started with speech, pt, and ot, as well as a special ed teacher at

about 3 months of age. She reached all of her PT milestones at the appropriate

ages until about 3 years.

Even though Her gait is still a bit awkward and she has some trouble with

weight baring on a single leg. We have stopped PT services because I felt that

she was taken out of the classroom enough...

So now our PT is her dance class....ahhhh so she'll never be an Olympic

runner and she more than likely wont be able to go Rock Climbing with me but

other than that she does everything else just fine. She cant ride a bike at

almost 11 but she is a great swimmer...I can ride a bike just fine but cant swim

to save my life...LOL...I do a good doggy paddle!

Im glad that she received the services....I just dont see the reason for it

now...Im sure it helped her some at the time.

Mom to Ariel (almost 11 with attitude) and the Twins (almost 6 look

out world here come the next mary-kate and )

January 3, 2005

Thank you .

jaaaj@... wrote:

Kristy,

There are several different factors that effective our children's abnormal

gait.....Hypotonia,Loose Ligaments,Low Muscle Strength,etc.....

Children who have Down Syndrome have a tendency to develop a compensatory

movement pattern to help them offset the effects of the above....

PT helps to correct the abnormal gait pattern.

January 4, 2005

as of right now - my (8months) has not NEEDED the physical therapy, she

is by far not effected there!!! But after we recieved her dx we enrolled her in

the early intervention program so we would know what to do if she started to

show signs of delay - Im not sure if you consider that a form of physical

therapy or not, but I know that this program has helped her move along in the

right direction - we learned excercises to help her sit, crawling positions on

an exercise ball, all kinds of things - its been great!! As far as the book

having a large or small chapter on physical therapy - I cant tell you that, but

I can tell you that when we first recieved her dx, I enjoyed reading EVERYTHING

that had to do with mds whether it effected her or not, so later if she did have

a problem with something Id have a reference. To this day I enjoy reading stuff

about the mds, just so that I am aware of what may come our way.

Jess - Mommy to Princess !!!!! (8months mds)

Kristy Colvin wrote:

Hi everyone and Happy New Year!

I hope that everyone had a good holiday! Christmas eve we had a new addition to

our family! Trevor is our new Great-Nephew. Also, we found out last week, that

my neice will be having twins! So...we have had a holiday full of surprises!