I've been thinking for a while on a presentation format of key ideas of ABR that will be of the most educational value. Apparently it's not as easy as it sounds. There are quite a few challenges.
A number of parents do not want to go beyond a quick before/after loking for just enough to feed the imagination as a "miracle progress in cerebral palsy treatment'. Obviously, at ABR -- even though we are actually the only cerebral palsy rehabilitation method who do have systematic before/after progress reports for brain injured kids -- we want to avoid encouraging the 'quick wow super progress' seekers. But at the same time -- my theoretical rants even when they are perfectly relevant like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSok3q_jmsU -- often seem to be not clicking...
Unfortunately... :-( Since I do believe firmly that the proper MINDSET is more important to success than Skillset or let alone Toolset...
So I was looking for the other avenues and then decide to do it in a Case Study form -- to just take a more or less typical case with a typical progress rate and explain the stages with illustrations of key motor functions: sitting, crawling, fine skills of a hand. The hint came from a strange fact that all of us at ABR Teams worldwide have been observing for a while: Every parent of a special needs child sees the progress a lot more readily in another special kid. I guess, it's the emotional bond to your own one that blurs everything together -- not allowing to concentrate on studying and recognizing the stages essential for any case of cerebral palsy, spasticity etc. ;
That's why I decided to try this new format -- taking a single case and illustrate the universal truths for any child with a brain injury. I started from a spastic quadriplegic case as the most typical for us -- but, sure, there will be other types as well: flaccid; athetoid; hemiplegic etc.
I hope this avenue will work better -- but obviously the ultimate judges are the 'collective you' : I'll only know whether this avenue is worth pursuing further if you give me the feedback through your comments and mails.
Altogether -- there are 28 videos (10 min to 30 min long) -- 1 General Progress Overview; 3 x 1 = Progress overviews for each of the domains: Sitting, Hand Function; Crawling; and another 4-5 videos per domain covering the transitions from the initial condition before ABR and then the changes every several months. All in all -- the period covered is 24 months.
I've learned from my mistakes (somewhat :-)) -- and I am not going to dump them all on you at once.
Right now you can watch 6 videos -- Motor Development Progress overview (Quadriplegic Cerebral Palsy Boy Case Study) and 5 more videos zooming into the domain of sitting as the core representation of weight-bearing progress.
I am starting with the first one: Motor Development Progress Overview - Quadriplegic Cerebral Palsy Child GMFCS 5 -- I will be posting the other ones with regular intervals and with extra comments.
I hope that avenue will prove educational and I am looking forwards for your response.
Thanks a lot.
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