Cerebral Palsy

Parents from around the world have helped their children with cerebral palsy move along the path to wellness. Using the programs developed by The Institutes, children diagnosed with cerebral palsy have been able to improve function and, in many cases, perform at peer level-and above.

The Institutes offers a comprehensive program that focuses on neurological growth and development. Our goal is intellectual, physical, physiological, and social growth towards excellence for each child.

The best way for parents to learn about The Institutes program is to attend the What To Do About Your Brain-Injured Child Course. This is a five-day intensive course for the parents of brain-injured children.

The objective of the course is to teach parents about the field of child brain development so that they may use that knowledge to give their children the opportunity to achieve wellness.

The most common term used to describe children with mobility problems is "cerebral palsy."

"Cerebral palsy" is not a diagnosis but rather a description of a certain type of brain-injured child. The children who are given this label are primarily injured in the subcortical areas of the brain.

These subcortical areas form the middle region of the brain, or functional midbrain in The Institutes terminology. This region includes structures such as the basal ganglia, the thalamus, the cerebellum, and the area traditionally called "midbrain," which anatomically is the upper part of the brain stem above the pons.

Using symptoms in place of a proper diagnosis often leads to the attempt to treat those symptoms. This does not work.

A proper diagnosis describes where the injury exists in the brain, the degree of the injury to the brain, and the extent of the injury to the brain. To be successful one must treat the brain, where the injury actually exists. The Institutes offers a program of neurological organization that parents carry out at home.

Old-fashioned labels like "cerebral palsy" are not found in the literature of The Institutes, but rather the term "brain-injured." This refers to the entire spectrum of brain injury from profound coma, paralysis, blindness, and deafness to mild learning problems and every kind and degree of brain injury in between.

Articles on this subject include:

• Midbrain-Injured Kids
• Facilitated Communication
• Francesca Ferri
• Ferruccio Guidi
• Sarah Szczerbiak
• Valentina Zincati